Is too much emphasis being placed in Housing - A poll

Just to get some actual numbers on whether people think too much emphasis is being placed on housing.

 

There have been a lot of posts complaining about housing since the first early release. I can understand the frustration - I'm not in a position where I can afford to put down hundreds of real life dollars for a house in a game that I still haven't even played, and even if I was, housing is a very minor concern for my overall play experience. I'm much more concerned about combat, magic, crafting, quests, dungeons, traveling, etc. If those things aren't to my liking, I'm not putting even more money into this game because I don't expect it to hold my interest. I want to make it clear, though, I have little problem with the emphasis in the first release. I didn't find it particularly interesting, but I understand they were trying to test out some very basic stuff (log in, patching, etc.). I also understand that housing is expected to be a big deal so they're sort of thinking ahead and dealing with all that now instead of later, and because a lot of funding is tied to housing it's important to keep folks interested in what they're paying for. Obviously everything is in very preliminary stages.

That said, let me try to put forth my concerns about the emphasis so far.

My main concern is that there have been fewer updates about magic and combat than there has been about bizarre things like basements for houses. For those who are concerned about houses and decorating, of course you deserve some emphasis, and the basics of housing should be worked out and maybe for various reasons that should come before working out the basics of some other systems. The basics for housing have, in fact, received so much emphasis that in the first release you can experience a wide range of houses. But the very basics of combat are still vague, and we won't get to experience anything about that until the fourth release. It's hard not to read some amount of prioritization into this, hence my concern. Given how much concern I've seen in the forums about the proposed combat system, and how central it is to the play experience for the majority, I would think that would be something they would want to test sooner rather than later to get some feedback.

Maybe the updates we've been receiving aren't representative of how much work is going into combat behind the scenes, and maybe combat just takes longer to develop than things coming in earlier releases (crafting, etc). But I've seen no evidence of this, so I'm very sympathetic to the people with concerns about the housing emphasis.

 

if they had focused on combat first some would say there was too much emphasis on that and where was the housing at the end of the day some will complain regardless.

 

If there were constant updates about pommels of swords (the equivalent of basements for houses, but for combat) and almost nothing about housing, I would agree with those saying there was too much emphasis on combat. It isn't just that housing has come first, it's the weird add-ons that seem very minor yet dominate what we're updated about that worries me.

 

This poll already exists in another thread, but I can't find it, so maybe its time for a new one. I voted "too much". I have a house and so I'm interested in the housing business, but there are mixed messages coming from Portalarium regarding housing. On one end, we've heard that only a small minority of players will own housing, and yet on the other end, we've been told (and have seen) that housing will be a major part of the game.

 

I believe way too much and its clear a lot of the community feels the same. I think the backers are ready to hear more about the actual proposed content of the game now. Lets talk adventuring, bestiary, weapons/armor, character development, magic/combat, terrain, dungeons, and more!

 

Interactivity...genuine "all objects in the world" interactivity. That's what I want to hear and see more about.

 

I think the Dev should focus on whatever features it takes to complete the game. I am sure the features available first are the ones on the schedule and plan to build them game. They are professionals, so I leave the work management to them.

Now for a poll of features that the community puts too much emphasis on...

 

My concern all along with housing is that it seems disjointed. What do you buy and what do you earn? e.g.
Buy housing style x. Earn more "levels" of that house.
Ditto for basement.
Can lots and lot upgrades be earned through growing cities and or wars to take territory.

In an RPG, I expect all things to tie together and have reasons for their existence. If they don't, I can get a house in Sims, PvP in LoL, and look at pretty pictures on the internet.

Also one of the pitches with housing was ties to the local economy. Crafting, vending, raising a farm, location matters to sell stuff. But I don't see that in the houses at all. Where's the stores? Why aren't the mills functional as mills? Should there be taverns or guild halls?

