WoW Housing Interview Decoded — Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:04] Hello internet, Evetel here and today we are taking a special look at some big big housing news that is hot off the presses. PC Gamer has just published a

[00:16] feature entitled Blizzard has big plans for World of Warcraft's player housing and you won't have to wait long to see what's next. This is a system that we're launch of Midnight, but for [music] years to come. Firstly, great title.

[00:32] Tells me a lot already. And secondly, the community is expectedly [music] absolutely losing their There is a lot going on in this article and a lot worth getting excited over, but it's worth bearing a few things in mind here.

[00:47] within the article, there are also quite a few things we did already know. There are also a number of what I'm going to call premature collective confirmations,

[00:59] which is when someone says, "Are we ever getting World of Warcraft branded getting World of Warcraft branded cheese?" And a dev says, "Well, I do like cheese." And then somehow this is taken as a confirmation that aged

[01:11] Delaran Sharp will be hitting the shelves of your local weights within a couple weeks. probably because PC Gamer sometimes does this thing where they don't really share many actual quotes of what the devs say. So, you don't

[01:24] actually get to read the response of, "Well, I do like cheese," and make up your own mind what that might mean. All you get is the article's interpretation. And that's definitely the case in this article, too. Lots of Ian said they are

[01:38] going to do this, and it's like, "Oh, yeah. Tell me what he actually said, this for a while and I'm pretty sure I speak better [music] Ian than you. Our interpretations might be different. So, let's go through the news together and

[01:51] rate all the info. What's new and what we already uh knew? And we'll also assign a likelihood ranking along the way. Is it actually going to happen like PC gamers say that a dev said it's going to, or is it just a cheesy fantasy?

[02:07] Okay, go go go go go go. Endeavors. Endeavors are officially going live with the midnight 12.0 prep patch launching January 20th. Wait, I thought we already Endeavors in our prep patch guide [music] coming out. They've been on this

[02:22] Wowhead infographic for yon now as being part of the prep patch. Anyway, it's nice to have confirmation. This gets a 10 out of 10 cheese probability ranking as it is definitely coming out. Although common sense and this Jesse Kuranchic

[02:38] response to Mr. GM asking him on Twitter suggests it won't be the blood elf endeavor that kicks things off like it was on the beta since that sends you into new silver moon for questing and rewards and you know there's no new

[02:51] silver moon. Will there be a choice of endeavors like the mechanome and niffening double bill currently on beta? Either way, something is happening. [music] Further reinforced by this neat little social graphic shared on the WoW

[03:04] channels last night, which also includes Night Elf and Blood Elf exteriors. Wait, what? Night elf and blood elf exteriors. coming, they've been testable on the

[03:16] beta, I don't think anyone anticipated them coming quite so soon. The feeling was that Elvin exteriors would arrive with the midnight launch in March, like the cool outside but inside rooms that most of us have already unlocked on the

[03:29] housing renown tree but can't use yet. But I am delighted to be proven wrong here. The article confirms this as well. Night elf and blood elf exteriors are 10 cheeses out of 10. And here next week, guild halls. There is a single

[03:45] tantalizing mention of guild halls. As the article tells us, principal designer and housing lead Jesse Kurlin Chickic says that guild halls may go live relatively quickly, though they're not expecting them for the pre- patch.

[03:59] expecting them for the pre- patch. Question: What even is a guild hall? I mean, I know what it is, and I know I want one, but what is it? What can I do there? Can I design it like I would my house? Can I design [music] it

[04:12] collaboratively with my guild? Where does it go? Beyond this single sentence, we know nothing else about guild halls. And honestly, despite this being one of the most requested features before housing was testable on alpha and beta,

[04:26] it is probably less so now since everyone has realized how easy it is to create a public unique de facto guild hall using the tools already in game. But I'm not going to say no to guild halls. and the phrasing of this sentence

[04:41] and its positioning in the new things coming actually soon segment of the article. I'm going to give this nine cheeses out of 10 and a speculative cheeses out of 10 and a speculative release date of midnight launch. Is that

[04:54] should I say 12.0.5 or 12.1 to play it safe. Nah, guild halls at launch. Can't wait. Housing road map. Oh my god, I do love a good road map. 2023 heralded the

[05:07] arrival of the WOW road map, which in my mind aligns perfectly with Holly Longdale becoming executive producer of WOW in 2022. So, what better person to deliver the news of a housing [music] specific road map outlining the coming

[05:22] year in housing specifically, which Holly says will go live a bit closer to launch. It is wild to me that housing will be receiving a dedicated road map as opposed to just a slot on the main one. That suggests a lot of content and

[05:37] a lot of forward planning is taking place. A [music] perfect 10 out of 10 on the cheese probability scale. Holly said it's coming and I'm going to say we can expect to see it in midFebruary. Co-decorating and co-ownership in the

[05:52] feature. Ian Hazacostus says that co-decorating is on the road map. [music] Now, are we talking about the road map or more of Ian's interior conceptual road map? In addition to this, housing

[06:06] art lead Jay Wong says co-ownership is something that we are looking at. Now, to me, the phrase something we are looking at does not suggest looking at does not suggest definitiveness. It's not giving 100%.

