I like housing but I don't like what many people want to do with it.

Meaning I don't want player ran cities.  For one, player made cities look bad, because players lack the tools and creativity to create a city anywhere close to what a developer could.  Everyone I have seen has been bland and uninteresting.  Plus players put cities in rediculous places and screw up the landscape.

Two letting players have the power to govern others is a bad Idea I think, because they could abuse it but it generally isn't fun to be taxed or be governed.

I also don't want any architect skill in the game, everyone should be able to design their own house and there shouldn't be a lengthy process to build it, cause it is just pointless in my opinion and completely misses the fun having housing.

I would rather focus on the ability to create the house you want, of course limiting the styles and colors to make it fit in the region.  Houses and guild halls could be built on plots in the suburbs of already established cities, giving enough creative control to the developer so that the city will still look good.

At that rate I don't have a problem with instanced housing, every player could have an apartment from the beginning and could buy a physical house if they wanted and had enough money.

I liked my house in UO because I had all of the crafting tools I needed (and lots of extra storage to boot)

If you didnt have a house you ended up having to go back and forth from the bank to the crafting tool a lot and eventually your bank box would fill up and then you were boned

I remember back in SWG my guild officers came to me one night and wanted to organize several death watch bunkers runs. I gave them the ok and we began the raids while other groups were killing kraiths and such.

Afte a few months, let me tell you that everyone in the guild were proud to display a Boba Fett armor in the guild hall. No one used it but the simple display showed everyone that we had worked hard for it. I loved my city and I think most of my guys loved it… we had a blast

i have no interest in housing.  i've never used it in any games i've played.  i'd log off before sitting around a virtual house.  i'd play the sims if i wanted virtual houses. 

and i always assumed housing was for the RPers and also for PVP/loot whores to show off their trophies.

housing for me in MMOs ranks just above fishing and minigames.

Originally posted by Dibdabs

Housing for my MMO characters ranks about 5,283rd on my "Most desired thing in a game".

This.