Originally posted by Icewhite

Originally posted by FrodoFragins
It seems like this game has no identity.  It's like they are adding different features that people like, but don't really have an overall design philosophy.  I mean, they started out as a WOW clone with a tiny world and so so art (my opinion).  Then they added a third faction and now housing.  I'm not sure trying to be all things to all people is going to work.  The time spend broadening the focus of the game means less time adding content to the original core of the game.

Come on Frod, are you criticizing for being too much like the other guys, or not enough?

I think what we're seeing is a couple of attempts to capture the Disaffected, found here and elsewhere.  We're got a wow clone, that everyone busted our balls for making, we need to go in a different direction.  Why don't we make a few of those things everyone complains the loudest that wow doesn't have?

Rift just lacks its own identity and has from the start.  It's a game that was made to try to grab unhappy WOW players with tacked on lore.  It's just very strange to me how they tack on things left and right trying to grab people.  It's like they have no real vision of their own.

That doesn't mean it's a bad game, it's just the strangest way to design an MMO.

The game is a solo, theme park game.  If you are looking for instanced housing to somehow create a more social atmosphere, well that is just not going to happen.  LOTRO has a much more scaled down instance housing and every single housing instance on every single server is a dead ghost town.

It's not the system that is the problem, it is the direction of the game.

EQ2 also has a very well done instanced housing system and a guild system, and it's the same thing as LOTRO....dead, everywhere.

People solo level, then just play the dungeon finder and log off.

SWG had an open world, free building atmosphere with a player driven economy.....so of course the housing system worked great in that game.

Originally posted by FrodoFragins

Originally posted by Icewhite

Originally posted by FrodoFragins
It seems like this game has no identity.  It's like they are adding different features that people like, but don't really have an overall design philosophy.  I mean, they started out as a WOW clone with a tiny world and so so art (my opinion).  Then they added a third faction and now housing.  I'm not sure trying to be all things to all people is going to work.  The time spend broadening the focus of the game means less time adding content to the original core of the game.

Come on Frod, are you criticizing for being too much like the other guys, or not enough?

I think what we're seeing is a couple of attempts to capture the Disaffected, found here and elsewhere.  We're got a wow clone, that everyone busted our balls for making, we need to go in a different direction.  Why don't we make a few of those things everyone complains the loudest that wow doesn't have?

Rift just lacks its own identity and has from the start.  It's a game that was made to try to grab unhappy WOW players with tacked on lore.  It's just very strange to me how they tack on things left and right trying to grab people.  It's like they have no real vision of their own.

 

That doesn't mean it's a bad game, it's just the strangest way to design an MMO.

An MMORPG's identity is (imo) in the lore, RIFT has a lot of really good lore, but it is all in the game and now days very few read anything in any game.

TSW had an issue that some players found the quest to hard, but this was becouse they did not really read the quest, they just picked up key words and went of that.

When they could not compleat the quest, they started saying that quest in TSW where too hard.

RIFT cloned World of Warcraft in system, which is a EverQuest and Warhammer clone, which are clone of D&D.

Not a bad linage, if you ask me.

Originally posted by koboldfodder

The game is a solo, theme park game.  If you are looking for instanced housing to somehow create a more social atmosphere, well that is just not going to happen.  LOTRO has a much more scaled down instance housing and every single housing instance on every single server is a dead ghost town.

 

It's not the system that is the problem, it is the direction of the game.

 

EQ2 also has a very well done instanced housing system and a guild system, and it's the same thing as LOTRO....dead, everywhere.

 

People solo level, then just play the dungeon finder and log off.

 

SWG had an open world, free building atmosphere with a player driven economy.....so of course the housing system worked great in that game.

Well said.  Until developers stop making MMORPG's solo player games with an instance finder the tread will continue.

Originally posted by Azaron_Nightblade

Originally posted by marcust

It looks good but its no UO.

UO had the same creativity, but in common areas and allowed you to set up vendors (no auction houses) which motivated people to browse around.

Put a subset of this into common areas with vendors and I'd seriously consider it.

 

 

So how does this workl? Can we buy our own instanced area and customize it? :O

If that's the case I think I might actually finally give in and get that game.

I think that is exactly how it works.

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Originally posted by ShenjShimpo
sry to break it for ya buddy but archeage does all that ten times better....

and oO u can build ships too

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Last Game I played that had housing was EQ2 and although it was fairly basic, it adds to much more to the game and the player's experience of the world.  With a system like this, I could get lost for hours just messin around with my own personal space.  Also, it would create a whole new sub profession and classes if people could craft furniature and other objects for dimensions.

