Pig & Whistle Tales - A World of Warcraft Podcast

Player Housing is coming, and it won't be handed to you on day one.

• Gabriel • Season 5 • Episode 4

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We dive into the newly announced details of player housing coming to World of Warcraft with the Midnight expansion. The system will be a progressive journey where players collect decorations through various gameplay activities.

• Weekly news includes Legion Timewalking as the bonus event and the Aggregation of Horror and The Godfather as world bosses
• Player housing will include different tiers of decorations from basic commodity items to rare trophies
• Most basic décor will be readily available from vendors and the Auction House
• Special trophies like Onixya's head will require defeating the boss
• All non-gathering professions will craft housing items related to their specialties
• Past achievements and reputations will unlock decorations immediately upon housing launch
• Decorations are account-wide but can only be placed as many times as you've collected them
• Concern expressed about lack of PvP-specific housing rewards
• Future updates will continually add decorations from both past and new content

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Speaker 1:

Thank you, hello and welcome to the Pig and Whistle Tales from Azeroth. As always here at the Pig and Whistle Inn in Stormwind, I go for a variety of subjects with regards to World of Warcraft. If I grab a bottle or a pint, sit back and enjoy this episode. We'll be looking at player housing and we're going to be looking at a few things that have come out in the past week or the information that we now know going forward, going at it or getting ever closer to that player housing that is coming within midnight or the pre-release of midnight expansion. So, as always, we have the weekly news, but I do want to mention firstly, apologies for there not being an episode yesterday. I did try and get one out but there was a lot of problems both with the file itself, with it being corrupted, and then just problems uploading for whatever reason. So hopefully this one will be good and that will go out today as you guys are listening to it. So hopefully it's all good and I'm sorry for those that usually have a friday listen that it didn't happen this week and I do apologize, but you know what can you do. Sometimes these sort of things happen and it's a bit annoying. But the weekly news.

Speaker 1:

As always, we have the aggregation of horror and the Godfather as your world bosses for the week. These are located within the Ringing Deeps as well, as I've forgotten the name of it the Undermine. They give obviously pieces of gear Very good, very useful, definitely worth killing them. If you are a PvEer, it, the undermine. Um, they give obviously pieces of gear very good, very useful, definitely worth killing them. If you are a pve, legion time walking is your bonus event for the week. This is simple, as you can do legion time walking to get pieces of gear, you can get cosmetics, you can earn rep via time walking badges and all of these things do add up, but it's very much worth doing it on a character. Um, if you want a big sort of chunk of time walking badges, if you want some gear from it, you can get a quest that gives you, um, a very good piece of gear, but it's very random. It's rng based, where you have to complete five time walking dungeons in order to essentially get this piece of gear. Now you have for your brawl, you have gravity laps. This is a simple eye of the storm and every 30 seconds you are flung up into the air and you can basically land wherever you want to In the battleground or, if you really want to, you can fly off the map and just die to full Not full damage, hitting the death barrier. If you really want to do that, by all means go ahead, but not really recommended in my honest opinion.

Speaker 1:

Uh, but that is that for this week and there is a lot to go through here, so I'm going to be giving my in-depth sort of uh opinions on it, analysis on basically what they've done here. So, um, it is a forum post. I'm going to be reading directly off of it and giving my thoughts on it. So before starting, obviously they want to give a disclaimer that it is still a work in progress and names and details may change between the launch of player housing and currently the launch of um player housing and, like currently, um and. But this is a general direction of where they are going with this.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so we are looking at a few things progressive journey or gameplay with variations and references from the past. So the progressive journey, similarly to our housing pillar of, to our housing pillar of long, lasting journey, they should expect the collection of decor to be just that a journey, the collection of the perfect room and house is something to strive towards, not run to a vendor and complete on day one. Furthermore, this journey should be engaging and possibly for most players, regardless of how hardcore or not they may be. Put another way, getting a single piece of decor should eventually be possible, but everything, everything should be incredibly difficult. So you can get a lot of pieces, but getting absolutely everything is going to be a bit of a slugfest. You're going to have to really work for it now. This is fine.

Speaker 1:

I think that you need to add these sort of things in multiple varieties and gameplay aspects, which I believe that they talk about later on, and I think that not giving the player base everything just by simply buying it from a vendor is really good. It allows people to go into the gameplay aspects of it. You can do pve, pvp, uh professions, you know all of this stuff to earn these different uh rewards, and you know house decorations, uh. For those of you that do not know, player housing is coming to the uh midnight or just before the expansion of midnight, and this is the next expansion and it is projected to be at the end of this year player housing. So within the next several months. We should at least maybe see some beta testing for this, and it'll be really cool to see. I know that they've done a lot of internal testing at Blizzard and they've put up some screenshots of that before in the past and it looks really good. It looks quite far along, which is very impressive. To be honest with you, it is very, very impressive.

