Blizzard has just unveiled a brand new exterior option for player housing, the big keystone feature in World of Warcraft: Midnight, and dang, it’s gorgeous. It’s a big magic-looking treehouse situation that comes in both a pleasing spring green and an even more seasonal cherry blossom pink. Look! Look how pretty this is!
Sick, how do I get one?
The Shop? The real-life money shop?
It costs how much?!
This admittedly lovely housing exterior costs forty real-world dollarinos! That is, it costs 4000 “Hearthsteel” which you can notably only buy in increments such as 2500 for $25 or 5000 for $50, so it may as well cost $50.
This really sucks! At $40, this is the most expensive item in the housing store thus far, unless you count the $75 bundle that includes this exterior plus a bunch of interior decor. Yes, it costs $75 to obtain this extremely lovely springtime set.
Blizzard has always included real-money-exclusive cosmetic items in its store: mounts, pets, transmogs, the like. But this addition feels extra bad, largely because this is the first really nice new housing exterior Blizzard has put in the game. There are currently only four other housing exterior options, and they’re faction-locked, so a given character only has access to two at a time. No new options have been released since the initial launch of Midnight.
Also, I’ll just say it, the Horde options kind of stink! My options are limited to an ugly hut made of stapled-together wooden boards and metal, or a fussy red-and-gold elf house. Maybe I’m being overly picky, but I play a tauren shaman, and neither of these choices really speak to my character fantasy. Alliance players have access to a cozy-looking human cottage and a more nature-y elf house, both of which I like better than the Horde options, but I have no way of accessing them because my guild is in a Horde neighborhood and this is just what I get. I mean seriously, look:
I mean, I’m doing my best with what I got. I bought a lot of plants (with pretend fiction money gained from slaying my enemies, of course), which helps, but the house is what it is. There’s only so much one cow can do.
I think this would sting a lot less if I had more options to choose from that already existed in-game. Sure, it would still be a bummer to miss out on the fancy springtime treehouse, but if I wasn’t already dissatisfied with what was on offer, I’d care a lot less. Because I absolutely will not be spending $40 on a cosmetic treehouse. $40 is roughly the equivalent of a three-month subscription to this game. It is $10 less than the entire Midnight expansion cost. With $40 I could buy the Burning Crusade upgrade to World of Warcraft: Classic and get four mounts, two toys, two pets, and two Hearthstone effects thrown in.
Nice try, Blizz. I’m going back to my orc shack.