I seriously don't see why every mmo developer does not see this as a crucial part of an mmo world.  It's just such a great thing, no matter what type of player you are (pvp, rp, pve, hard core raider, casual gamer) whatever it is, pretty much everyone will find excitement in being able to create their own place of refuge.

Originally posted by marcust

It looks good but its no UO.

UO had the same creativity, but in common areas and allowed you to set up vendors (no auction houses) which motivated people to browse around.

Put a subset of this into common areas with vendors and I'd seriously consider it.

 

 

I remember that, wandering around finiding a hop in a remote area with bargain itesm on it.  Was awesome.

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Originally posted by FrodoFragins

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Originally posted by Icewhite

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Originally posted by FrodoFragins It seems like this game has no identity.  It's like they are adding different features that people like, but don't really have an overall design philosophy.  I mean, they started out as a WOW clone with a tiny world and so so art (my opinion).  Then they added a third faction and now housing.  I'm not sure trying to be all things to all people is going to work.  The time spend broadening the focus of the game means less time adding content to the original core of the game.

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Come on Frod, are you criticizing for being too much like the other guys, or not enough? I think what we're seeing is a couple of attempts to capture the Disaffected, found here and elsewhere.  We're got a wow clone, that everyone busted our balls for making, we need to go in a different direction.  Why don't we make a few of those things everyone complains the loudest that wow doesn't have?

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Rift just lacks its own identity and has from the start.  It's a game that was made to try to grab unhappy WOW players with tacked on lore.  It's just very strange to me how they tack on things left and right trying to grab people.  It's like they have no real vision of their own.

 

That doesn't mean it's a bad game, it's just the strangest way to design an MMO.

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Rifts community is its identity (love it or hate it) And they are the ones asking for all these "tacked on" features. Good on Trion for building a game their customers want. I really dont get the whole tacked on comment. Most of the systems they have added are fairly robust and expand the game. People see what they want to see I guess. Myself included haha

Originally posted by Foomerang

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Originally posted by FrodoFragins

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Originally posted by Icewhite

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Originally posted by FrodoFragins It seems like this game has no identity.  It's like they are adding different features that people like, but don't really have an overall design philosophy.  I mean, they started out as a WOW clone with a tiny world and so so art (my opinion).  Then they added a third faction and now housing.  I'm not sure trying to be all things to all people is going to work.  The time spend broadening the focus of the game means less time adding content to the original core of the game.

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Come on Frod, are you criticizing for being too much like the other guys, or not enough? I think what we're seeing is a couple of attempts to capture the Disaffected, found here and elsewhere.  We're got a wow clone, that everyone busted our balls for making, we need to go in a different direction.  Why don't we make a few of those things everyone complains the loudest that wow doesn't have?

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Rift just lacks its own identity and has from the start.  It's a game that was made to try to grab unhappy WOW players with tacked on lore.  It's just very strange to me how they tack on things left and right trying to grab people.  It's like they have no real vision of their own.

That doesn't mean it's a bad game, it's just the strangest way to design an MMO.

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Rifts community is its identity (love it or hate it) And they are the ones asking for all these "tacked on" features. Good on Trion for building a game their customers want. I really dont get the whole tacked on comment. Most of the systems they have added are fairly robust and expand the game. People see what they want to see I guess. Myself included haha

There has been a very vocal and dedicated portion of RIFT players that have asked for housing since beta.  Trion does try and deliver what its players want.

Thats pretty cool. I wonder if guilds will be able to build in one instance?(kinda sad if no one will ever see your work), also if they add vendors so you can get people to go to your instance would be a nice feature.

None the less the system for building the house, looks pretty damn fun.

I don't plan on going back to Rift, but I gotta say, that's impressive. Instanced or not, it is refreshing to see a developer take the initiative like that and not come up with some BS excuse.

Hopefully and with some luck, this will get the attention of future MMOs and expand upon it.

Originally posted by Hydros13
Sadly it is instanced housing... Wildstar is doing housing above (Literally) and beyond.

That is cooler but really hard to implement in an already released game. The only possibility is really to only allow it in new zones or totally revamp the game.

Nah, for a released game this was probably the best choice, adding none instanced housing would use too much resources from other parts of the game.

Originally posted by Arkain

non-instanced housing maybe good for PvP MMO's like UO, but not for PvE MMO's

If I do not play for a bit, I still want my house there, just the way I left it in a PvE MMO.

