What are your first impressions of Player Housing?

Now that we’ve all picked out our plots and begun the process of setting up our living spaces, we can step back and assess our initial feelings towards World of Warcraft Player Housing. Whether you’ve finalized your rumpus room design down to the last bean bag chair, done nothing but collect decor, or just wandered aimlessly around your plot feeling overwhelmed, we are finally experiencing the roller coaster of home ownership.

My main feeling so far is that I’m in love with Player Housing. It’s not like there weren’t a million things to do in World of Warcraft and thousands of things on my to-do list already, but all of the facets of the new feature already feel pretty integrated into the game. I have enjoyed the creative deep dives into trying to set up my trophy room, hot tub hangout area, and unacceptably low-quality Winter Veil decorations.

There are, as anticipated, a number of drawbacks, bugs, and bummers. Having your front door move around unexpectedly was certainly an experience in the first week. I’m very far from impressed with things like rotating placed decor in advanced mode (the bead is on the intersection of two axes, how am I supposed to know which direction it’s going to move!?). Some things that the community has been desperately asking for, like grouping decor so you can move an entire gaming table as one unit, aren’t implemented yet. I am forgiving on that front for now because we’re still in early access. I’ll start complaining in March or June if there’s still no ‘undo’ button in edit mode, but for now I’m being patient.

I have seen mixed reactions to lumber and decor crafting, but I really think the team nailed the balance on this one. It’s certainly not perfect — if you need 12 Arcanite Bars to construct a three-legged work bench that has no actual potion-making function, then you might need to go back to Alchemy school. For the most part, however, I am happy with the effort and cold hard cash needed to create decor. It feels balanced between negligible and completely out-of-reach, and I have really enjoyed farming lumber in order to craft my favorites from the long list of available items.

Adding decor to legacy content has been a slam dunk. I have farmed just about every available sconce, rug, chair, and ottoman multiple times in the last two weeks. With the lifting of armor type restrictions on transmog collecting, running old dungeons and raids to bolster my decor catalog has etched itself onto my go-to list of easy things to do.

One of the feelings I am seeing most frequently among players is ‘overwhelmed’. Its’ easy to see the amazingly creative things that are being posted on social media and feel inadequate for cobbling together a passable garden or entryway after hours of effort. Maybe you’re like me and one or more of your houses or backyards is simply the most interesting random assortment of decor imaginable. In that case: don’t fret, you’re not alone! Inspiration may strike at any time. There are no deadlines or HOA evaluations on your Player Housing choices, so if you’re still waiting for the creative juices to start flowing, that’s totally okay. As I have reminded myself a hundred times so far: Player Housing is a marathon, not a sprint.