Originally posted by Crisazgo

Has there actually been any recent mmo's with housing? I kind of miss it from daoc.

Lord of the rings online has housing. Not wonderfull but working and nice.

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Originally posted by Vhaln
Would play if required / optional?  Was that distinction really necessary?  Sorry, no, I'll only play an MMO that forces me to use housing?  Or did I misunderstand?

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Originally posted by lizardbones

 

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Originally posted by Vhaln
Would play if required / optional?  Was that distinction really necessary?  Sorry, no, I'll only play an MMO that forces me to use housing?  Or did I misunderstand?

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What if the housing is tied to your character's progression? In order to craft gear, you have to buy a house. Games like Farmville have housing as the method of progression and there's nothing else (except multilevel marketing, but we're not talking about good vs evil here).

What's interesting (to me) is that by and large, people like the idea of player housing. However, having a choice about the housing (it's optional) is more important than not having a choice in the matter. I would assume that this is because while players like housing, they may not like a specific implementation of housing and would rather not deal with housing that they don't like.

 

right.

It dosent have to be an option between 'completely optional with no impact on my character' and 'required for character development'. Something in between.

For example in games with good crafting being a crafter is not required but it does help your game play experience in all other areas of the game as well. As it is most housing is 100000000000% disconnected from the rest of the game play.

So if someone said 'would you like housing that is intergrated with the rest of the game play' I might be inclided to say it depends but in general terms I would be far more inclined to say 'yes'

Originally posted by wrightstuf

Originally posted by Rabenwolf

Originally posted by wrightstuf

housing i would put at the least of importance. the idea of a house in an MMO seems silly, since most are combat oriented.  i think housing is fine in an MMO like the Sims online or some other cutsey kiddie game...gee, lets play house!...not, lol. why on earth would you want to stand around staring at 4 walls in an MMO?

Would you put character creation and customization on the same level you view player housing? From design standpoint, they are practically the same. They offer the same result and intention, the ability to create something the player calls their own. It is entirely seperate from "combat", which does not require character customization much less unique character creation. I mean its like saying wanting new armor or a different color of gear, or a different hair cut from the other guy is askin to playing dress up.

Look at a mmorpg, find the things that pull you to it, keep you invested in the game. Most of them will be design choices which make you care about your character and what you have earned or can do with what you earned in that game world. The player house is just one piece of that entire concept. It is a set of assets which you create, customize and earn, which can or cannot have a gameplay modifier attached to it thereby even making it worthwhile in other challenge mechanics.

Its is as important or rather as impactful as creating, even with the illusion of choice, a custom character and seeing a change in gear as a sign of progression or the illusion of progression. Half of game design is about smoke and mirrors.

 

your comparison is not valid. i cant consider housing and character customization even remotely connected in an MMO. ..can i wear a house while i run around? uh, no. Can i look cool while i run around and do my thing, yes. that said, i put customization fairly high up,

from what i gather from the posts here are that most people like housing for storage or some other utility...any of which can be done ingame by some other method.

 playing house is for 4 year old girls. might as well grab your dolls too while you're at it

 

lol this guy kills me. "Youre a nerd for playing sims, I am cool for fighting stuff!" LMAO made my morning. The irony is awesome.

Originally posted by ignore_me

Originally posted by wrightstuf

Originally posted by Rabenwolf

Originally posted by wrightstuf

housing i would put at the least of importance. the idea of a house in an MMO seems silly, since most are combat oriented.  i think housing is fine in an MMO like the Sims online or some other cutsey kiddie game...gee, lets play house!...not, lol. why on earth would you want to stand around staring at 4 walls in an MMO?

Would you put character creation and customization on the same level you view player housing? From design standpoint, they are practically the same. They offer the same result and intention, the ability to create something the player calls their own. It is entirely seperate from "combat", which does not require character customization much less unique character creation. I mean its like saying wanting new armor or a different color of gear, or a different hair cut from the other guy is askin to playing dress up.

