My mom always told me that I had a very strong nesting instinct, and I guess it’s true. Wherever I’m living, whether permanently or temporarily, I have to make things just so. When I was a kid I’d rearrange my room at least once a week trying to come up with the perfect configuration, and even now I’m never happy on trips unless I get to where I’m staying and can unpack and arrange everything to give that comfortable cocoon feeling.
Since rolling on a new server with no resources in LOTRO, I’ve felt antsy that my character had no home. I know, most MMOs don’t even have housing, but just knowing that it was out there but I couldn’t afford it was driving me mad (a little). I really would love to see Turbine do a pass at increasing rewards for lowbie quests, because they really are pathetically sad. I mean, less than a silver a quest sad. Once in a while you get a slight upgrade in gear, but that’s it. The ironic thing is that the higher up you go in the game, money becomes far more plentiful AND meaningless. Really, what do you use money for in LOTRO as a 75? Gear repairs? The occasional AH purchase? Everything else is tokens and bartering chips and reputation vendors. So the one time in the game you could use more money to get going, you don’t really have access to it.
Anyway, yesterday I managed to cobble together my first gold after a month of scrimping and saving, and that was enough to buy a standard Bree house (I wanted to try something different than my old Hobbit hole) and give it a couple furnishings. I actually kind of prefer the standard houses to the deluxe ones in terms of layout — no huge, mostly empty rooms, but a pair of snug ones with a couple dozen hooks.
While on Landroval I have accumulated most of the housing decorations from events and festivals, my Gladden life means that I’ve got to do that all over again. So my house is pretty bare, although I was pleased to add my trained cave-claw from the Buried Treasure event in the front yard. It’s really one of the better housing decoration items; the little guy has his own cage and he walks around the lawn, curls up, sleeps and twitches. It makes one feel at home.
I even splurged in the LOTRO store for a Dwarven guard to stand duty in my front yard. I call him Stan. Stan the Dwarf.
So now I feel more calm, knowing that I have a little place in Middle-earth that’s mine. Yes, I do wish LOTRO would adapt a much more flexible housing decoration system, but at this point I’m not holding my breath for Turbine to move on that. It is what it is, and for now, I’m content.
The Bree-land houses are nice looking, but I’m really tired of how far it is to travel back to town. I made a server change a while ago and am definitely saving up for a deluxe house by Michel Delving. Almost halfway to 7 gold!!
I’ve had house in Falathlorn for years, but hardly ever go there. I pay my upkeep, but apart from using the chest, I don’t really see much reason to visit. After playing EQ2, I find LOTRO’s housing system painfully limited. The homes are lovely, but I feel like mine looks just like everyone else’s.
It’s funny, buying a house for me in LotRO seems to signal that I will stop playing the game for a time. I started playing in beta and immediately became a Founder upon release, but my highest level character is 40.
I get all into the game, and the epitome of that is buying a house. Then the knowledge of endless rent gets to me, I guess, and I quit. Then when I come back I make a new character and sell off the house. (Yes, I know all characters on an account share the house, but I want it in my current character’s name.)
It’s a very strange cycle, I’ll admit, and one that I want to get away from. Last time I rolled up a Hunter and didn’t buy a house, mostly because she’s not a nesting kind of gal.
But then SWTOR happened.
After playing SWTOR for so long now, I’m looking forward to playing a Rune-keeper with a skirmish soldier friend on the landscape once Update 6 happens.
I have not gotten around to buying another house since I moved my RK over to Landroval last fall. I do like the shire houses, having a port near the festival grounds is great.(mainly for the horse races)
Stan the dwarf! We should start a Facebook page…
Anyways, I love housing in LotRO but I find I rarely use my house. It’s fun for group stuff and to redecorate from time to time, but really it would be nice for them to add new incentives to housing like crafting spots. How cool would it be to have a forge in your yard?
I also agree with what Gina said: the endless rent is rough. In Glitch (my other current fav) you pay once time for a house and then, if you want a new one, sell it for 80% value. It’s nice and provides a lot of flexibility. Maybe something similar could be done in LOTRO: renting for, like Syp, newbs with no money or the ability to buy a house outright when you’ve got some cash set aside.
20g for a big house? I’d pay it.
The best way I’ve found to make gold in LOTRO is selling stacks of Mats to other players so they can power level their trade skills. I also have a Metalsmith who makes a lot of gold because players always want high quality Crafting Tools, even if it’s just a superior Axe or Mining Pick.
I wish LotRO would take a leaf from EQ2′s book. In EQ2, if you fail to pay the rent, the housing remains, but you cannot enter it until you pay that month’s rent. If you take a break or leave the game for a bit, the most you will ever owe is one week’s rent.
In LotRO, I have a locked house I cannot now afford to re-open and probably will not be able to re-open for some time, mainly because I play pretty intermittently. Yet I cannot help but think I would play more often if I knew my house was there waiting for me.
Hey, I didn’t know you were on my server now. Welcome to Gladden! If you want a loan (or a grant; I’m a level 70, and as you pointed out, we have no cash flow worries) send a mail to “Mayda.”
I financed my first (deluxe) house with a full week of ninja-mining Dwarf-Iron on the edges of Trollshaws, occasionally fleeing in terror from purple mobs. Dwarf-Iron ore sold well back in 2008 – I could get 750s to 1 gold for a stack of 100. This was arguably the only time I’ve ground in LotRO. I want that house *bad.*
It’s a funny thing; I happened to choose my MMGs so that – from 1999 to today – I’ve always played one with some form of housing; Asheron’s Call, City of Heroes, EVE, then LotRO. I honestly thought that housing was as much an “of course” MMG feature as crafting.
Rift was the first MMG I played without any housing. It was only after 7-8 months of living like a hobo that I realized how much I hated it. The game never felt welcoming – it wasn’t a place I lived. I had no roots, so when the repetitive content started to bore, it was an easy decision to click the cancel button.
@Aerynne – I completely agree about EQ2′s housing system! That’s the way it should be, especially since LotRO is F2P. The way housing is now in LotRO punishes sporadic players.