Enough posts of doom and gloom – anyone who has followed me for the past 6 years knows that it’s not my typical style of writing, and I really don’t enjoy it. Today I want to talk about one in-game aspects that I absolutely love and wish more games would incorporate – housing.
Out of the games I have played EQ2 and EQ have some of the best player housing. Note that I said of the games I have played because I realize there are a few other older ones that have done it quite well too. I really like the fact that players can “own” a little piece of the game and personalize it; beyond their player characters. Even if you’re not really interested in housing chances are you’ve at least attempted some decor and have a storage space set up. Or gotten a friend to decorate for you.
EQ2 and EQ even take this one step further by allowing you to display trophies that you’ve collected in your battles. Turning weapons into house items that can be mounted on the walls. Trophies of raid encounters that you can display in your guild hall. I don’t like LotRO’s housing as much as I do EQ2 and EQ simply because they don’t really let players be creative. They allow you to “hang” furniture on hooks which are set out in specific locations across the house. Sure, it’s customizable in what you actually put in each spot but don’t expect any unique home creations that way.
Yesterday I felt the housing bug creep up on me. It’s the one thing that I can’t seem to find in any other game I play to such a satisfying degree. Could I play EQ2 JUST for the housing? That seems a little silly to me. I meandered around EQ1 looking at all of the homes that have gone up since House of Thule has been live. Wow. Some amazing creations by some talented players. I saw everything from wedding chapels to garden gnomes to GIANT garden gnomes. Walled in yards, fountains, a lot of wandering house pets, I saw it all.
Couple that player generated content with the books that EQ2 added some time ago and you have yourself one very vibrant role play community. I absolutely love these player written books, I must, since I own over 300 of them written by various authors. We need more of this stuff in our games. That’s what helps separate our Single player RPG’s from the MMO’s and gives them life.
Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!
I agree. I love player housing! While I’ve only played a little EQ2 over the years, they did a nice job with their housing. I spent more time in LotRO with both guild housing and my own personal hobbit hole. I loved crafting things for my home and decorating. Not sure why more games don’t work to incorporate at least guild housing. It gives you something to do when you want to spend time in game but not necessarily in the mood for active questing and such.
When I started playing EQ2 I didn’t even know there was housing. When I learned about it I thought: “Nice, but .. not for me. Looks like it is boring and pointless”.
Then I got my first house and I had a blast decorating it! My three-room Kelethin home soon got too small, so I bought the biggest house in Freeport I could get and spent hours and hours placing furniture and decorations, visited countless houses to marvel at what people did with their homes and collected everything I could to put in my house.
Never thought, I had it in me, but housing definitely is one of the coolest, greatest and most rewarding features in EQ2 or any game. And I miss it a little, too.
Now that, is a fantastic idea. Like I’ve been saying in all of my posts, I have no issue with RMT or the station market or anything like that, my issues revolve around the fact that I already pay $14.99/m and dislike having to pay extra on top of that. Playing a free-to-play (or Freemium) version of the game gets rid of that issue, and in fact I lower my expectations a great amount because hey, it’s “free”. Wrong way to think? Maybe. But it would satisfy those housing cravings I have.
So tonight I created Stargrace on the EQ2X server. We’ll see where this adventure goes.
Incidentally, you can also play EQ2EX just for the housing for free with surprising success. Your expansion accesses carry over from live, so you can get at all the crafted housing stuff. Many of the other furniture items come from world events that are available to a very low level character. Yes, you’ll need to obtain the minimal gold needed to purchase the home, and yes, your bagspace will be limited, but those are relatively small prices to pay for getting the best housing system on the market without paying a dime (regardless of whether you’re doing so to avoid giving SOE any money as a matter of principle).