Why have player housing?

Dear Designers,

Today I want to talk to you about player housing in MMORPG’s. Many developer’s have decided to ignore housing as unimportant, yet they spend thousands of dollars marketing to the female marketplace.

I will give you a hint. (some geeky programmers just don’t know how to get a girl) Give us a cute little apartment, complete with a way to do crafting. Throw in a few house pets, and a Christmas tree, and you will get the chicks!

All kidding aside, I keep paying for my EQ2 every month so I can log on now and then, and decorate my house for the right season. I keep a second cheap apartment from one of my alts, and store the seasonal items there. Even if I am not playing the game, I find time to switch out my Halloween decorations, for my Christmas trees and Stockings.

I also spent a lot of time collecting enough little kittens to represent all my grandkids, and named them after each one of them.

I never realized how much I enjoyed the apartments in EQ2, until I recently started playing LOTRO.  I began saving right away for a house. I bought one at level 14. (I took an entire week off from leveling and did nothing but grow vegetables to sell them, just to get a house) LOTRO is the case study of what NOT to do when designing housing!

I was very disappointed with the lack of usefulness and creativity. You can only place an item in designated spaces in the home. There is no way to do anything creative. They have very little when it comes to decorative accents, like chessboards, or playing cards. There is no way to get swords or other adventuring gear made into trophies for your home. (you can get a goldfish mounted…so of course every home has some kind of mounted fish.) There are vendors in the instance that sell crafting items, but no crafting area. Not sure who thought that was a good idea.

There is a vendor that sells furniture and paint for your walls, in direct competition, with player crafters. I thought that was not well thought out. Basically, LoTRO did not create a particularly useful or fun player housing environment. They are instanced towns, with standalone houses. This pulls folks away from the major cities. The only reason I will keep a house in LOTRO is to have the shared storage for my alts. (It’s annoying having to mail things back and forth to yourself.) At least now I have a crate to put things in, but that could have been accomplished with a shared bank bag.

So what did EQ2 do different? Why is it more fun, useful, and creative?

I can sit and quietly read through the items for sale in the Auction. I can make notes, and even post new auctions right from my room. Visitors can make my pet kittens do tricks.

First, they made the apartments instanced within major cities. This might not sound any different than instanced housing areas, but it is. When accessing your home, you are in a city with other players. If players want to buy things from you, instead of paying the broker fees, they can go to your apartment and buy it directly. When you zone out of your apartment, you are in the city. All players end up back in the major cities, instead of some instanced zone. This leads to cities being alive with players of all levels. They do not become ‘ghost towns’, as they have in many other games. The crafting vendors, transportation, brokers, mailboxes and everything else are just a step outside your door.

Second, they made the apartments useful and affordable. In fact, you get one for free, when you finish the newbie tutorial. It offers additional storage, and a place to hang a cork board, and interact with the brokerage house. You can earn reputation with crafters guilds, and eventually buy crafting machines for your apartment. Your friends can come in, and get a bite to eat. (many of the decorative food accents like the eggnog bowl actually allow a player to take food and drink from it)

The paintings are all memories, the food is often able to be clicked on and used by visitors to get a snack. The music boxes and statues speak or play music.

Most important, they made them fun! (I know I have said this before, but I play games to have fun..first and foremost) The ability of a player to be creative, and display items that they have earned should not be overlooked by designers. (Please read my award post to see what other creative players have done) When I did a quest for some fabled boots with my friends, it was difficult. I loved the boots, and was proud to wear them! Sadly, eventually you outgrow those level 20 boots, and in most games they are sold to a vendor as yesterdays trash. But in EQ2, I could visit an NPC, and have them made into a trophy for my home. A pair of boots, proudly sitting next to my fireplace, to remind me of the raid my friends helped me with.

Likewise, I was given a painting when I first started EQ2, for being a previous EQ player. I was allowed to choose which one had memories for me. That painting of Lady Vox, is hung over the fireplace. It serves to remind me of many years, and many fun raids with great people. Many of the quest series in the game award trophies, statues or other memorabilia…and it becomes Bragging rights. If people enter your home, then they KNOW you completed that quest. There are even shrines, where I can choose to buff myself before going out to hunt.

So designers, take a good look at EQ2’s housing..then improve upon it.

Find a viable way to make guild houses have more usefulness. A place for all to meet and congregate.

Try to realize that players invest a lot of time in character building. The fun –  well it’s in the journey.

I like being able to have items from my travels displayed for all to see.

I prefer to have a talking statue recount my adventure to all who enter, than a title that says wolf slayer!

(Oh and in case you think this is just for us girls…)

This is a picture of a male player’s apartment. He likes displaying his old weapons and armor. These are his trophies..his bragging rights!

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