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Playerhousing

nomadiannomadian Member Posts: 3,490
in The Pub at MMORPG.COM
Apologies for another topic, but just seen this in another thread about the desire for playerhousing. I know this is one of the mentioned appeals of some of the old UO players, but what exactly is the appeal of playerhousing?! I had an appartment in EQ2 or whatever and you could decorate your house and that but I just couldn't see the appeal of it.


Comments

  • AelfinnAelfinn Member Posts: 3,857
    People everywhere have a need to be able to look at something and say "this is mine, this is my place" Sometimes this translates into the game world as well as the real one.

    No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
    Hemingway

  • lyshlysh Member Posts: 14
    Thats because your exprience is from EQ2 housing.  UOs was a little different.  In UO your character couldnt carry a whole lot and buying bags didnt help because the amount you could carry was based on weight.  Houses offered a place to store your goods and treasures.  Also, when you stood next to the wall of someone else's house the roof would dissapear and you could see what was inside, so there was kind of a show off factor to housing as well.  You could see what people had rare items etc. and how they arranged their house.  Some people made some crazy stuff just by manipulating common objects.
  • nomadiannomadian Member Posts: 3,490
    Maybe but still sounds sims'ish. I could see perhaps the appeal of parking a tent anywhere around the world- you know that should be a feature of a future mmorpg, that extra bit of immersion of maybe including resting.


  • lyshlysh Member Posts: 14
    Sims'ish is kind of correct after all a MMORPG is a massivly multiplayer online role playing game.  Your playing the role of a character in a massive online world with lots of other players.
  • bizounce10bizounce10 Member Posts: 101
    runescape, has marvolus house building. Belive it or not.
  • Unknown


    Originally posted by bizounce10
    runescape, has marvolus house building. Belive it or not.

    umm, no...
  • AethiosAethios Member Posts: 1,527

    Originally posted by bizounce10
    runescape, has marvolus house building. Belive it or not.

    The actual building of the houses was about the same as the rest of the game... that is to say, boring and repetative. There were multiple locations, but they were more for convenience than anything else. Since the houses were all placed into separate instances, you didn't have "neighbors," and since people couldn't visit your house while you were away, they really were only for personal satisfaction and game functionality. It was basically just a place to put your portals and store your decorative clothing, maybe build a skill trophy or two.

  • GruntyGrunty Member EpicPosts: 8,657

    From what I know there is only one game, other than Asheron's Call and Ultima Online, that even has enough landscape for housing. And that is Dark & Light


    Edit: Oops there are more. Roma Victor, Irth Online, and A Tale in the Desert all have plenty of room for housing, Not exactly the most popular games around.

    "I used to think the worst thing in life was to be all alone.  It's not.  The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone."  Robin Williams
  • Jade6Jade6 Member Posts: 429

    Player housing in EQ2 kinda sucked, in SWG the houses were actually in the non-instanced world and others could visit them. So it made sense to collect all sorts of items and put them on display there, most people were running their businesses from within their houses so there were always people visiting. When loot consisted of items that were more for show than actual use, crafting remained viable since loot from dungeons couldn't make crafted items obsolete.

  • TheutusTheutus Member UncommonPosts: 636
    home decorating appeals to women.
  • GorukhaGorukha Member Posts: 1,441
      People forget you could also have player shops in UO, another function of player housing.  Also it helped with crafting sincve you could have your own implements in and around your house for your own use.  It kinda made it seem like a functioning virtual world.


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  • paulscottpaulscott Member Posts: 5,613
    wurmonline.  granted everything is player made except for your starting tools and the starting town.

    I find it amazing that by 2020 first world countries will be competing to get immigrants.

  • KyleranKyleran Member LegendaryPosts: 44,088

    Dark Age of Camelot added enormous player housing areas... you had to ride horses to get around them effectively... The system was quite detailed, with everything from small houses to massive mansions.  You could decorate the inside and outside anyway you wanted... You could add valuable crafting stations inside, portals to different parts of the realm and even guild trophies for world dragon kills and what not.

    But the hidden purpose of player housing in DAOC was to remove gold from the game and control inflation in the economy.  You paid for anything you put into your house, and many of the items sold back at a discounts.  More importantly, Rent was charged for the house based on their size...and the large mansions took thousands of gold a week to maintain....

    I'm not a fan of player housing, but this was nicely done and it was fun to have your guild set up a guild hall surrounded by members individual houses.  Some guilds insisted on the same look (outside) so it made for some interesting enclaves throughout the game.

