Blizzard has released the fourth of its preview blogs on World of Warcraft’s upcoming housing system, this one designed to finally make you fall in love with your HOA. OK, just kidding, but it is about the neighborhood system. At launch, the game will offer two types of neighborhood zone, one for Alliance and one for Horde, with 50 spacious housing plots scattered all over that map. MMORPG players will immediately leap to Lord of the Rings Online, which basically already does this.
“We want players with different preferences for locations to find a plot that’s perfect for them, be they vibe-based or looking for something for a specific character,” Blizzard says. “Some plots are placed far away from everything for the hermits among us, while others are grouped together in small cul-de-sacs of two to three houses perfect for a small group of friends. Other houses are in larger groupings for folks looking for more hustle and bustle. Similarly, there’s a variety of biomes in each zone, ranging from Founder’s Point’s spooky forests and autumnal farmland to the lush oases and windswept bluffs in Razorwind Shores. In both Neighborhoods, you’ll find a dynamic central hub area full of both NPC activity and Endeavors (keep reading).”
As previously communicated, guilds and groups of players can charter a private hood or join a public one open to all. The public versions will (just as in LOTRO) keep spawning anew as people fill ’em up. The charter hoods can control who lives there, permissions, and even the names, with a special perk for guild hoods: They can expand in size to accommodate the whole guild thanks to instancing. As for your own lot, you’ll have fine-control over permissions there, and you can pack up your house – this sounds like Star Wars Galaxies’ housing pack-up system – and move it elsewhere. You know, just in case that guy with four refrigerators on his porch moves in next to you.
Finally, Blizz touches on the endeavor system, which is basically a monthly neighborhood quest in which everyone can collaborate to improve the neighborhood – yes, even the public ones.
“Each Endeavor has a group of tasks that are collectively completed by the Neighborhood. As tasks are completed, more NPCs from that area show up, making various themed decorations available to the neighborhood inhabitants (or even visiting players from other Neighborhoods), and the Neighborhood changes visually to be decorated in that faction’s fashion. The number of tasks required scales with Neighborhood size, so a 50-player Neighborhood will have to complete more tasks than a 10-player Neighborhood. Similarly, if a Neighborhood is less active, future Endeavors for that Neighborhood will also scale their requirements down to accommodate.”
