World of Warcraft’s new Player Housing is about to seize my Animal Crossing brain cell

Last November, Blizzard announced a truckload of new features coming to World of Warcraft soon. One of the most exciting items they teased was the inclusion of player housing. Now that they've pulled back the curtain, it's looking very interesting. If you haven't heard anything about this feature, players will soon have personal housing in World of Warcraft. There will be instanced "neighborhoods" that players can load into and choose a primo spot for their new home. The inside and outside will be customizable, and you'll be able to visit other people's domiciles as well. This system is currently set to launch with the next expansion, Midnight. Art by Blizzard There's not a lot of information about how you'll acquire things like furniture and decorations right now. Thanks to a recent news post, we have an idea of how you'll physically decorate your abode. Keep in mind that anything Blizzard has shown off so far is very much a work in progress. The Design Tools Anyone who's ever played with a level editor or 3D software will find this process very familiar. If you haven't, a lot of effort is being made to help catch you up on the very basics of moving books onto shelves. In Blizzard's video below, you can see that moving furniture is basically just clicking and dragging. The tools will intelligently know if you're trying to stack items on top of each other and automatically snap to position appropriately. It seems very smart and fairly intuitive. https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_entry_media/wc/WCLY0IX6QK0G1741389899833.mp4 An advanced designer will give you even more control. Enabling gimbals turns on an option that allows you to drag items on an X, Y, or Z axis. You can also rotate on these, allowing you to position furniture in more dynamic ways. Want a chair leaning back against a wall? Stack beds on top of each other for sweet bunk beds! The options look simple to use but potentially limitless. https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_entry_media/qp/QPDGMRAHMSWY1741647391240.mp4 World of Warcraft: New Horizons I enjoy a lot of cozy games that let me customize my own home. I've spent a lot of time laboring over color schemes in Animal Crossing and deciding how weird to make my house in Lego Fortnite: Odyssey. These tools appear to be offering even more freedom than either of those games, and that's exciting. Sure, working within limits can be a creative challenge, but these controls are game-changing. I can already imagine taking shelves, making them wide, and then putting them half in the floor to make a bar table. You could make a room appear to be more magical (or menacing) with items that hang in the air like candles. Make room dividers out of large tables on their sides. It's going to be incredible to see what weird things the community can make out of this. That's always been the more fun part of Animal Crossing for me. The most recent game in the series, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, introduced crafting to the series. I'll be curious if Blizzard adds any of that and considers having Professions make furniture. Alchemists could make unique glassware, while Inscription users could create interesting paintings. A new profession called Carpentry wouldn't be a bad idea, either. Harvesting wood to make new tables and chairs seems like a no-brainer. What we want to see Screenshot by Destructoid There are still a lot of unanswered questions about Player Housing. How do you expand, what are the prices like, and how do you get more furniture? It's most likely that you'll have a big batch of base furniture made from models already in the game to start from. WoW has a massive library of assets to pull from, so that seems like a given. I imagine we'll also see more new assets added to match patches or expansions. But how else can we find decorations? Real money is likely going to get involved at some point for premium furniture. That's just the world we're in, and that's fine as long as there's other unique furniture to be found. This seems like a great time to have players running old raids for weird items to put in their homes. I'm already envisioning a frosty end table dropping from The Lich King. Perhaps you can acquire a molten stove from Ragnaros! I hope there's enough furniture to represent all the races of WoW. I'm not super excited by Human and Orc themes that seem to be dictating the designs of the houses for now. It's safe to say we're very excited for this feature. Everything's looking good so far; hopefully, that momentum can continue. We've come a long way since the letdown that was Garrisons. It can only get better from here. The post World of Warcraft’s new Player Housing is about to seize my Animal Crossing brain cell appeared first on Destructoid.

Mar 14, 2025 - 14:34

World of Warcraft’s new Player Housing is about to seize my Animal Crossing brain cell

Last November, Blizzard announced a truckload of new features coming to World of Warcraft soon. One of the most exciting items they teased was the inclusion of player housing. Now that they've pulled back the curtain, it's looking very interesting.

If you haven't heard anything about this feature, players will soon have personal housing in World of Warcraft. There will be instanced "neighborhoods" that players can load into and choose a primo spot for their new home. The inside and outside will be customizable, and you'll be able to visit other people's domiciles as well. This system is currently set to launch with the next expansion, Midnight.

Concept art of the types of furnishing a player might have in their home — Art by Blizzard

There's not a lot of information about how you'll acquire things like furniture and decorations right now. Thanks to a recent news post, we have an idea of how you'll physically decorate your abode. Keep in mind that anything Blizzard has shown off so far is very much a work in progress.

The Design Tools

Anyone who's ever played with a level editor or 3D software will find this process very familiar. If you haven't, a lot of effort is being made to help catch you up on the very basics of moving books onto shelves. In Blizzard's video below, you can see that moving furniture is basically just clicking and dragging. The tools will intelligently know if you're trying to stack items on top of each other and automatically snap to position appropriately. It seems very smart and fairly intuitive.

https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_entry_media/wc/WCLY0IX6QK0G1741389899833.mp4

An advanced designer will give you even more control. Enabling gimbals turns on an option that allows you to drag items on an X, Y, or Z axis. You can also rotate on these, allowing you to position furniture in more dynamic ways. Want a chair leaning back against a wall? Stack beds on top of each other for sweet bunk beds! The options look simple to use but potentially limitless.

https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_entry_media/qp/QPDGMRAHMSWY1741647391240.mp4

World of Warcraft: New Horizons

I enjoy a lot of cozy games that let me customize my own home. I've spent a lot of time laboring over color schemes in Animal Crossing and deciding how weird to make my house in Lego Fortnite: Odyssey. These tools appear to be offering even more freedom than either of those games, and that's exciting. Sure, working within limits can be a creative challenge, but these controls are game-changing.

I can already imagine taking shelves, making them wide, and then putting them half in the floor to make a bar table. You could make a room appear to be more magical (or menacing) with items that hang in the air like candles. Make room dividers out of large tables on their sides. It's going to be incredible to see what weird things the community can make out of this. That's always been the more fun part of Animal Crossing for me.

The most recent game in the series, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, introduced crafting to the series. I'll be curious if Blizzard adds any of that and considers having Professions make furniture. Alchemists could make unique glassware, while Inscription users could create interesting paintings. A new profession called Carpentry wouldn't be a bad idea, either. Harvesting wood to make new tables and chairs seems like a no-brainer.

What we want to see

A table is floating in the air as a player uses Player Housing's interface to move it around — Screenshot by Destructoid

There are still a lot of unanswered questions about Player Housing. How do you expand, what are the prices like, and how do you get more furniture? It's most likely that you'll have a big batch of base furniture made from models already in the game to start from. WoW has a massive library of assets to pull from, so that seems like a given. I imagine we'll also see more new assets added to match patches or expansions. But how else can we find decorations?

Real money is likely going to get involved at some point for premium furniture. That's just the world we're in, and that's fine as long as there's other unique furniture to be found. This seems like a great time to have players running old raids for weird items to put in their homes. I'm already envisioning a frosty end table dropping from The Lich King. Perhaps you can acquire a molten stove from Ragnaros! I hope there's enough furniture to represent all the races of WoW. I'm not super excited by Human and Orc themes that seem to be dictating the designs of the houses for now.

It's safe to say we're very excited for this feature. Everything's looking good so far; hopefully, that momentum can continue. We've come a long way since the letdown that was Garrisons. It can only get better from here.

The post World of Warcraft’s new Player Housing is about to seize my Animal Crossing brain cell appeared first on Destructoid.