After more than 20 years, World of Warcraft is getting a long-standing MMO feature players have wanted for years. Player housing will finally make its way into Azeroth, and no, I’m not talking about the Garrison-style nightmare we know from previous expansion Battle for Azeroth. No, actual player housing, complete with customization, instanced neighborhoods, and more. In a blog post detailing the upcoming features, Blizzard explains what players can look forward to while taking a friendly, and rightfully deserved, jab towards its biggest competitor, Final Fantasy XIV.
‘World of Warcraft’s new housing system is designed to be “player-first and not revenue-first”
The blog post begins by detailing the three pillars behind the philosophy of World of Warcraft‘s housing model: boundless self-expression, deeply social, and long-lasting journeys. Releasing with the upcoming Midnight expansion, players will have full customization of their homes, akin to Final Fantasy XIV’s interior decoration system.
Unlike its MMO competition, however, the World of Warcraft housing system won’t suffer from a scarcity problem. Blizzard has seemingly found a way to create instanced housing alongside persistent neighborhoods, retaining a social aspect without any player feeling left out. Neighborhoods, consisting of a set number of in-game plots, can be either public or private. When a public instance fills up, the server creates another. Guilds who would rather live in private neighborhoods can do so, being able to move each of their guildmates into the available plots.
Listen, I’ve gone to bat for Final Fantasy XIV for years, shouting from rooftops on why it easily clears World of Warcraft in nearly every aspect. But this? I can’t even deny it. If everything pans out the way Blizzard intends, World of Warcraft will swiftly take the crown on player housing. And they know it, too, which explains the subtle poke under the section ‘A Home for Everyone,’ reading:
“As a part of our focus on wide adoption, we wanted to ensure that Housing is available to everyone. If you want a house, you can have a house. No exorbitant requirements or high purchase costs, no lotteries, and no onerous upkeep (and if your subscription lapses, don’t worry, your house doesn’t get repossessed!).”
‘World of Warcraft’ sends a virtual noogie toward ‘Final Fantasy XIV’s housing system
Currently, Final Fantasy XIV operates on an archaic and, frankly, egregious player housing model. To obtain a home, players first have to find a vacant plot out of the few hundred available on each server. Then, they can deposit their gil into the plot and cross their fingers that the game’s lottery system draws them. Before FFXIV‘s lottery system, housing was on a first-come, first-serve basis, pitting players against one another in a race to click a plot the fastest once an invisible timer reached zero.
To make matters worse, Final Fantasy XIV implements an auto-demolish feature, forcing players to enter their homes once every 45 days or risk repossession. It’s the cherry on top of FFXIV‘s outdated system, one in a list of many setbacks commonly excused by its ancient 1.0 “spaghetti code” architecture.
In a game that encourages taking breaks and returning when necessary, Final Fantasy XIV isn’t doing itself any favors with this model. And with Square Enix’s MMO being a major breadwinner for the company, maybe it’s time to invest a little more into untangling the messes that 1.0 left behind. Or, you know, let Hrothgar and Viera wear hats.
The post World of Warcraft Reveals More Details on its Upcoming Housing System While Throwing Some Shade at Final Fantasy 14’s Archaic Model appeared first on VICE.
