Player Owned Housing

Player Owned Houses (POH) is the latest, largest and most ambitious addition to RuneScape, the massively multiplayer on-line adventure game. It gives subscribers the freedom to own a piece of the game world; to build their house and fill it with hundreds of different pieces of furniture, tools and creatures. This new feature is tied to the release of Construction, a massive new game skill that players will train in to build more impressive houses. Allowing players to create their own houses is a bold new step sure to excite the community, and it is a sign of Jagex's commitment to make RuneScape the most exciting and innovative MMORPG in the world.

The guiding principle behind POH is to encourage players to interact within their houses. Players are able to visit their friends’ houses, and many of the objects that can be built have been designed with player interaction in mind. Players can duke it out in a boxing ring, test their strength against each other, fight their way through dungeons and compete in archery contests. This is only a brief list: there are dozens of games and activities that players can enjoy.

POH gives RuneScape members the ability to 'be their own game developer'. Players will be able to design the layout of their house and garden, the dungeon they can place beneath it, and even the inhabitants. House owners can hire a variety of servants, from a cook to prepare their food to a demon butler that will serve drinks or greet visitors at the door. Dungeons can be equipped with all the gadgets beloved of villains, as well as a whole host of creatures to attack unwary adventurers.

Even the most advanced players, having reached the pinnacle of RuneScape excellence, will find something of interest in POH, as they can work towards perfecting the new Construction skill. This skill is an indicator of a player's mastery of home building and decoration. This skill is at the centre of POH, as the higher a player's Construction skill, the more elaborate and fabulous their home can be.

Every player will find that building their house is a simple process. Each room or garden has a number of 'hotspots' on which the owner can select from a range of fixtures and furnishings. Many of the items that players can put in their house are interactive, and the player can even build items that will help them train or change their appearance. The number of room options and the freedom of layout means that no two houses need be the same.

By opening or restricting access to your home, you can choose to make your house a show home to prove your brilliance in home decorating and garden landscaping, or invite your friends to test themselves against the devious design of your dungeon. We fully expect that POH will rapidly become a fixture of RuneScape, with players hosting parties and dinners for their friends in no time. This expansion to the game is obviously also an expansion to the community of RuneScape members. By giving players the power to control their own wedge of RuneScape, a new subtlety is added to the way the community interacts.

POH is sure to be popular with RuneScape members, and we expect Construction to explode into the game as players explore the new opportunities that it opens up. POH went live on the 31st of May, and RuneScape will never be the same.