Best Player Housing - 2009

April 23, 2009 by Morninglark

Best Player Housing 2009 The following games were considered for this award:

Everquest 2

Ultima Online

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes

Lord of the Rings Online

Star Wars Galaxies

Many other popular games could not be included, because they don’t have player or guild housing.

I decided to write an accompanying blog about what designers could do to make housing more fun and useful in MMORPG’s. I also detailed the shortcomings of current housing. For now, lets get on with the award for the BEST, at the current state of gaming development!

LOTRO came in dead last. The housing isn’t worth the time they put into developing it.

Vanguard’s is nice, but more time and effort than many players would have. You have to actually build the house, after buying many many many many bricks. I don’t want to spend a lifetime building a home. I just want to have one, and put my treasures in it.

Ultima Online gets an honorable mention, for being the first to make housing viable.

That left a choice between EQ2 and SWG. It was a hard decision, because both of them are implemented quite well. Ultimately, I had to choose EQ2 because the housing is within the major cities, and therefore encourages more player interaction. It helps keep cities from becoming deserted. (For more about that read my Dear Designer article)

Here are just some of the reasons that EQ2 wins:

1. You can buy crafting machines and set them up in your home (you must earn the reputation to get good ones.)

2. You can set up items for sale, and access the bazaar right from your apartment. If a buyer makes the trip to your house to buy it, they can save money by not paying the Auction House fees.

3.There is additional storage in the apartments.

4. There are items that you earn in game that become trophies for your apartment, after you have outgrown them.

5. Special quest rewards, holiday decorations, and fun pets add to the fun in the game.

6. Crafters can make very nice displays to sell the items they make. If they place them in special sales containers, they save some of the auction fees. There are even Mannequin’s to display your designs. Using the simple Mannequin at the left, this player created a beautiful room to display her tailoring wares.

An example of a crafter setting up a display

There is a nice mix of quest rewards, faction vendors and player made items. Each apartment becomes unique, and actually reflects the character’s travels and journey through the game. It’s actually like reading a character’s adventure journal. You can walk around and see the trophies, and other accomplishments.

Most important, and the reason that EQ2 wins this award, is they allow the players to have some creativity! You can move things around pretty much wherever you want. You can experiment with using items that are intended for one thing, to do another. You can stack items. If you put an item on a table, and remove the table, the item remains where it was. (floating in the air) This might sound crazy at first, but it lends itself to VERY creative things being done by players.