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  • nomadiannomadian Member Posts: 3,490
    Guild housing now that is something I've seen in a mmorpg, forgotten which but it added something. A convenient place to meet all your guildies and hold somethings for the guild. I thought it added an extra 'social' element to guilds.


  • baffbaff Member Posts: 9,457
    The Sims Online does housing.
  • shaeshae Member Posts: 2,509


    Originally posted by Theutus
    home decorating appeals to women.


    Where is SnaKey with that Award when you need him!

    First, Oh ! My ! God !!! I'm going to forgo the feministic tyrade you so richely deserve right now because I'd certainly get my butt warned but C'MON now!

    I don't know if you ever played SWG but guys there went absolutely bonkers over their houses and many were just as detailed and intricate has girls player housing was.

    Personally, I think player housing appeals to many, many people (men and women btw). For some people a feeling of ownership is what attracts them, a feeling of affecting something and working on something over time is another. Often, in game housing can be a place of meeting with others, a place to call home as a guild, it's great fun to say: "Hey friend, meet me at my place and we'll figure out where to go from there."

    It adds an air of civility, of realism. There are so many great points to player housing and none of them are gender specific.

     

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  • docminusdocminus Member Posts: 717
    player housing build communities - by having friends/guildies living "next door" you have a common starting point for adventures or crafting, or making business.
    you can do crazy things like doing parties, auctions, heck, in uo they even make theater plays in houses made only for that purpose!
    in swg you also have the system of politician, where people of a player citiy vote for a mayor who has then rights to decorate the city and do other city business. in the old days politician was a separate occupation, now, every player can become that...




    imageimage

  • nomadiannomadian Member Posts: 3,490
    I guess you have to experience it really, but I guess I can kinda see part of the appeal of it with self-expression and that.


  • d33dd33d Member Posts: 15
    SWG even now still has a fun player housing system where you can purchase or build different sizes/styles of hours and place them anywhere on the main planets that will accept the house.  I beleive the only requirements are that the land has to be flat and needs to be at least 1000m away from a major city.  You can even build or join player built cities.  The best thing now about SWG and housing is that to move your house you can just pick up the deed with all the items stored inside and move it to another location.  The old method was placing a new house and moving all your items from A -> B before you could pick up old house.  Another nice thing about SWG's housing is that you can design the interior with loads of player crafted items and ingame collectible items(paintings, rugs, plants, furniture...) and have full control of the x/y axis for placement.  This is the one aspect of SWG that is still fun for me at least.


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  • AwakenedAwakened Member UncommonPosts: 595


    Originally posted by nomadian
    Apologies for another topic, but just seen this in another thread about the desire for playerhousing. I know this is one of the mentioned appeals of some of the old UO players, but what exactly is the appeal of playerhousing?! I had an appartment in EQ2 or whatever and you could decorate your house and that but I just couldn't see the appeal of it.


    I'm sure you've found your answer from a previous poster already, but I'll try to explain why I liked housing.  UO had a concept different than any other fantasy MMORPG thus far.  It was a world where you could do anything.  Your purpose wasn't to level, it wasn't to kill things, it wasn't to craft things, it wasn't to build things, it wasn't to interact, it was just do whatever you want. 

    So, in a world like that, where you basically create whatever life you wanted to create and did whatever you wanted to do - most people wanted their own house.  It served as a storage, a place to meet up with friends and guildmates (oh and I just remembered, you needed a house to create your own guild), a place to sell things trough vendors, safely craft items, and it was a way to show off for those that owned the giant castes and towers.  Eventually you could customize your housing, which was a really neat implimention with some creative results.

    What greater tribute to free will than the power to question the highest of authority? What greater display of loyalty than blind faith? What greater gift than free will? What greater love than loyalty?

  • Jade6Jade6 Member Posts: 429
    Also remember that trophies and other rare items count as memories... you can just look at them sitting there in your living room and get instantly transported back to the experiences you had when you first came across them, just as in real life. My father is fond of saying that every item in his house is a story; a story which he might forget to share with others who come to visit if the item wasn't on display for a guest to get curious about. I kinda think he has a point.
  • ObraikObraik Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 7,261
    I've spent alot of time on my houses (and Yacht) in SWG getting them layed out the way I like them and collecting the stuff I wanted to finish it off.  Of course, it's not much point putting all that effort in if you can't show it off, which luckily SWG caters for as the housing isn't instanced :)

    image

    image

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