Why do so many people like "Player Housing"

[dixincide]

TL;DR:

• Why are so many video games implimenting some form of "player housing lately?"
• Why do so many people like player housing?
• Do you like player housing, why or why not?

Final Fantasy did it, WoW did it with Garrisons I just picked up Metal Gear Solid 5 (not sure how I feel about it to be honest) and even it has a garrison/player housing thing to it.


Never in my entire life of gaming have I ever had an interest in playing house with my video game characters.
I'm working on building my own life and my own house, when I play a game it's to play a game, not to watch my character play house.

I'd babysit my little cousin more if I wanted to play house.

Edit since people think I'm trying to bait flame hate
I know I don't like player housing as much as the next person, and it has been around for quite some time.

After reading the responses the way I should have worded my post is this.
Housing has always been a part of these sorts of games but only recently it's been made to be one of the selling points of most modern games; I've never seen the appeal to it (as my original post shows) but I am curious to know what has changed to make it the new focus point for a lot of games lately.

[Deleted]

Personally I don't care about player housing but..I guess people like to view themselves as their characters..and thus enjoy the idea of them having a "home", something to decorate and call their own. Or...real life is shit..so might as well have something pretty that they can call home . Or various other reasons.

[Simulacrum]

Because they like different things than you do.

[Fincayra]

Final Fantasy did with player housing what WoW should have done years ago, make it its own instance, purchasable with gold. You buy a plot and decorate it however you want, and everyone one else can see it. Make it expensive enough and people won't buy plots to troll.

It's Roleplaying, which most people do in this game in some form or another. It's a very attractive part of any MMO.

[tj119]

I never wanted player housing, I was and still an all for guild housing but anything that alienates players in an MMO is negative.

[Moxal]

It's something creative to do in game that you can show off to others. I've seen people sink MANY hours into player housing and love every second of it.

[Deleted]

Same reason why we like to pimp out our houses in real world.

[Justpassing]

It's like different people like different things. Crazy right?

[Every Pwny]

Garrisons aren't player housing. I would like if they implemented actual player housing and the ability to really customize your personal space.

[Fencers]

I'm working on building my own life and my own house, when I play a game it's to play a game, not to watch my character play house.

That's merely your view on the subject. Other players might enjoy playing a game that allows one to essentially play dollhouse. There is nothing wrong with this anymore than there is implementing fishing, pet raising or go-kart racing.

Play encompasses a lot of things in and out of gaming. Those games with player housing are simply giving players another play option.

[Echo of Soul]

WoW did it with Garrisons

WoW did NOT do it with Garrisons. It's so far from what we asked for so it might as well had been a giant bag of poo, which it kinda was. It's like when we asked for shorter gaps between expansions and Blizzard somehow thought we asked for shorter expansions. It's like they don't listen AT ALL.

No housing is not the same as Garrisons. Think more like The Sims, that's housing. And not at all what we got.

[Deleted]

TL;DR:

• Why are so many video games implimenting some form of "player housing lately?"
• Why do so many people like player housing?
• Do you like player housing, why or why not?

Final Fantasy did it, WoW did it with Garrisons I just picked up Metal Gear Solid 5 (not sure how I feel about it to be honest) and even it has a garrison/player housing thing to it.


Never in my entire life of gaming have I ever had an interest in playing house with my video game characters.
I'm working on building my own life and my own house, when I play a game it's to play a game, not to watch my character play house.

I'd babysit my little cousin more if I wanted to play house.

I'm not sure they do.

I'm sure its a feature people wax lyrical about, and I've seen some really good creations in games that allow creativity, people like building stuff. But I'm not convinced its such a big deal as people make out.

Personally I'm not bothered about it at all. Its nice in Rift, where I can make odd creations, but otherwise I tend to avoid it.

[unbound]

Calling WoW's garrisons player housing is like calling the shed in the backyard an actual house. It is a pale imitation of the actual thing it is trying to be.

Player housing is about the RPG element (which Blizz has been slowly eliminating from the game). Many people want to be in a universe where they are their own unique hero to the extent possible. Good player housing is about the ability to customize the property and a variety of elements on / within the property.

I don't know anyone that treats player housing as "playing house with {their} video game characters". That concept is nothing more than a straw man for you to knock down. Feel better knocking down straw men?

[Faroth]

On some level, MMOs have an inherent appeal to show off a little bit. It used to be people wearing the hardest to get gear from the hard raids had a level of prestige and, despite arguments, that did give other players something to look at and go "man, that's pretty cool" while the person wearing it could show off and said "this, this is me. Me is awesome."

Over time as accessibility has increased, housing offers a different way for players to make their own mark and essentially have something in game to show off as "this is mine, this is me in this game." A lot of these games let you display trophies you obtained, or your guild obtained, from difficult content. I'd still like FFXIV to add a basement vault/trophy room with displays to put armor and weapons on, though.

I wouldn't say Metal Gear Solid is utilizing a housing feature, though. Building Motherbase is more like a miniature simulator. Assigning recruits to different jobs in order to access weapon upgrades, item upgrades, field intelligence. Things you do in the game earn resources to expand the base to support more staff to upgrade items further or access new ones. That said, it's not new for Metal Gear either. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker came out in 2010 and had this.

And the idea of housing in MMOs isn't terribly new either. You could buy a house in Ultima Online. Though like others have noted, Garrisons aren't really akin to player housing. A player housing equivalent garrison would have, however, been pretty badass.

That said, having now experienced FFXIV's system, I have to agree that guild housing is much more interesting than player housing to me, giving the guild something to work on collectively.

[Resheph]

"lately'? Housing has always been a staple for MMO's, see Everquest, Lotro, swtor, etc etc. Warcraft launching and continuing to be without player housing is the big exception.

Op might not be able to transform himself in the "casual" mindset, but MMO's do not only appeal to the uber-cool-raiding-alpha-player, but also, en masse, to people that just like a virtual fantasy world to play in. And player housing is an integral part of that for many.

I personally love player housing, not least for all the fun new profession and rare drop decoration opportunities.

[Archangel Tyrael]

Because they like different things than you do.

That's quite a shitty reply, seriously.

He's asking WHY they like those things, what makes them want to have player housing.

[Joey Ray III]

I do like it as long as it makes sense within the game. So no fancy villas for my WoW characters cause that'd be silly. But a Garisson with some actual customization to fuck around with, I'm all for it.

[Deleted]

I don't know. I've never met anyone who was bothered by it.

[unholytestament]

I'm working on building my own life and my own house, when I play a game it's to play a game, not to watch my character play house.

Where have you hung the heads of the dragons you've slain? Where is your huge ornamental throne? Got a moat?

Player housing is as much about "playing house" as getting new gear is about shopping and playing dress up.

[Simulacrum]

That's quite a shitty reply, seriously.

He's asking WHY they like those things, what makes them want to have player housing.

It was meant to paralell the question asked by the OP, obviously.

There are dozens of very obvious reasons why people want player housing, with no doubt countless forum threads having been created over it even just on this very forum. It's pretty clear from the OP that he's not interested in an answer as much as deriding people who enjoy it, with half the OP dedicated to baiting people into flaming him.