Massively OP’s 2018 Awards: Best MMO Player Housing of 2018

December 16, 2018 11:00 AM

Massively Overpowered’s end-of-the-year 2018 awards continue today with our award for Best MMO Player Housing, which was awarded to WildStar last year. And the year before that. Sigh.

MMORPGs eligible for this award may 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 the Best MMO Player Housing of 2018 is…

EverQuest II and RIFT

Brianna Royce (@nbrianna, blog): Here’s the thing: A lot of big MMOs have housing now. But most of them treat it as a vanity toy, an achievement thing, a cash shop cow, a farming zone. Older games still have the best MMORPG housing, the kind where the housing is super intricate and meaningful and creative. I couldn’t decide between RIFT and EverQuest II, so I’m happy with either one winning. My runner-up is Trove, more for its club islands than its actual individual player houses. I’ve had so much fun building in there this year.

Chris Neal (@wolfyseyes, blog): EverQuest II and RIFT. I have not personally experience the housing systems in either of these games, but the footage I’ve seen shared and the creativity on display is definitely something to behold. Few things make one feel as connected to a game world as owning a small piece of it, and these two titles make sure your carved-out piece is able to stand out.

Eliot Lefebvre (@Eliot_Lefebvre, blog): For all that I make fun of EverQuest II having the artistic direction of a kid filing off the serial numbers on Tolkien-esque fantasy, the game sure does have a heck of a housing system. For that matter, so does RIFT. Considering the woes of both companies running these games, I hope to heck these games are both still here next year.

Justin Olivetti (@Sypster, blog): With WildStar out of the way, RIFT still has the best and most flexible housing system on the market.

Matt Daniel (@Matt_DanielMVOP): RIFT.

MJ Guthrie (@MJ_Guthrie, blog): I am sure folks can already guess what my answer is, because I don’t think it really changes year to year: Best housing is EverQuest II! The number of housing styles (that you can never, ever lose due to non-payment or taking breaks from playing) is enormous, only to be surpassed astronomically by the number and types of things to decorate them with! There are even whole building block collections so players can literally build their own constructs within a house and create anything they want. There is no limit to the creativity possible, and it just keeps getting better and better with more and more. What makes this all that much better is the Housing & Leaderboards window that lets you tour and bask in the overflow of creativity right from a button on your UI (and returns you back to the spot you left!). For runner up, I am going with Conan Exiles, which allows me to build my own house with a multitude of shapes and textures, decorating it with an ever-increasing collection of styles of furnishings. I like the trajectory of housing improvements. And hey, this game lets you actually display your sweet, sweet weapons!

How does Massively OP choose the winner?

Our team gathers together over the course of a few days to discuss candidates and ideally settle on a consensus winner. We don’t have a hard vote, but we do include written commentary from every writer who submitted it on time so that you can see where some of us differed, what our secondary picks were, and why we personally nominated what we did (or didn’t). The site’s award goes to the staff selection, but we’ll include both it and the community’s top nomination in our debrief in January.

EverQuest II and RIFT won our award for Best MMO Player Housing of 2018. What’s your pick?

Reader poll: Which MMORPG has the best housing in 2018?