[06:19] Co-ownership feels in the realm of possibility and a nice to have. While co-decorating would have huge implications if it extends beyond co-ownership. Having the possibility of someone coming into your home and juing

[06:32] it up for you would be absolutely massive [music] and would create an entire economy around interior and building design services. I am cautiously optimistic that the devs see this as an opportunity and as a

[06:46] deliverable feature. So, I am bestowing it with a 7 out of 10 cheese possibility ranking and predicting these features would go live well past midnight launch. Like, we're talking second half of 2026 [music] here. I think I find a lot of

[07:00] the language here nebulous, but I want to believe things definitely coming soon between pre- patch and launch. There is a laundry list [music] of things confirmed to come between pre- patch and launch or just after launch, which we've

[07:14] heard about or seen before, but it's worth [music] mentioning. More decor, pushing the total amount into the thousands. Those exterior rooms with skyboxes we've seen on beta. More exterior home sizes, including medium,

[07:28] which we've seen listed but never tested. And which begs the question, if this is a small horde house, how much bigger can we really comfortably go? Clearer plot boundaries, which are already active on beta. Interactive

[07:41] objects, and this is actually quite an interesting one. So far, interactive [music] You can open doors, turn some lights on and off. Some items like the class order hall big boys have cool animations that

[07:56] activate on interact, but the article mentions more RP [music] style stuff. Holding a wine glass or a book, even adding proper interactable functions to the Diablo I chess set. This is all/an levels of excellent touches for lounging

[08:11] around your player house. And I wonder if it will include the ability to place and then read in-game books like you could on the very [music] first internal build that Tally played and which has been conspicuously missing as a feature

[08:26] ever [music] since. More renown levels expected to add 5 to 10 per big patch and decor dropping from raids which has been confirmed to be personal loot with [music] added bad luck protection. These are all 10 out of 10. They're coming,

[08:39] don't worry. Except the reading the book thing that's on much shakier ground, but [music] we can hope. Exterior lighting. There are a bunch of items in the decor catalog that are clearly meant to be exterior furniture first and foremost

[08:52] and which were exterior items initially in alpha before Blizz decided the lighting effects out in the open and neighborhoods and made them interior only. A decision that definitely had nothing to do with Tally's fire garden.

[09:07] Absolutely nothing at all. Also, sorry everyone about the fire [music] garden, but the article says that the current prohibition on exterior lighting will prohibition on exterior lighting will drop. Yay. So, we can have a fire garden

[09:21] now, or will more lighting decor be usable outside again, but not [clears throat] all? And also, when will it happen? No idea because PC Gamer give no quote or context. But let's go big for the prediction and award all

[09:37] previous exterior lighting decor being available again as normal a big old 9 out of 10 and give it a time frame of soon after housing is launched fully in pre- patch and devs can see what everyone having a house and neighborhood

[09:52] looks like for the servers. Import, export, and build sharing. Along with co-designing, import, export strings, and build sharing are right up there with the steamiest kit bashing fantasies keeping player housing afficionados up

[10:06] at night. However, we are now in the coming soon TM subheading of this PC gamer article, so I wouldn't get too excited just yet. Regarding this feature, Holly Longdale says, "I want to share my build with someone." Now, this

[10:21] is the I do like cheese example par excellence. The number of times I have mentioned a possible thing to a WoW dev and have been told, "I do [music] like that possible thing in response is possibly even more than you think." It's

[10:36] a really nice way of connecting with a player and sharing enthusiasm without actually signing your life away to developing said feature and committing a bajillion dollars to building it. I really value those interactions and I

[10:48] like knowing that devs like the same weird and quirky things I do, but I don't take them as gospel. We've had devs say I want to be able to share builds before and I do sincerely believe it is something they will introduce as

[11:00] soon as they figure out how, but I don't think Holly saying the exact same line now means it's necessarily any closer to happening. Midnight expansion lead and associate game director Paul Cubit also has something to add here and says it's

[11:15] giving players the ability to say, "I made this really cool room and I want to be able to share it." Or, "I saw something that a friend made or a streamer that I want to be able to bring into my house." Or, "I made my chair the

[11:28] exact right color and the exact right size and the exact right orientation and now I want six of them." These really are some of the most requested features, particularly copy and pasting decor item attributes, and it warms my cockals to

[11:42] hear them said out loud. And I believe it when I hear that the import export of rooms, object designs, collections, and even entire house build is, as they say in the article, on the list. But this list, it's probably long. It probably

[11:55] never ends, and it's not set in stone. Still, I'm giving build, import, export, and sharing a 6 out of 10 on the probability scale. I'll be pleasantly surprised if it's even on the housing road map. Mounts and pets in your house.

