I never played Farmville because I didn’t use Facebook to play stupid games; I barely play games on my iPhone and iPad. I was rolling my eyes when I first read about The Tillers which is, for all intents and purposes, Blizzard’s adaptation of Farmville in WoW. Now we are three weeks into the expansion and I find myself checking my farm first thing.

I’m addicted to my farm! I even log out at the Inn above Halfhill Market. While I have no inclination to start doing Farmville, the mechanic Blizzard has developed to allow every player to have their own farm has my mind wondering … is player housing coming?

Apparently I’m not the only one. I, lovingly, stole this excerpt from a post of The Queue from WoW Insider:

BlazeNor asked:

With this farming aspect added to the game that seem to be done with phasing, do you think this could open the door to housing? For example allowing players to own a piece of land and building on it though reputation and dailies.

I absolutely do think it could lead to that, yeah. I think our farm in Mists of Pandaria is Blizzard’s testing ground for player housing. The question has always been, if they give us player housing, what do you do there? Do you just retire after a hard day of questing, make some popcorn, and watch some TV in your house in Stormwind? No, that’s boring. They won’t just give us a room to put up some paintings or whatever and leave it at that. They would want player housing to be an activity, something with goals and objectives. Our tiny little farm in Valley of the Four Winds is a good example of housing being an actual activity — to get something for your farm, you need to work towards it, you have to earn it. It’s a great start. They’re seeing what works and what doesn’t.

I could totally see them building on the Mists of Pandaria model and doing something like … we’re on whatever continent or planet comes next, and the Alliance (or Horde) entrusts you with a newly established, totally ramshackle stronghold. You need to improve its fortifications, make friends with local warlords or mercenaries, recruit officers, and bling out your throne room. That would be way more epic than an apartment in Old Town. Though the roleplayer in me thinks an apartment in Old Town would be pretty sweet, too.

I know that Blizzard has been talking about the possibility of player housing for a few years now and I agree with the author (Alex Ziebart) of that post. I think its very possible to implement player housing and I do think Sunsong Ranch is their beta test. Actually the idea of revitalizing a “ramshackle stronghold” is really cool. I think I almost like it better then player housing.

I have noticed something though that I think they may have to tackle. Even when you are in a group with someone, you cannot visit their farm. I would think that if you introduce player housing or player strongholds, players will probably want to invite their friends to come over and play.

Perhaps that is something Blizzard is working out as well.

/Cheers!