Speaker 1:

But the next part is core gameplay with variations. Similarly, we want to reward decor through a wide variety of our core gameplay in World ofcraft. Okay, um, we don't want decor to come from only housing specific activities, though some will, which is good, um, but instead meet you where you are, however you choose to enjoy the game, whether that's solo questing, crafting decor with professions and using the auction house, running dungeons with your friends or raiding with your guild. Oh god, okay, um, yeah, okay, a couple things I want to mention about this. This is really good. It brings all of the aspects of world of warcraft into it.

Speaker 1:

There's one thing that they didn't mention pvp. Okay, now, look, I get that a lot of people play pve and a lot of people don't nowhere near as much play pvp, but really, are you really going to say that pvp is can't earn specific like items for their player housing. Are you really telling me that as a pvper, I want to be able to hit 1800, 2k, 2.1k, 2.4k, whatever it might be, and I want to see oh my god, you've got a specific banner that you can put as house decoration in your house. Amazing, that's cool. I want a giant alliance flag or a night elf flag or something like that, or, um, like a flag of a uh, the expansion or something. Okay, I want pvp related items that look cool for your decoration room.

Speaker 1:

You could have a trophy room in your well like player house for all your achievements, the like gladiator mounts you've collected. You could have them stuffed. I don't know how you're going to stuff a sinful glad mount, considering like it's an undead dragon, but you're going to have it stuffed and put it into a room. How cool would that be? You can have like a pvp war room, but you can't earn housing decorations through pvp. How is that? Fair blizzard? You need to give pvp as something for housing decoration, please you can you literally have a track of when you get 1400, you get the transmog for boots, helms or shoulders, and then at 1600 you get waist, legs and chest piece. You just add it to this as well. It's like oh, instead you get, um, an extra banner to put in your house decoration, you get a, uh, a stuffed mount or something, or a pet that you can like a stuffed pet, who knows like pvp pet to put into your like house or something. Just give, pvp is something.

Speaker 1:

I don't want to go into a raid or. I don't want to have to look at this and go, oh yeah, there's something I really want in the raid, so I will go and do that raid. I never like doing it, but I will do it okay because I want that. Cosmetic PvEers whenever something is put into PvP, they freak out okay and they really do freak out okay. Attest this to is plunder storm. Look at plunder storm. Pvp has had a great time with it. It was a different sort of mode. It was more pvp orientated. I loved it.

Speaker 1:

I didn't do it for the cosmetics. I did it because I enjoyed the gameplay. But all I heard on the forums was oh my god, why do I, why am I forced to do pvp like for cosmetics? God forbid. I have never seen a pvpr post, a forum post, about having to do pve for cosmetics. I have never seen it okay and it's ridiculous. I have seen people complain about the elite set from pvp because they didn't, they couldn't get to a certain rating. And that's fine, like you can put it. You can put cosmetics behind certain ratings, that's fine to do, or, if you want to do it, something along the lines of to 500 arena matches. Therefore, it's not locked behind a certain rating. Therefore, like people who are more casual to pvp can still achieve it, okay.

Speaker 1:

But please, just do something for pvp. I beg you, I beg you, like, honestly, like, please just do it. Like play 100 arena matches and you'll get a alliance chair or something. Play 200, you get an alliance table or whatever, or an alliance bed. You know, whatever it might be. But please do something. Don't let it just be solo, questing, professions, dungeons, raids. Don't let it be all pve. I beg you, neglect pvp a fair amount. It feels like, and this kind of just seems like it's another nail in the coffin, for pvp is where it's like oh okay, we're just forgotten about again and it's a bit shit. It does feel a bit shit. Please, I beg, just do something. Any little bit would help it. It feels a bit shit.

Speaker 1:

I'm not gonna lie um references from the past. Some of you have been playing for 20 years and we want that time to feel worthwhile. Your past adventures and time spent in azeroth mean means your collection will have a leg up and you won't start from square one when you first purchase a house, which is very good, so they break it down a bit more. So it's about the journey, not the decoration. The progressive journey principle means that a majority of the decor types, eg. Chair, bed, shelf, etc. Are considered commodities and are readily available from vendors, other players via the auction house, questing and so on. If you want a, a wooden chair, it's very easy and inexpensive to acquire. This is very good. This is something that is needed.

