World of Warcraft has recently made waves in the gaming sphere by finally adding housing! Arguably one of the most requested features since the game first released in 2004, it’s crazy to see it finally come to light 22 years later. And even more exciting, it is (by all accounts) quite good! I’ve heard nothing but glowing reviews from those who got to sample the closed beta or PTR version, though I myself have kept my sub suspended for my own productivity.

But Blizzard, perhaps anticipating the recalcitrance of fair-weather gamers such as myself, has cleverly offered a free weekend in which owners of the upcoming Midnight expansion can jump in-game and begin creating their own houses even if they don’t have an active sub. And like a loom’ithar to flame, I have once more found myself drawn back to the fantastical realms of Azeroth.

But my return was fueled just as much by academic curiosity as it was nostalgia, for I had extensive experience in another MMO’s housing system, the polarizing one within Final Fantasy XIV, and I am far from the first person to compare the two. From the moment it was released, FFXIV’s housing system has remained a massive feather in its cap over WoW, an extremely customizable and infinitely bespoke ecosystem that, despite its flaws, excels quite cleanly at what it sets out to do in providing players with the tools to grant their avatars the perfect domiciles to establish their character and engender avenues for roleplaying.

My catgirl pirate’s apartment is designed to evoke a submarine interior. All cards on the table, WoW’s is not currently capable of that level of uniqueness.

As I took my first steps into WoW’s vanguard submission to this avenue of player creativity, I inevitably found myself comparing its various facets to the similarly-intentioned systems of FFXIV, and figured I’d detail their strengths and weaknesses in an algorithmically-friendly numbered list. Though I must violate the primary law of clickbait by admitting that this article will not be declaring one of them the “winner” or “best” of the two. Both are tremendously ambitious and rousing successes at the end of the day, I heartily recommend either to the budding player hoping to characterize their champion on a completely new level.

1. Accessibility

Both systems have barriers to entry, though WoW is undoubtedly the easier of the two. Budding Azerothian homemakers need only purchase the Midnight expansion to have full access to the entire housing system, and their account’s first property is even unlocked completely free of charge. Blizzard has also promised that they will never demolish a player’s houses due to inactivity or inactive subscription. These are all leaps and bounds more generous than FFXIV, whose houses must be aggressively bid for in a cutthroat player lottery that has left most of Eorzea’s population homeless by unfortunate design. There are only a finite amount of houses in circulation, and they all cost millions of gil even if you manage to beat the system. Finally, if you don’t enter the property for 45 days, it will be automatically demolished and returned to the lottery pool.

I don’t have to worry about my werewolf druid’s cabin being repossessed by Big Sub when I fail to pay my protection money.

That last point is why I chose to purchase an apartment instead. Apartments are the saving grace for FFXIV’s prospects in this category, being available to everyone, comparatively cheap, and will never be demolished, which is far more attractive to someone like me who takes yearlong breaks between subs. Apartment owners have no exterior/yards to customize and their property isn’t visible in the ward, but it’s good enough for having somewhere for your toon to sleep at night. But, speaking of wards…

2. Community Building

Once again, I must give the point to WoW. In FFXIV, Free Companies are only able to buy specific “FC Plots,” which further limits their purchasing possibilities. And at the end of the day, said plot will house only a single building, you’ll all essentially be roommates in a big co-op. WoW grants every guild a entire instanced neighborhood to occupy together, and everyone gets their own house in said neighborhood. That’s frankly incredible, my werewolf druid loves getting to visit her friends’ houses for RP or just to see how their decorating is going. Said neighborhood also has quests, NPCs, stray animals, unique landmarks, and a lot more going for them than the largely distraction-free Levittowns of FFXIV.

It’s cool that these other houses are all my friends, not just random lottery winners who wound up in the same ward.

Though I must note that FFXIV’s system has more potential to create new friendships between players who find themselves saddled in the same ward. For example, the FC House next to my catgirl’s apartment complex kept throwing parties, so I started attending them and now I’ve got a whole new coterie to hang out with. That can happen in WoW, but only to guildless characters since guild members are automatically instanced into their guild’s neighborhood.

3. Locale Options
My zombie warlock built his chateau on the beach, but his next-door neighbors are living in mountains, jungles, and grassy highlands.

