Massively Overpowered’s end-of-the-year 2016 awards continue today with our award for Best MMORPG Player Housing of 2016, which is a new award for MOP and one proposed this year by Agemyth and Mylicia. MMORPGs eligible for this award can have launched in any year as long as they are still alive and still offer player housing; nominees should be judged based on the quality and depth of that feature and that feature alone. Don’t forget to cast your own vote in the just-for-fun reader poll at the very end!
The Massively OP staff pick for Best MMORPG Player Housing of 2016 is…
Andrew Ross (@dengarsw): I truthfully haven’t logged into an MMO with housing beyond Landmark since 2015, but here’s the reason it’s gotten my vote: I can build underwater. Yeah, huge towers, sci-fi death pits, build your own dungeon, all that other cool stuff… but I can really sleep with the fishes if I want to. My spirit-whale guide is happy.
Brianna Royce (@nbrianna, blog): I’ll concede that WildStar probably deserves this one for building on and expanding out the genre’s player housing foundations set by Star Wars Galaxies, EverQuest II, Lord of the Rings Online, and RIFT before it. But it’s a bittersweet choice for several reasons. Runner-up points to Ultima Online, which still has some of the best housing in the entire genre going on two decades old.
Eliot Lefebvre (@Eliot_Lefebvre, blog): It’s kind of an ongoing shame that WildStar has such magnificent housing. Seriously, this year has been filled with more additions to the various available pieces for houses, and they’re outstanding. The housing system in this game and the stuff that can be done with it is absolutely endless. As I say far too often, it’s a shame about everything else, but that housing. That housing.
Justin Olivetti (@Sypster, blog): WildStar. Nothing else compares with what Carbine did in WildStar. Having your own floating island with multiple houses and a lot of nifty decor is great, but add in useful stations and it’s more than some place you hang up a couple of stuffed raid boss heads — it’s home. Runner-up to RIFT for having gorgeous dimensions with an easy-to-use placement tool.
Larry Everett (@Shaddoe, blog): Trove owns player housing. If you don’t think Trove has the most intense and creative player housing, then you’ve probably not really played Trove. I can hear it now: “Blah, blah, Trion sucks, blah blah.” Yes, they have had many missteps, but Trove’s housing is definitely not one of them.
MJ Guthrie (@MJ_Guthrie, blog): Since the obvious winner to this is ineligible (due to being shut down), the best player housing goes easily to EverQuest II. There is just such a massive variety of not only decorations (from items to actual building blocks) but the houses themselves to let your creativity go wild in. There are garden houses, libraries, stormy isles, cathedrals, There are houses based on iconic spots in the main cities and even ones based on certain dungeons. Now add the absolute mind-numbing amount of decorations — including pets, books you can read (and write), paintings, trophies, furniture, teleportation items, carpets, furniture – the works.
Tina Lauro Pollock (@purpletinabeans): Can I cheat for this question and talk about the proposed housing coming to The Elder Scrolls Online in February 2017 instead since it was announced in 2016 and I don’t have another answer? Housing isn’t one of those must-have features for me and I don’t really use it as a metric to choose MMOs; in fact, my favourite MMOs place no emphasis on housing at all. It’s quite a surprise, then, that any housing system managed to get my attention, but I’m totally excited for Homestead and I still think it was the best thing to come out of E3 for me. In any other franchise I don’t get why housing tops the priority lists of so many gamers, but I completely understand how such a system completes ESO and rounds off the map. I want to create an entirely new character who makes a life crafting furniture to sell right now, damnit!
WildStar won our award for Best MMORPG Player Housing of 2016. What’s your pick?
Reader poll: Which MMORPG has the best housing in 2016?
- WildStar (34%, 255 Votes)
- RIFT (9%, 64 Votes)
- EverQuest II (13%, 93 Votes)
- Landmark (3%, 23 Votes)
- Trove (1%, 9 Votes)
- Lord of the Rings Online (5%, 39 Votes)
- Ultima Online (3%, 23 Votes)
- ArcheAge (5%, 35 Votes)
- Final Fantasy XIV (7%, 53 Votes)
- Black Desert (5%, 37 Votes)
- Star Wars The Old Republic (7%, 55 Votes)
- Nothing (3%, 26 Votes)
- Something else (let us know in the comments!) (4%, 31 Votes)
- Aion (0%, 1 Votes)
Total Voters: 743