Speaker 1:

Next, there's investment decor, which are generally more niche items in either theming, looks or appeal, which require a more time and or cost investment. Examples it could be sparkling fountain with particle effects or magical books that flap on their own. This is really cool, and I think that these things should take a bit longer, because you therefore have something to do. Lastly, there are what we think of as trophies, these things that require skillful play, cooperation with other players and or larger time commitments. Think along the lines of Mythic Plus and Raid Rewards or Long-Term Achievements. If you're looking to mount Onyx's head on the wall, you'll have to defeat her and take it. Okay, that's amazing. I think that this is very good. But again, they say it right there Think along the lines of Mythic Plus and Raid Rewards as long-term achievements, or long-term achievements is a pve.

Speaker 1:

Please just give us something for pvp. I would love some pvp related items or player housing. I think that it would really give it a unique look and I would love it. I really really would. But oh, I, I can already see the forum posts where it's like oh, my god, make this pvp item pve available and it's like it is available to pve's. You just got to do pvp.

Speaker 1:

Because pvp is a very it's a good part of wow. It really is, and people don't get into it as much they. They really don't, and it's quite sad that it doesn't get looked at as much more because it's a very enjoyable part of wow. People might not just be competitive enough for it, which is fair, but if there is an incentive to do pvp, then perfect, like throughout the season. If there is an incentive, that's even better. But it's it's so tough man, it's so tough, especially when you have all of this stuff that says that there won't be a pvp um, like it's not saying that there won't be, but it's seeming like that there isn't going to be, which is kind of disheartening. It really is.

Speaker 1:

One of the most powerful aspects of decoration is that, since it's cosmetic by nature, placing hard to acquire things throughout the game gives players reach goals and don't hamper their character development and they are free to pursue or not just like mountain transmogs. That said, it should be. It should be easily possible to kit out your home on day one to strike the vibe you're looking for without too much effort. Your decor journey should start out awesome and continue to be that along the way. This is very good. I completely agree with it. You can start off by making your very simple sort of player housing or player house and then, as you get more and more cosmetics, you can redo it, update it, et cetera. As you go along, more cosmetics, you can redo it, update it, etc. As you go along, which is amazing and it's good that it's going to be an evergreen feature.

Speaker 1:

Variety is the spice of life. When we first were drafting this article, there are a line that read where can I get decor? Yes, with the wild pithy, I'm not sure what that word means. Uh, it's not far from the truth, even when it comes to our second principle of core gameplay with variations, deco should come from everywhere and everything. We want you to find decor rewards in all sorts of gameplay, not just a single avenue that you feel forced to interact with over and over. For example, with a specific jade inlaid bookshelf might come from a particular quest in pandaria. Other bookshelves could come from vendors, professions or other varied forms of content. This gives me more and more hope that, like the way that they put this, it gives me hope that they will do stuff. Yeah, it really does, but that's all I hope for. Please, blizzard, just make sure that there are pvp house decor rewards, because pvp needs different rewards and it will actually get more people to enjoy the pvp side of the game, and that's what it needs. A little bit more needs more people dipping their toes into the pvp side.

Speaker 1:

Um, finally, the principle of reference for the past. To encapsulate a few things all the time spent in azeroth is worth something. We're leveraging legacy, reputations, professions and more. If you've achieved something in the past, we want to embrace that time spent. If you've raised your reputation to exalted with someone, you'll be able to purchase their goods right away. If you've completed an achievement 10 years ago that rewards a new piece of decor today, you'll be granted that piece of decor on login. This is really good for those who have gone out of their way to do big achievements, to do tougher achievements that other people might not have done, such as um legacy achievements for um. I don't know what would it be like? The dragon flight um legacy achievements, uh, the hero achievements, I think they're called, I can't remember. They're the ones at the end of the expansion. They're always going to reward something. They always will.

Speaker 1:

Um, if you're looking at other bits and bobs, you can maybe make a case for gladiator, like for glad players in pvp. They could get something special to show it off instead of just a mount, although the mount is still very good and for pvpers, or pve is for mythic plus. If you get above 3k rating, you can get something to show it off as well. You know these different big achievements that it really gives people an incentive to push even more in mythic plus, keys or pvp or whatever it might be. Legacy decors should be well integrated into the appropriate existing content and not feel crowbarred in, for example, using the local systems and currencies of a piece of related content, such as mechagon's junkyard tinkering when it comes.

Speaker 1:

When it makes uh sense and is available, okay, kind of simple. We're not going to have the decor equivalent of transmog runs. We're still working through what this means in practice. Is it only available during time walking? Is there something more deterministic we can do, etc. But the thought of someone farming a mount for years across multiple characters every week, finally earning it and being told Welp time to go back and grind for the couch is rough. We'd like to avoid this. Yeah, it's. How do you do it? Because I get that you don't want to every single time be like yep, you're guaranteed to get this from every boss. It's 100 drop chance and then you run through ice, crown, citadel, kill all the bosses, get everything from there and you just do it systematically, raid by raid. It's not great. Um, I would like to see them do maybe a roll on, roll off thing, kind of like time walking, where for a week out of that month it's warlords of drain, or let's say, and you can go do warlords of drain or raids. You can do warlords of drain or dungeons and you have a chance to get these bits and pieces and you just roll that every single week kind of deal, something like that maybe. Um, but I kind of make, I kind of understand that it's not just going to be oh yeah, let's just go do a transmog run or like a decor run it will be called or something. Um, how can in again hearkening? Again back to the long-lasting journey pillar.