Look at a mmorpg, find the things that pull you to it, keep you invested in the game. Most of them will be design choices which make you care about your character and what you have earned or can do with what you earned in that game world. The player house is just one piece of that entire concept. It is a set of assets which you create, customize and earn, which can or cannot have a gameplay modifier attached to it thereby even making it worthwhile in other challenge mechanics.

Its is as important or rather as impactful as creating, even with the illusion of choice, a custom character and seeing a change in gear as a sign of progression or the illusion of progression. Half of game design is about smoke and mirrors.

 

your comparison is not valid. i cant consider housing and character customization even remotely connected in an MMO. ..can i wear a house while i run around? uh, no. Can i look cool while i run around and do my thing, yes. that said, i put customization fairly high up,

from what i gather from the posts here are that most people like housing for storage or some other utility...any of which can be done ingame by some other method.

 playing house is for 4 year old girls. might as well grab your dolls too while you're at it

 

lol this guy kills me. "Youre a nerd for playing sims, I am cool for fighting stuff!" LMAO made my morning. The irony is awesome.

its even deeper than that.

its:

playing houses is for 4 year old but I want cool looking gear on my toon.

Originally posted by fenistil

Originally posted by GTwander

Originally posted by dreamscaper

I'm far less likely to give a game a chance if there's no housing. There's very little reason to not have them, and they add so much. It boggles my mind that WoW still doesn't have any form of housing.

Blizzard is best at telling people "my way, or the highway" and having them eat it up.

+1

 

It does not have because someone counted that it will not bring profits as big as investing into making more dungeons / LFG tools / arenas or marketting.

Maybe in 5 years when WoW will be much smaller game playerbase wise then will add some kind of instanced housing in order to sell some decorational and other stuff like that in cash shop.

Or maybe it will never get any.

Does not matter to be honest since there is no way to make housing meaningful in WOW and put in into open world.

So it would not matter anyway.

Actually Mists Of Pandaria will introduce player owned farms... +1 step closer to housing?

Originally posted by Shariest

Actually Mists Of Pandaria will introduce player owned farms... +1 step closer to housing?

Maybe, but it would just be as much of a misrepresentation of the Eastern player demographic than it already is.

Frankly, I find the whole xpac insulting, and it's likely that many Chinese players will too.

Housing is a fine addition to any game, I like it. But it is by no means a "requirement" or "essential", for me at least. There are more "defining" features in a game for me, housing isn't top on the list.

Originally posted by Shariest

Originally posted by fenistil

Originally posted by GTwander

Originally posted by dreamscaper

I'm far less likely to give a game a chance if there's no housing. There's very little reason to not have them, and they add so much. It boggles my mind that WoW still doesn't have any form of housing.

Blizzard is best at telling people "my way, or the highway" and having them eat it up.

+1

 

It does not have because someone counted that it will not bring profits as big as investing into making more dungeons / LFG tools / arenas or marketting.

Maybe in 5 years when WoW will be much smaller game playerbase wise then will add some kind of instanced housing in order to sell some decorational and other stuff like that in cash shop.

Or maybe it will never get any.

Does not matter to be honest since there is no way to make housing meaningful in WOW and put in into open world.

So it would not matter anyway.

Actually Mists Of Pandaria will introduce player owned farms... +1 step closer to housing?

I just assumed WoW had housing already but I am to understand that EQ2 has actually had housing much longer than WoW. That is amazing. I mean to me EQ2 is fairly weak game in these areas making WoW even weaker.

I really like housing, but don't need it in my game.

The thing is that while I really do like the idea of housing, (if implemented well) if the game is fun to play, I'm probably not going to be in my house often enough to make it a neccessary dynamic for me. I'll probably be out adventuring.