 

As i said in another thread that people did not like, Housing should be separate as all those different styles of houses look daft and do not seem to fit with the rest of the style, How many windmills per hectare are we seeing?, It just spoils the immersion for me.
Player housing in specific towns for housing OK, But game houses for NPC's and questing with cool themed towns with good period styles that benefit the game world, Not Vikings and windmills a gogo please.
If every backer has a house then that's a lot of houses and the game will look ridiculous, When i travel to towns in other MMO's i expect to see new stuff, Not the same static mesh geometry i see in the last town. Stick them all in a Player house instance cause i will not want to visit SotaLegoland.

 

RG's approach to housing- as a vital complement to adventuring, may be unique in computer gaming. I personally found it the single most compelling aspect of UO, all those years ago, and I suspect it, and the general depth of feeling like a "real place" is what kept everyone coming back for ages and ages.

Home is more than just where you end up at at the end of the day. It grounds the adventure, and gives you a sense of actually belonging to the world. You accumulate stuff from your adventures, and these trophies, items, knickknacks add to the history behind your character in an important way that other gams neglect to take into account.

Shroud of the Avatar is doing exactly right by making housing a primary focus, and the place to start building.

It's a wise and intelligent way to build any roleplaying/mmo style of game.

 

Being a homeowner, I agree with most of this, but still, something seems off about making a primary feature of the game accessible only to 5-20% of players.

 

Housing is a big part of the game, RG has said that. They're talking about and showing it because its one of the things they've made some great progress on. There's a ways to go and plenty of other areas to talk about as well in the future. I just don't see the validity in the complaints I guess. Maybe instead just be glad they're making good progress.

 

The housing system set the quality goal for every system, so everyone should have voted "way too little"

 

It's far too early to be worry and complain about what we're seeing the most of. We're only at pre-alpha for crying out loud. Features will go in when they're ready for testing.. not before. Housing is a big deal and a bit easier than combat and crafting. It's only natural a lot of that stuff will show up first. We're testing at this stage.. does it really need to matter to a tester what feature goes in first?

There are reasons for the order of things folks. Release 1 here.

 

It's right for this stage in development, since housing is easy compared to something like PvP, which won't be added/tested until much later in the development cycle. Starr Long, for example, says that PvP is the single most difficult design issue they have.

 

Don't get me wrong...I like having houses here and there in KoA: Reckoning so I can quickly drop extra stuff off or craft stuff.

But that's a convenience feature rather than a high point of the game.

In the end, a single player RPG should be about the adventure, the exploration, and the interaction possibilities offered by the game world. An MMO should also include those elements, although obviously there are other features that will also be expected too. And maybe housing is one such feature...

I dunno...I still hold up Ultima 6 as my favourite game of all time, and the best of the Ultimas as well. And I don't recall owning a house being possible (or necessary) in U6. Granted, there was technically that room in the castle, and I do use that to store stuff (moonstones, Vortex Cube, etc.)...but again: convenience feature.

 

...I don't think it's "clear a lot of the community feels the same" at all. In fact this poll seems to indicate the exact opposite. It's just a very vocal segment of the community that believes it is way too much.

Certainly looking forward to hearing about/seeing all those other systems too! But the housing is the quickest/easiest to get into our hands.



Look at it this way... would you really want them to do a shoddier job putting together combat just to get it into your hands more quickly? Personally I'd rather hear all about unimportant decorative stuff because they have their heads down really working out and polishing the important game play systems. This is all just shiny fluff to keep us occupied while the real intensive work goes on

 

This is the housing test, which is why we see an emphasis on housing. This test lets them work out all the town and housing bugs so that they can give us more, bug free, towns to test other things in the future. The emphasis is on it, because it is the foundation. Patience.

 

Few of the people concerned about the emphasis are talking specifically about this release. It's not just about the release (though of course it makes the issue salient, and has I think acted as the last straw for a lot of people). It's about the constant updates that are all only ever about housing and the lack of information about combat or any of the innumerable other features. Instead of seeing a new house model released every other week, information about basements, and new housing decorations, how about they show us a combat skill mechanics or animation they've been working on? Monsters? Crafting recipes? More basic information on their plans for crafting? This is what concerns me, not the release.