[12:09] Ian is really on one in this feature. I don't think I've ever seen him so off the chain in an interview like this, but that's the magic player housing has brought to this game. Mounts and pets you've collected will be allowed to

[12:22] wander your home. As Aostus says, Hunter pets and player alt characters are harder for technical reasons. What? Again, this is one of those player fantasies that we've collectively had since housing was announced. [music] And

[12:34] okay, alts and hunter pets would be the ideal here. But being able to showcase mounts and pets in your home is huge. And not only just showcase, they will be allowed [music] to wander your home. How will this work? Do I place a little pet

[12:50] bed or nest as an object and then choose which pet it's populated with, which then wanders? Wanders where? Where's my Brutusaur going to go? Where's my other Brutusaur going to go? Where is Tally's brutasaur going to go? Because he's my

[13:04] zero decorating privileges, he just kind of lives there. I can do that, Blizz, right? I have so many questions. But the confidence with which Ian seems to deliver this pronouncement is kind of crazy. Still, 6.5 cheeses out of 10 for

[13:19] me. I like to think this is possible, but part of me thinks this is still a a little talk with Ian after the interview. If we ever do have pets and mounts wandering our homes, it'll be long into midnight. Long after midnight,

[13:33] you know what I mean? I predict it won't be on the 2026 road map. Future neighborhood areas. I was a bit surprised to see this feature pop up in the in discussion but not in development section of the article because again, so

[13:47] many expectations around player housing included being able to live in a beloved part of Azeroth. Paul Cubit says, "For midnight, we've dug our heels into a couple of neighborhoods around Oramar and Stormwind so that you don't have to

[14:00] make that hard choice of my buddies don't want to live in Grizzly Hills, but I do." One, that's an insane example to give. These buddies who don't want to buddies cuz they don't exist because everyone wants to live in Grizzly Hills.

[14:14] Also interesting here is prefacing this statement with for Midnight, which suggests we won't see any other neighborhood areas for the rest of the expansion. That makes sense. It makes sense that we would bed into our

[14:26] factionflavored neighborhoods for now and maybe see expanded existing neighborhoods or completely new ones out in other parts of Azeroth in The Last Titan and beyond. There will be a beyond, right? So, I get where they are

[14:39] coming from here. No new neighborhood areas for now. New neighborhoods get a long, long time. I think the next we hear about this particular idea will be in the last Titan features trailer. You

[14:52] know, other things that are happening after midnight and beyond. As Ian says, there's very little that we would say you're not going to get it at all. It really is about prioritization based on what we're seeing and hearing. Here's

[15:06] things that are being discussed, but not yet in development. Basement levels to your house. more communal areas and neighborhoods. Examples of ideas given non-committal way of putting it. Well done, guys. Include a racetrack, being

[15:21] able to provide tickets for entry to certain events like a stage performance, largecale RP events, [music] and this is a wild one, the ability to make immersive theater style narrative experiences in houses using interactive

[15:36] objects, which what would that even look like in WoW? I love the idea and I hope if [music] this one just quietly disappears after this interview, never to be mentioned again. But as Holly says, we want to support the things that

[15:50] this together. [music] I know it's easy to just say something like that, but based on the feedback and reactivity we've seen around housing so far, I believe it. So go ahead, building enthusiasts. Go forth and build things

[16:05] and break things and push your tools to the limit because the things you make and break directly affect the trajectory of player housing. A feature that seems like it's being developed with your wants and feedback in mind and which we

[16:18] hope to continue to become better long into the future. Like a good cheese, of course. Big thanks to PC Gamer and to Heather Newman for compiling this feature and for getting Ian to say some frankly outrageous things. But what do

[16:32] predictions? Is there anything we missed or got completely wrong? Or was there anything you want to see in player housing that wasn't discussed here? Like, why when PC Gamer had all these important devs in one place, didn't they

[16:46] question? When are we getting a rectangle version of the dyable circular woolen rug? This, but with square edges, will change my life. When are we getting this, Blizz? If you enjoyed today's video, don't thank us. Thank our patrons

[17:01] who give their actual real life money to make all of our work happen. Without them, there would be a whole lot less Talasin inevitel. So, thank you guys [music] as ever for making today's video possible. If you didn't like it, down

[17:13] vote the out of it. And remember, my name is Holly Longtdale. No, my name is Evatel from me and from Talson. Cheerio.