First things first: “Wild” starts looking really funky if you stare at it for some time. Weeeld? Is this Welsh now? Huh.
Anyway.
WildStar’s going to have housing.
This is the part where I stand on my chair, pump my fists to the heavens, and start improvising a cheer until I am stopped by concerned family members and/or the local law enforcement.
Few things get me as excited about a game than hearing that there will be player housing for it. For whatever reason, many of the MMOs I encountered in my journey to this day seemed to eschew housing as some sort of rarely-used, shameful relic of the past. I remember always being incensed at Blizzard for not only neglecting a housing system — because arenas were so much more important — but how the devs constantly knocked such a system when asked.
So screw ‘em. Forget every game that decides that giving players a home-away-from-home in the world is less important than a brand-new 24-person raid. I’ve got WildStar now.
WildStar keeps on hitting all the sweet spots in my sphere of personal interest. I really dig the lush cartoony graphics, the sense of humor that pervades the entire project, and the concept of tailoring the game experience to the player’s focus instead of vice-versa. But systems like housing are going to be the cherry on top of this sundae that make me praise it even more.
I know, we’ve got a long way to go before reviewing it, and housing may be an unused turd. Still, from the FAQ and video, we can extract a few very important facts:
- You don’t just get a house, you get a plot of land as well
- You have to clear your land and then build your house yourself
- There looks to be scads of customization
- Some houses are on the ground, some in the air (is this so houses can be non-instanced?)
- There will be purpose and use to housing besides just decoration
Don’t get me wrong — decorating and shaping your virtual home is a lot of fun for those of us who enjoy this sort of thing. But the next logical step is to give player housing a purpose beyond merely looking good so that players have a reason to go home, engage in activities, and visit others. It’s what I’ve been asking for when it comes to LOTRO’s housing for years now.
I’m just so excited. There’s so much to play right here and now — and even more come this fall — but I’m still yearning for WildStar like nobody’s business.
Some day, Syp. Some day.
I love this. LOVE LOVE LOVE. I can’t wait. I’ve always been a housing fan, and I also did a happy dance (well, in my head) when I read this. I’ve always been interested in Wildstar because of its art style and how the game systems seem to be, and this just sealed the deal. So happy to finally find an MMO that caters to what I adore.
Can’t wait.
I’ve been indifferent to Wild Star so far as I didn’t see anything about it that interested me. Now with this housing announcement is a game I will be keeping a much closer eye on. Housing is a type of system I fell in love with in Everquest 2 and have yet to find one that surpasses it. Hopefully Wild Star will be it.
It sounds like they are going to be taking pages out of Zynga’s book for housing… however, when it doesn’t bother other people in your social networks, I see this as being awesome. I would love to build a house, and have it be a process of clearing trees and building walls and whatnot. Sounds great.
Huh. Kind of getting a Skies of Arcadia vibe. This is a good thing.
I, too, was very excited to see this. WildStar hadn’t really been high on my list, until now.
What would be great would be to enable groups/quilds to bring their floating plots together to form neighborhoods. THEN you have something truly special and unique – a reason for not just a single player to log in and spend time at their home, but an entire group of players to do so.