Both games have different environments the player can plant their house in, though once again they have chosen different ways to implement this. (I know you’re probably getting tired of me discussing every possible facet other than the actual individual housemaking, but I like to start macro and work my way inward. Sorry!) In WoW, every Alliance or Horde neighborhood is identical, but it contains multiple different habitats within it, kinda like those diagrams in science textbooks showing every single biome in an impossibly cramped space. FFXIV, on the other hand, has multiple distinct housing districts with their own environment, such as the coastal beaches of Mist or the snowy mountainscapes of Ishgard. Both are perfectly serviceable implementations of the concept, though once again WoW favors accessibility whereas FFXIV rewards those who put in the work to grind for the environment they want.

4. House Construction and Design

This bullet point is specifically focused on the actual arrangement and manipulation of housing objects, and how much freedom it gives you to turn your building blocks into the living space of your dreams. Once again, both deserve major kudos and neither completely flub out of this category, but I do need to give the edge to WoW. Before the player even starts placing objects, they get to choose the room layout of the interior, including closets and different shapes of rooms, lightyears more flexible than FFXIV’s prefab house layouts. And then WoW’s user interfaces for moving, rotating, and resizing assets is very robust, especially the gizmo toggle which will be familiar to anyone who’s dabbled in 3D modeling.

Footage recorded on the PTR by my friend, who requested to remain anonymous.

FFXIV’s lack of this gizmo feature (and no way to rotate or resize natively) is a big minus in its tally, unless a player is willing to use third party mods (which are against terms of service) to unlock these functionalities. When WoW is so generous with player control that people were building truly unhinged concepts within days of entering beta, it’s hard not to give them the point in this category. That being said, neither of them have an “undo” or “go back” button, which I’ll give ten bonus points to the first who implements it because I found that feature sorely needed whenever my ambitions proved too big for my feng shui.

WoW’s freedom in item placement makes it easy to rework items into unexpected presentations. If you’re lacking a fitting chandelier for your decor, maybe you can construct one out of candles, rope, and a wagon wheel?
5. Aesthetic Freedom

This is the primary bullet on this list where FFXIV is the clear winner, and that’s because it’s had so much more time to release new content to support the system. Player housing was first added to Eorzea in 2016, meaning they’ve had ten years to release new content, new patches, and new improvements to further refine the flexibility of players’ choices. WoW housing, in contrast, isn’t even technically out yet, so this bullet was never going to be a fair fight from the start. That being said, WoW’s inaugural offerings are honestly pretty impressive, I was able to construct two very different (albeit basic) aesthetics for my Alliance and Horde house, but you’d need to be on the level of the Frank Lloyd Wrights in the above-linked article to reach a caliber of customization that I was able to do pretty easily in FFXIV with my steampunk submarine.

I was able to decorate my two houses into very different styles with what WoW currently offers, but I might have struggled if I’d needed to design a third.

This disparity is going to gradually lessen as time goes on and WoW adds more housing objects into the game (assuming they don’t abandon the system prematurely, which they usually do to expac gimmicks but I suspect this one is here to stay). For now, reviewing just what actually exists today, FFXIV has an obvious and unsurprising advantage.

6. Functionality
This bonfire in my backyard campsite isn’t just cosmetic; I can cook things on it!

Lastly I’d like to discuss the catalog of housing furniture that isn’t just aesthetic, and actually unlocks useful features the player might want to do from the comfort of their home. Both come with a smattering of trinkets, often profession stations or access to some remote game feature, and here I think FFXIV once again has the advantage. Despite the lack of an apartmental glamour dresser or mailbox (two of the most important hypothetical features I’d want to tie to something in my apartment), it just generally has more options that do more interesting things than the meager handful in WoW. To say nothing of the Message Book, a permanent item that lets guests sign a message that remains forever readable in your living space. I sorely wish WoW had this feature, at least then this wouldn’t be so obviously a point in FFXIV’s favor. Housing in itself isn’t strictly needed, after all; MMO avatars do not need to sleep or eat, so from some perspectives this could be the only bullet point that matters from a practical gameplay-optimization standpoint.

I know this article probably reads like I’m being politically correct by insisting I’m not just giving WoW the crown. The truth is that I do firmly believe that both are good, they’re just trying to do different things and succeeding in their own way. FFXIV wanted housing to be an optional exclusive endgame for enterprising players ready to put in the work to obtain and maintain a property. (And then generously included apartments as a stripped-down alternative for the rest of us.) In contrast, WoW wanted it to be a universal step in every adventurer’s journey that came cheaply, painlessly, and conveniently. Whichever game you’re playing, you should definitely partake in both, they come with many impressive features that will likely fulfill your fantasy and augment any character concept. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed!

Bon voyage!