HOWEVER... What I think is important in MMO's what makes a game great is a wide spectrum of lots of different kinds of players. That makes it interesting to play. I don't want to be in a game world where I only meet people who want to do what I do. The more types of player, the deeper the game play is. One of the problems I see in MMO's is the idea that if there is a game dynamic I don't like, it shouldn't be in the game. I hate that sentiment. Even if I didn't like housing, I want the kind of people who do like housing in my game. I may not care about a deep and complicated crafting system, but the people who do care make the game world a better place to play in. Same for PvP, RP, and PvE. Put it all in there and get lots of different people playing together to make a vibrant and dynamic community.

It is fun and something to do, but it doesn't make or break a game. I could honestly care less if it was in game or not. If the gameplay isn't there, the game is going to suck ass if there is player housing or not.

Also, instanced housing is pretty *yawn*, like in FFXI/FFXIV. Would much rather see houses being built in the open world like Horizons/SWG/Vanguard/etc. Much more interesting that way.

Yay!  A Muffin button!  You know you would press it even if the planet were exploding.

 Heh , everyone I know plays a game , or in this instance a MMO , to kill stuff , to quest , to play with others.  When it comes to housing though nobody cares , no one uses it since it's a waste of time by the devs that could of been added elsewhere to polish the game even more.  My point in all of this , is that housing shouldn't be a key project when working on releasing a new MMO or multiplayer game.  Throw me some contents and gameplay features anyday , once that's settled , work on housing. Seriously if housing is such a concern for people then please go play minecraft or monopoly and stop moaning about houses.

Originally posted by SEANMCAD

I just assumed WoW had housing already but I am to understand that EQ2 has actually had housing much longer than WoW. That is amazing. I mean to me EQ2 is fairly weak game in these areas making WoW even weaker.

Funny thing about that... back when I was part of the WoW beta process (2004 I believe) they had already planned to release a player housing feature either at launch or soon after. In fact you were able to see the entrances to the player housing portals in both Stormwind and Orgrammar, though blocked off. I think since then they have removed those blocked off entrances.

Housing in a game has no bearing on whether or not I play a title, so sure, if its around I'll dabble with it, but entirely optional in my case.

The exception being if housing is related to territory control, sieging and what not, then I'm all for it, but the standard cosmetic housing in most games holds little appeal.

I am completely neutral on the housing issue. My ex spent a lot of time decorating in UO and EQ2, but I hardly ever went "home" except to leave junk there or pick up junk I'd left there. 

I voted Muffins since it's completely irrelevant as far as my interest in the game goes. It could be a pretty fun addition to a game that I already enjoy though, but the question is that if it's worth the trouble?

Originally posted by GTwander

Originally posted by Shariest

Actually Mists Of Pandaria will introduce player owned farms... +1 step closer to housing?

Maybe, but it would just be as much of a misrepresentation of the Eastern player demographic than it already is.

Frankly, I find the whole xpac insulting, and it's likely that many Chinese players will too.

I think that the lack of education might be reason behind what problems you have with xpac... I remember from my history classes few years back, that only peaces of history regarding to eastern culture was when it was "conquered" by explorers in... 1800 something? (Bad memory for years :))

But after watching some videos about Beta stages of MoP i can't see anything insulting, which propably comes from being unfamiliar with the subjects. I can only notice the traditions i know. (Like respecting elders). The things you find insulting must be result of Blizzard trying to touch the Eastern world, without losing so many of the Western fans. I think that Blizz did this by humour, as i find the Xpac more filled with jokes.

But ima a little puzzled, what do you find insulting in this expansion? Again can't really say anything from the lack of knowledge, but would love to hear your opinion

*Any grammatical errors are likely to be included*

Originally posted by Shariest

But ima a little puzzled, what do you find insulting in this expansion?

The whole xpac is aimed at the Asian demographic and features panda-people, drunken-boxing panda-people.

I can see Chinese reviews right now saying, "oh, this is what they think of us". It's cliche to the point of stereotyping.