Neighborhood Endeavors Embrace the World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft Midnight is live! The final battle between the cosmic forces of Light and Void has begun and the fate of the very universe hangs in the balance, but really, it’s all about housing. Player housing was finally introduced into the game in Midnight. While I was excited for it, I was wary about the accompanying Endeavor system. I did not want to devote large amounts of game time in the neighborhood instead out in the world. Having played early access, my wariness is gone. Endeavors include so much more than cleaning up the neighborhood. They reward visiting previous expansions in a way that goes hand in hand with house decor crafting.

The Basics

Every player in Midnight chooses one housing plot for their Horde and Alliance factions to organize and decorate. Fifty house plots are situated within instanced Horde and Alliance neighborhoods. Endeavors are tasks offered by monthly NPCs who visit the neighborhood.

Completing Endeavors provides three benefits; it advances the progress bar through four milestones which unlocks themed house decor items, rewards Community Coupons used for purchasing said items, and grants house experience to help level up your home.

During this inaugural month of Midnight, a commune of artistic blood elves have set up camp in both faction neighborhoods. Completing their endeavors reward a nice selection or ornamental decor. I am particularly looking forward to maxing out the progress bar and picking up a Deed of Patronage. Wall decor is something I wrote about and plan to expand my art collection. They have a portal to Silvermoon City to ease transportation.

These Endeavors include gathering and kill activities in the new Midnight zones. During early access, the Alliance neighborhood was visited by Ethereal merchants of The Consortium. Their tasks took place on Outland from The Burning Crusade expansion. Their portal transported players to the Netherstorm zone.

Back To The Past

What I liked about the Endeavors in Outland were the level adjustments. For Endeavors to kill X number of mobs, the mob levels were increased to 80 but they still went down pretty easy. However, this adjustment did not extend to dungeons and raids.

Completing Outland dungeon and raid Endeavors were a cakewalk since everyone was level 60. It was enter, quickly kill everyone, leave, reset, and go again. These Endeavors were also repeatable, so once you earned your coupons and points, they were available to complete again for more coupons.

Endeavors connected to past content is not only a way to keep each month different, it introduces recent players to some great zones they may not have experienced. Blizzard did the same thing with home decor crafting, much to my approval. Considering the number of factions in World of Warcraft, there is potential to avoid repeat visitors for many months.

Here’s hoping next month is Northrend.

Wrap Up

I am enjoying Midnight‘s dual focus of moving Azeroth into the future with the Silvermoon City and Eversong Woods revamp, while honoring the past with house decor crafting and neighborhood Endeavors. If they maintain this balance, they make all content relevant and worthy of exploration. This is how to build an immersive World of Warcraft out of twenty years of expansions.

What are your thoughts?