I know we've sometimes clamored for a player housing feature to make it into the World of Warcraft, but Blizzard has been adamant about it not being high on the list of priorities. A couple of artists decided that if Blizzard wasn't going to put player housing in the game, they were bringing player housing to players... in real life. Artists Cati Vaucelle, Steve Shada, and Marisa Jahn (Shada/Jahn) managed to con convince MIT's Council for the Arts and a few other gullible generous benefactors into funding a little project called the WoW Pod.

The WoW Pod is described as an "immersive architectural solution for the advanced World of Warcraft player that provides and anticipates all of life's needs". Except, maybe, the need to bathe and not be the target of ridicule. Then again, that was probably the point of this exercise -- to create a self-sustaining gaming cubicle where a WoW player can eschew such gametime-consuming distractions such as bathroom breaks or sustenance. The glorified port-a-potty, patterned after an Orc hut, is equipped with a toilet, a kitchen, and a computer to play Warcraft on.

The fact that they've put a kitchen about a foot above the crapper inside a mostly sealed cubicle didn't seem to pose a problem for the artists, who cleverly integrated a cooking system that communicates with the game. Players simply select a Warcraft-themed instant meal and a computer calculates the cooking time; the player then simply leaves the meal to cook and when it's done, the player's character will inform him in-game. It's the perfect solution for players who want to devote their time completely to playing World of Warcraft, as well as probably losing all their friends and dignity. Check out a video here.

Tags: Architecture, Art, Art-Grants, Cati-Vaucelle, Grants, Marisa-Jahn, MIT-Council-for-the-Arts, Steve-Shada, WoW-Pod, wowpod

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Odds and ends