World of Warcraft has stagnated for years. Midnight changes that.

Despite being the seminal MMORPG, World of Warcraft has had some serious ups and downs. Shadowlands felt like the start of a marked decline, and while Dragonflight introduced some new mechanics, it was nothing to write home about (trust me, I wrote a whole review on it). The Worldsoul Saga was primed to change that: a return to old-school WoW, with a new-school approach. The War Within’s Delves and innovations like Plunderstorm and Remixes have certainly been a welcome step forward, but it feels like Midnight truly ushers in a new era of Warcraft – an era of modernization that’s essential to its survival in a genre that’s becoming ever-more competitive.

The expansion’s headliner is, of course, player housing. Tracing its lineage back to Ultima Online, we’ve seen several iterations of the system over the past few decades, with Final Fantasy 14 really bringing it back into the spotlight, showcasing just how powerful it can be both as a fun, time-waster mechanic, but also as a community builder. We saw the system appear in Guild Wars 2 with Janthir Wilds’ release, and even Amazon’s shuttered New World had its own variation. It felt a little odd, then, that World of Warcraft – the premier MMO – just didn’t have a system that’s become so synonymous with the genre.

Senior 3D artist Jay Hwang walked me through housing’s creation in a recent interview, confirming that the building blocks of the feature “didn’t exist in [WoW]’s engine,” making the entire undertaking infinitely harder. But now that it’s out in the wild – initially in beta form, but now in the hands of everyone – it really is an absolute gamechanger.

You see, I’ve found myself steering away from WoW of late, partially due to lack of time, but also because all of my guildmates have either switched across to FF14, or simply quit MMOs entirely. In many ways, I lost that sense of community – the feeling of logging in to play with my friends, instead of logging in simply for the grind. Housing has brought that back. It becomes the starting point for your community.

I’ve chatted to random people in my neighborhood (Horde, obviously), and found myself being invited to new groups, taking on some of the raids I’ve missed from the past few expansions despite being severely underleveled and undergeared. As somewhat of a soloist by nature, I thought that my time would be spent on Delves instead of making friends: I’m thankful that hasn’t been the case.

Let’s be honest, though: the best part about housing is constructing weird and wonderful furniture. As someone who watches far too many Warframe Orbiter decor videos, I’ve turned my hand to fusing seemingly disparate items together to create everything from more custom seating to murals and framed pictures, transforming my barren little cottage into a weird chimera of Night Elf mystique and cozy vibes. While there’s still work to be done – the introduction of roaming pets is the thing that excites me the most – Blizzard’s take on housing feels uniquely Azeroth. From the faction-inspired furniture to decor styled after the game’s myriad races themselves, it really is a system quite unlike any other.

While housing has been a resounding success, however, Blizzard’s reworked UIs and hardening stance on addons has been slightly more divisive. With the developer’s initial communications leaving people more confused than anything else, Blizzard has taken several steps to effectively integrate various combat-focused mods into the game’s own UI, cutting down on the need for external tools. It’s proven a blessing and a curse: trimming back the reliance on mods benefits both new players and modding newbs, and helps even the playing field between experienced players and newcomers as a result. But, WoW addons have never been particularly finicky to work with, and a quick chat with any random player will likely point you in the right direction.

We’ve seen the death of classic mods like WeakAuras, which its creator told us “isn’t compatible with the direction that Blizzard is taking the game.” The project has effectively ceased to exist, which feels like somewhat of a blow given how beloved it is. New addons have also started to pop up despite Blizzard’s reworked UI, which some have said is leading to a new form of power imbalance. It’s a very gray situation, but it’s nevertheless a huge turning point in WoW’s lifecycle.

As someone who has perhaps relied on addons a little too much over the years, it’s taken me a moment to adjust; but I have adjusted. There’s a part of me that certainly laments the tentative end of the addon era, but the other side of me is just happy that Blizzard is finally making improvements to its UI. As the Worldsoul Saga progresses, we’ll see if Blizzard gets to FF14 level and bans all external tools outright, but for now, its stance is a little clearer, and I’d argue benefits newer players.

The thing that’s most exciting, however, is our return to Quel’Thalas. As a staunch Sylvanas apologist and longtime Blood Elf player, this really does feel like a homecoming. The revamped visuals and Sunwell-centric storyline feel like the perfect plotline for me, and the teased return of Sylvanas Windrunner is, of course, incredibly exciting – especially given Blizzard’s commitment to keeping her just the way she is. Sure, housing has brought that sense of community, while the addon changes throw in some freshness, but Quel’Thalas has that nostalgia: it’s a reminder of why I love World of Warcraft.

In many ways, Midnight itself is that reminder. It feels like the throwback to OG Azeroth that Blizzard has promised, and a move away from the odd multiversal, almost interstellar feel of something like Shadowlands. I’ve been waiting for WoW to excite me again, and Midnight has managed that.

Once again Blizzard has proven that, perhaps, we don’t need a World of Warcraft 2: it can – and will – innovate. It’s a brave new look for a studio that’s often come under fire for being set in its ways, and that innovation in itself is exciting. While Midnight feels like the start of the end of the denizens of Azeroth, it forges a new path for World of Warcraft, and with The Last Titan looming on the horizon, I can’t wait to see how this chapter of the story ends.