What ever happened to this feature? It seems like modern MMOs have totally given up on this. What a shame! I love player owned housing. My wife and I kept our DAoC accounts for at least 6+ months extra solely because of our house. I wrote a blog post about this recently - focusing mainly on what people want from a player housing system. Little House on the Internet: What You Want from MMO Housing So what's the deal? Why has this feature disappeared? What would you want from this kind of game feature? [Edited by - Cambios on January 27, 2009 9:00:49 PM]

Personally, I don't see the point. If you want that, why not play The Sims? If I'm playing an MMO, I want to go out and raid dungeons, kill monsters, rescue maidens, and level up. I can screw around with my own house in real life.

Who has time for a tea party? The orcs are invading!

And, Second Life lets you buy up land and put whatever you want on it.

The few games I've played where I had a house, the house usually had no function, or its only function was to increase storage space. And SIMS2 is the only game I've played where the appearance of the house was satisfactorily customizable (although really buggy x_X )

I like a house that does something, like having a garden for growing plants, tanks or barns for breeding creatures, and crafting benches without which you cannot do any crafting; although crafting publicly together with other players in games like WoW is also kindof fun.

My number1 desired feature of a house in an MMO, though, would be that it does not exist in a permanent location, instead it is shrunk in my backpack or following me around like a bubble, and I can plunk it down on the ground anywhere there's enough room to invite a friend in or do some crafting.

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Original post by Daaark Personally, I don't see the point. If you want that, why not play The Sims? If I'm playing an MMO, I want to go out and raid dungeons, kill monsters, rescue maidens, and level up.

Virtual worlds can support multiple playstyles. Combining different types of players actually makes the game much better.

If you're travelling the world questing and slaying monsters, you'll never really go 'home', if anything you'll stop by towns and crash in an inn.

I only see the home space as a place to store long term items or use as a social space.

*reads the comments on the blog entry* Ooo gear dummies with the ability to 1-click equip that outfit is an awesome idea! Do Want, even independently of houses this would be a great feature in any MMO dress-your-avatar interface.

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Original post by evolutional If you're travelling the world questing and slaying monsters, you'll never really go 'home', if anything you'll stop by towns and crash in an inn.

That also probably promotes easier mass social opportunities than if you were to isolate players in their own private homes. If the main focus of the game is on its massive social aspect, then implementing private housing probably won't help that much - it just becomes an extra fun feature that takes additional resources to implement.

Storage could also be done in a bank, which we see in many MMOs.

The whole point of this genre is that you are a wandering adventurer, traveling from land to land, having all kinds of adventures while your legend grows across the globe. The entire level progression is to start somewhere and progress through different areas, until you are at the end, and couldn't be any further than where you started.

Any character who is in a series of these stories is never even in the same place twice. Every story they are entering a new village, or washing up on some mysterious shore, and being told about the local evils.

There is never a home, only the next location on the never ending journey.

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Original post by sunandshadow My number1 desired feature of a house in an MMO, though, would be that it does not exist in a permanent location, instead it is shrunk in my backpack or following me around like a bubble, and I can plunk it down on the ground anywhere there's enough room to invite a friend in or do some crafting.

I remember how Ultima Online did its housing - its sort of like what you are describing here, except instead of mobile housing, players use teleportation scrolls to go back and forth (and also invite their friends) from their current adventures into their own private properties. The thing about this though is that you have to make a lot of gameworld territory for your players to claim.

I think a playerhouse system in an MMO could work well. I originally designed a playerhouse system that would be incorporated into an online rpg in a way that made sense and gave the houses a purpose.

For starters, everyone gets a house the moment they start playing, in fact, the game starts with your character waking up in your house. The houses are generated just as the player's character is generated. No need to make the players work countless hours to build up enough supplies to build the house or pay for it. Also by giving a player a house at the start, you give them something on the server they can call their own, and it allows for other systems to be set in place that would actually be used.

One such system is mail. With every player having a house, mail actually has a purpose. Mail could be part of a quest, as in maybe you get letters from npcs that will send you on quests. Maybe you get gifts from npcs. Players can send letters and gifts to other players as well. Each player having a house also allows for customization and opens the doors for furniture, house remodeling, etc... which can add more content to your game. Maybe as a reward for a quest you'll get some fancy new table to put in your house, instead of a bundle of hams or something more useless. This sort of borrows from games such as Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing.

The house could have many functions such as a place to cook/farm/sleep/store items/hold private meetings/show off wealth...

Each player owning a house might be a concern when it comes to space limitations... but I came up with the solution of having players live on a seperate island. The player could then ferry from the main island to their home (either for free or at a cost). This way each player got their own personal level and house to call their own. (note: the ferrying was pretty much instantaneous. meaning you get on the boat and withing a few seconds it fades to you arriving at your house... no reason to make people sit on a boat for 10 minutes)

All you need to do is give people a reason to use the house more often and it can serve an actual purpose.