Why the needless emphasis on housing?

I think this is an interesting idea, it gives all players the chance to own and enjoy their own homes and the associated game features. And since a lot of the real monetary value of the housing will likely be tied to its multi-player online existence, for vendor placement and the like, it will not lessen the market for ownership of the persistent version of the hosing lot.

 

Single player online feeds from the online world, hence, housing is populated from the online content as well. You can place your own house/lot in single player OFFLINE as your game won't extract contents from the online world. This has already been stated by the dev team.

 

With other words the developers in UO were lazy and what happens now is that out of similar laziness Lord British does not let people have real freedom in design and instead gives them unimaginative canned housing and sells the lack of customization options as a feature.

Personally I would rather see the challenged designs from UO players than the same over and over in all places.

 

I have a newb question: Is there a practical in-game reason for a house other than for decorating?

First things that come to mind:

Do you need to sleep?
Do you need a house to store "things"?
Can you use your house as a defense of some sort vs. other players and NPCs?

I've read the FAQ and am just trying to wrap my head around certain elements of this game. Thanks for any help.

 

It's absolutely something to decorate, which you guess. Part of that also equates to the storing of things, too. Whether on display, or not.

Aside from that, another large piece of home ownership, is simply having something that someone else doesn't have. A house, in a certain location, in a certain town, is unique. No one else has "that" house.

That sort of thing has huge appeal to some people in a multiplayer game, as it helps differentiate them to a greater degree from everyone else.

 

@Loinsworth
As Canterbury said, they are not required in the least to play through the storyline. Their primary purpose is vanity - decorating, showing off one's spoils, etc.

If you are into crafting, some people have manifested an implied pay-to-win facet to home ownership because homes allow you to place vendors on your plot however, DarkStarr has reassured that there are going to be public areas for placing vendors as well. The same applies to crafting stations. Any perceived limitation on these facets is purely speculative at this point as we have not yet seen the housing system in it's finished state; it is still being developed.

There is also a facet to home ownership that grants additional storage. How much additional storage we do not yet know. Nor do we know if there will be other means for additional storage. It has been hinted at, but nothing has been solidly confirmed.

There are rather significant differences between online and offline modes in how housing is handled. Plots are persistent and limited in the online mode, and bear a monthly upkeep cost. If you play the offline mode, there is no competition for plots. There is also no upkeep for plots in offline mode according to the faq.

Ultimately, houses are not required but depending on your play style they may add more enjoyment to the game. If you are an old-school Ultima fan, houses didn't exist and may not have as much meaning to you as they would if you were an Ultima Online fan.

 

@Canterbury @Koldar

Thank you very much for the explanation!