And for players that feel there is no point (remember that should end with "to or for  you"), you need to see this: 

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=425022

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=434626

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=448769

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=429601

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=478872

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=425006

 

These are from EQ2, some players relly want and like housing, and for players that put this much in to a house to make it a home (imo) instanced is best (no one wants to return to a MMO if you know that the home you put loving care into will be gone and all of thier items will be creatted up (no one wants to have to do the layout again, if they even can fine a new home, in non-instanced housing MMO)

The pics are from: Nefaria Darksoul, she did Custom Home Designs, and (most likly) not for free.

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=442201

For EQ2 it helped creat/stabilize a player driven economy.

So if you are still saying "whats the point?" the anwser is "Becouse players want it !" and no one ever said: "If this MMORPG ever gets player housing, I'm never going to play again!".

Enjoy it if you want, and if you do not want to use it, well don't, but don't gripe about it being there, in any form.

/drop mic, and walks of stage

First of all, UO was not a PvP game in a sense of Darkfall Online. UO had a great pvp system, yeah, but there was so much more to do, that it would be unfair to reduce it to the term "pvp game".

Second: No one could mess with your house while you were gone. When returning after a break, it would look exactly the same way, as you left it (provided you didn't cancel the sub; if I remember correctly there was a 3-month timer before it went IDOC; so most players resubbed at least every three months).

Well I admit, a instanced housing system is always better than no housing system at all. And I also willingly admit, that there seem to be players, which consider THAT a good housing system. Mainly, I think, because they never experienced a non instanced version.

However, you say "because players want it". I can not confirm this. To me it seems, the majority wants a housing system in common areas. Not only in this forum (they are all hardcore MMO nerds anyways), I see this a lot in LotRO forums too. There are dozens of threads to give the housing system some meaning. And most players I know don't "use" their houses at all. Even kinship houses aren't used frequently.

Lastly, I would like to say that I do not want to spoil this for you! If it sounded that way, I apologize! I am happy for you, I simply wished they would implement a "real" housing system. After Aion that would have been another AAA-game that would have gone down that road.

Everquest 2 was nothing like LotRO except being instanced. In Everquest 2 when I played it people came to my house to buy things all the time. I would get random tells about my home all the time. Plus it was in a busy street and there were people outside chatting too when I played a few years back not too sure how it is now though. It was not in a separate instance like how it is in LotRO meaning an instanced housing area like a housing estate only the house itself was instanced in EQ 2.

LotRO yes I agree the housing areas were indeed dead but EQ 2 had theirs in the towns so there were always folk outside your house who could come in and look at your place at any time or buy things off your shelves and racks and I got tells asking me where I got this and that seriously at least once a week.

I tell you the community behind the housing stuff in Everquest 2 was simply stupendous you could hire folk to decorate or even I myself helped two people make furniture which I collected the materials for and was paid based off people who came to my house and saw stuff they liked and wanted. I think people who have not played this aspect have no idea how very enjoyable and fun and worthwhile this endeavour could be and placing items for sale in the house is a very good way of ensuring people see your place. You will be spoilt for choices and honestly the fun and pride when someone asks about your house knows no equal. If you cannot appreciate this please do not belittle this addition to the game as there are many who find a great deal of fulfillment  in this perhaps niche in roleplaying.

That dragon house is simply awesome and yes the art team who kept designing the vases and lights and furniture in Everquest 2 truly enjoyed what they were doing. You can see that with their work and the various themes with expansions into different cultural areas helped create very varied items to help increase your plethora of choices. I have not seen that amount of artwork with so much variety in any other game. Vanguard was nice too but did not have close to the amount of choices that EQ 2 had and it was on tracts of land that people would not normally be around unlike EQ 2 which had it in the main thoroughfare of Freeport and Qeynos.

Originally posted by Kuppa
Im wondering how many will complain that its instanced.

Most of what I've read of this thread so far are the usual people lamenting instanced player housing - but that's really an over simplification of what this addition to the game is. This is not just "player housing" but your own personal slice of Rift - complete with full design control. Want it sunny....dark and cloudy...it's your choice. Want to build a rock bridge from point A to B - no problem. Build a tree house and add trees? It's all there.

Adding player vendors so that people can also have their own store (future update)  is awesome and is the sole reason I'm coming back to Rift - the extra content with the new expansion helps also :)

There's a reason player housing (personal world space in this "instance" hehe) is one of the most asked for features for an MMO: Not all of us want to do combat ALL THE TIME.

Kudos to Trion - hands down the best dev company atm.

Originally posted by Lurkers
i really want to give rift a try ir there any point in playing it now or wait until storm legion expansion comes out for the new souls ext?

You can play free to level 20 with some moderate restrictions (money cap, rarest gear, mail, etc).