Housing is something great for everyplayer. Star War galaxies had a nice housing system, and this was 10 years ago.
You could give a real sense to the architect.
Even in Skyrim I would spend 1% of my time in my house and 99% out exploring and playing the game.
Just give me an extra storage locker in the guild city and I'll call it home.
Agree 100%.
And for the record, I have been playing RPGs since the late 1980s. But I do not see any correlation between RP and player housing. Player housing would appear to appeal to players who like to do stuff on their own - basically, the same subset of the MMO population which focuses on crafting. This is no doubt a legitimate playstyle, and one which a MMO should cater to if it intends to appeal to a broader audience than competitive PvEers / PvPers.
But there is one major difference between player housing and crafting. Crafting, done right, allows crafting-focused players to interact with the rest of the community. They grind mats which are available in the open world, purchase other mats (in particular, such available only in dungeons / raids, or through pvp) on the trader, process them, and then sell the resulting item.
By contrast, player housing is content where grinding is its own reward. It provides for very limited interaction with the rest of the community, except the occasional showing off of your house to friends. In short, it is content for solo players who don't really care all that much about the "MM" part in MMOs.
Personally I think that AoC does a relatively poor job at catering to solo players. However, I also think that at this stage it is unlikely that any system changes (crafting) or additional systems (player housing) will bring in zillions of new casuals who focus on these game elements. With a view to this, there seems to be little point in spending a lot of FC's limited resources on these systems. Yet if FC decide to do something for solo players, resources are better invested in content which ties in with the rest of the game (crafting, which ofc they did decide to revamp) than on content which has very little bearing on the rest of the game, like player housing.
Rathothis|Tempest of Set || Tigrathes|Dark Templar || Isitnofret|Herald of Xotli
BS|Sin|Demo|Barb|Conq
Sudatorius|Noob barb on Rage
It does not have to be this way. With the same argumentation you could get rid of guild cities, since they have little bearing on the rest of the game.
Sure, it can be done in a way of showing the achievements (if there ever will be some). But it also can be done in a way, where what you said, must not be true and housing has a link to the rest of the game and can be a good resource for rp (bad implementation: high grind effort not linked to other content, like gathering 1000000 basalt. good implementation: link the options to what is done ingame and allow for players visit and trade with each other).
Imo, player customized content will add a LOT to the longevity of any game.
I don't RP. I don't need to play SimHouse. I want player housing for two reasons:
- Achievement system: the more accomplishments, the fancier the house. I don't care if it's customizable (except maybe a few flavors for zone or class); I'd almost rather be surprised by how it grows. Private by default, but put the top 50 on display.
- Utility: travel shortcuts, bank tab, vendors, etc.
Upkeep required to maintain all features, otherwise starts to decay back to starting tiers.
Current HoX: Sandspice (Set) | Heralds of Xotli: LEVELING GUIDE | AA Guide | Faction Guide | Pekka's Gear List | Tafale's Raid Guide
Always up for grouping with other HoXes: grinding, quest assistance, new HoXes, etc.