Over the last weekend of January, Blizzard hosted a free Player Housing event in London. Not quite knowing what to expect, I arrived to find a pop-up real estate agency called Azeroth Homes, with photos showing the best real estate they have to offer in the window and everything.
Once inside, I was greeted by friendly realtors, eager to show me the properties they had that they believed would suit my needs. I was walked through a cozy dwarven home kitted out with surprisingly magical features, such as indoor plumbing and tap that was connected to a mysterious but apparently never-ending supply of arcwine – though the agent did gloss over the fact that a dark portal had recently materialized outside on the front lawn, something that you might figure would raise a bit of concern in an Alliance neighbourhood. For me, however, the real winner was a house that included a secret ritual room complete with an inventive torture-rack and the Gilnean Problem Solver guillotine. I would have put down an offer then and there if I happened to have the gold.
All in all, this part of the experience was fun, if a little awkward – I can’t help but always feel slightly embarrassed to find myself included in someone else’s skit – but getting to see how creative these houses were was worth it. They were immediately inspiring, and all I wanted to do next was log into the game and carry on working on my own house. To my surprise, I was allowed to do just that.
Blizzard had provided several stations where we could sit and play the game. All of them had test characters that we could use to explore neighbourhoods and housing, but they also allowed us to log into our own accounts – at least for the first day. Unfortunately it caused some technical problems so they couldn’t permit it on day two, which is a shame, because bonding over housing was causing complete strangers to become fast friends in a way that I haven’t experienced since Blizzcon. Again, any embarrassment I might have felt at approaching someone I don’t know evaporated in the face of wanting to see this incredible house they made that everyone else has been going on about. Everyone felt friendly and enthusiastic about housing and impressed with everyone else’s creativity – all in all the most wholesome possible experience you could have with the World of Warcraft community.
The Azeroth Homes event itself was decorated with real life versions of recognizable in-game decor. My personal favourite was the paintings lining the walls, which I would buy in a heartbeat if they ever decided to sell these.
On the first day, our hosts were World of Warcraft streamer AnnieFuchsia as well as WoW YouTubers Taliesin & Evitel. On the second, we got to attend a meet & greet with Design Director Maria Hamilton and Principle Housing Artist Jay Hwang, and in the later part of the day our host was MrGM.
We were given goodie bags that continued the Realtor theme in that the gifts inside matched ones you might expect from an Estate Agent – they included an Azeroth Homes coffee mug and wooden cutting board, a small plant, a herb mix seed bomb, and a candle, as well as Pringles from that World of Warcraft promotion and a code to obtain the Moonkin Hatchling pet. One the second day we were also allowed to choose a freebie – I chose a Midnight cap which Maria Hamilton and Jay Hwang were kind enough to sign for me.
All in all, I went to the event not really knowing what to expect, and left it feeling very similar to how I felt after Blizzcon – uplifted by my experience with the community and reminded why I love this game. Obviously this event was on a much smaller scale, but I really liked that as well. My conclusion: While I wouldn’t necessarily call it a groundbreaking experience, I do hope Blizzard does more events like this one here in the UK, it was a lot of fun.