Speaker 1:

We're going to continue fleshing out decor from the past expansions in future patches and they will be earnable via the appropriate content of their expansion. One thing we'd like to give you a heads up on um here is that we intend to offer decor rewards for past expansion meta achievements. Ah, here we go, a world awoken um back from the beyond and a farewell to arms. So these are the yeah, meta achievements, the ones at the end of the expansion, uh, uh. These three so are currently available. You think you might be a decor completionist? It's worth starting these in your downtime, so these will give a lot. I would imagine this is going to give you a big chunk of uh decorations house decorations is my guess to this. Trust me. I'm a profession all. We're not going to bury the lead here.

Speaker 1:

A deckle will be crafted by all existing non-gathering primary professions instead of creating a new profession solely dedicated to it. Each profession will be able to craft a few pieces of appropriate decor from each expansion using that expansion's version of the profession. Um eg, to craft something from missa pandaria, you will need relevant missa pandaria professions at the appropriate level makes sense. The example here is that there is a classic inscriptionist and the inscriptionist can actually make a coffin a Brill coffin so Brill being one of the or the second town that the undeads visit and you can actually make a coffin, which is kind of cool as decor. As decor? Um to craft something players will need to not only require the recipe and skill, but they will also need to gather a new type of decor. Crafting specific reagent per expansion as well as any required reagents from that expansion. In general, most like most profession made goods, crafted decor can be traded to other players or sold on the auction house. Some examples of what the professions will be and what they can make and blacksmithing creates my decor made primarily of metal, makes sense.

Speaker 1:

Enchanting creates a magical decor like floating books or glowing orbs. Jewel crafting creates decor like gems and gem-studded objects, as well as being the designated stoneworking profession. Okay, kind of cool. So more stone-related decor, which is cool. Who are? The points above should be underscored? Your profession and their levels from the past expansions matter, and you need the reagents from these expansions. So, yeah, nothing too crazy right now. From the past, expansions matter and you need the reagents from these expansions. So, yeah, nothing too crazy right now, nothing you can do about it at the moment, but you just need to make sure that you do have all of these leveled up for the actual expansion that you're wanting to get the decor from Some light housekeeping.

Speaker 1:

We want to mention a smattering of related but smaller things as well before wrapping this up. Decorations are only placeable if you have enough of them, based on how many you've collected. If you have to place four chairs, you'll need to collect four chairs. Furthermore, collected uh decorations are shared across your entire Battlenet account. So anything you collect on any character on any of your game accounts is shared across all of them. If you have four fountains and place three of them on your lawn for your alliance house, your horde house will only have one available to place Makes sense very simple. On the the flip side, there's a concept of unique decor that can only be placed once, no matter how many copies of it you have. It doesn't make sense, for example, to place nine copies of a nixie's head on your wall, despite how many times you have killed her. Um, you'll note a mention of housing specific activities earlier. That might me that might be better worded as neighborhood specific activities, which is really cool.

Speaker 1:

We're committed to an ongoing release of new decorations, going both backwards into previous expansions as well as forwards with new ones. Um, this is good. This is very, very good. Look, I think that they are giving us a lot of information about this and I'm very happy that they are. The only thing I'm going to nitpick and obviously I'm going to nitpick this is that there needs to be PvP rewards. They've not said anything about PvP rewards. They very much explicitly mentioned only PvE content, which does worry me a bit.

Speaker 1:

Okay, now, I really hope that we're not forgotten in this. That's all I can say. But either way, it's looking very good. It is looking very, very good and it's looking very it. It's looking quite promising. The player housing is looking very, very promising and I think it will be very good. I think it will be one of the better features that world of warcraft has come up with in the last 15 odd years, genuinely, and I think that it might even be the best feature, depending on how it's released, how it goes.

Speaker 1:

So only time will tell um. We'll be getting more information about it as um when we get closer to the date of midnight releasing um, which is probably later next year or early next year, maybe late this year, I can't really remember. Pretty sure it's late this year, um, but yeah, look, that is where we'll end it for this episode. Thank you all very much for listening again. Apologies for it not coming out yesterday. Just a lot of problems happened and they can't really be helped. But do check out all of the social medias constant stuff happening, as well as the Etsy shop multiple things going up on there. Thank you all very much once again and go with valor friend. Goodbye. Thank you.