Home is Where the RP Is

[Morreion]

RoleCraft: Home Is Where the RP Is (Warcry)

Above and beyond that base, housing opens the door for a huge amount of roleplaying events. On one end, they can be as grand as hosting large gatherings of friends, family, and guilds, only limited by the size of the house. On the other end, they can be a players' sanctuary, base of operations, and armory, among other things. Houses within an actual RP neighborhood may help facilitate the meeting of roleplayers who, wandering about the wild places of the game world, may never chance upon meeting each other.

I'm a big fan of housing. Housing, outside of any practical features like extra storage, is almost by nature RPish, and it lends itself well to such meetings, gatherings or other events. It's a good way to get people interested in RP, too.

Hibernian guild meeting in a guild house, DAoC

[Rakul]

Personal, and more importantly Guild, houses are very important. They help feed the feeling of belonging, satisfying the need to have a place to call Home!

[Regolyth]

I like housing. I especially liked housing in UO. Well, to an extent.

In Ultima Online, you could build your house anywhere in the world that had enough land clear of trees and rocks. So you could meander out in the wilderness and plop down a plot and begin decorating. Although, that also tended to clutter the landscape a bit. But, it was a different housing experience and I enjoyed it.

[Morreion]

My small stone tower in UO

A guild meeting involving spirits on the roof!

Have to agree about UO housing Rego, it was a great system. It had virtually everything ever thought of housing-wise in the 1990s!

It was a mini-game finding a plot to build your house upon. Some players were real estate agents, finding plots for others. I liked the fact that housing was in the real world there. Sure, some of the housing neighborhoods were very crowded, but with a recall rune it wasn't like you'd get lost. And decorating was very fun. Some players got incredibly creative- remember the fish tanks?

Man, I miss UO. Again.

[Loendal]

I had housing in DAOC for a while, so did my wife. It never got used for much, to be honest. While it does make for a nice place to gather, it also adds to the isolation problem. Roleplay should be public; it is, afterall, the interaction amongst the masses that a) makes it fun and b) attracts strangers and newcomers to Roleplaying.

If you are all tucked away at the far end of a culd-e-sac at the back of the local housing zone, how are you even remotely interacting with the world around you?

I liked UO's housing system too, but it fell into the same trap. It became little more then giant vaults for alot of folks and those of us who were latecomers either had to pay real world cash for a house or millions upon millions of in-game gold. Neither option appealed to me

Housing should be more like UO, but without the limitations. If you want to cut down a forest and plop a house in the middle of it, you should be able to do that. Restricted / dedicated "housing zones" become lag traps. A Tale in the Desert had it right!

[Regolyth]

Haha! Fish tanks! I remember those, and even built one! I had a couple of different houses over time. I think I ended the game with a giant villa (or whatever the next version up from a villa is). I didn't have to pay too much for it. I just was lucky I suppose.

Awww... why do we keep coming back to UO for all things cool and right? This should be a hint to game developers everywhere! UO had the MMO gaming formula right from the beginning, the rest of you just screwed it up (except for RvR)!