5 Of The Best Player Housing Systems Ever

Looking for a place to call your own in Elder Scrolls Online? Well it might be a little while away, but for the first time the ESO team has confirmed that the feature is coming.

On this week's Elder Scrolls Online livestream (via Massively Overpowered), Creative Director Rich Lambert confirmed that player housing was in the initial stages of development, although he declined to reveal more. Player housing can give players a stake in sticking with an MMO that can bolster numbers considerably.

Here's what we came up with when we thought of the best housing systems ever in an MMO. They added a whole new facet to the experience, and having somewhere to hang your hat when you're not off killing rabbits, womp rats, and ultimate evil-doers just makes sense.

Star Wars Galaxies

Not only could you have your own house in Star Wars Galaxies, you could live in a whole community of players in designated player cities. You could decorate your own house with an array of options, and you could do the same with the city at large. As more and more people declared citizenship in a city, more civic buildings were unlocked so eventually all the amenities of a pre-built NPC populated city would be available for use.

These cities were far from static though. Taxes were collected weekly, and elections for Mayor were held every three weeks. This ended up with player cities establishing a complete closed-circuit economy, with weapons, armor, goods, and services manufactured by and sold to citizens that lived in the city.

While other MMOs might have more feature rich individual abodes, none have replicated the ability to create a player-built community that Star Wars Galaxies had.

Final Fantasy XIV

Final Fantasy XIV is one of the most beautiful MMO's we've ever played, and its player housing matches. Once you master one of your classes and reach the rank of Second Lieutinant in one of the Grand Companies you can purchase a plot of land to make a house of your own.

You can furnish your homestead with tables, lamps, plants, wall mountings, carpets, and change the wallpaper, flooring, and lighting as well. If you're the outdoorsy type you can also plant a private garden to raise a variety of plants you can use for crafting.

Houses also come in different sizes. While you'll probably start off with a cottage, you can eventually upgrade to a house, and even a mansion. You can end up spending a ton of time investing in decorating and enlarging your house and garden, but by the time you're relaxing in your fully decorated and decked out mansion, it's all worth it.

World of Warcraft

Though World of Warcraft doesn't have player housing per se, the latest expansion Warlords of Draenor added Garrisons. Garrisons are your very own little town. You can recruit and fill it with NPC's, and add buildings and assign those NPCs to jobs.

As time goes on you'll have a host of powerful NPC allies, and your buildings will continue to upgrade to produce better items and more gold. However, your garrison can also be invaded at random, and it'll be up to you to make sure it's properly defended.

While, they're not as customizable as Final Fantasy XIV's houses, World of Warcraft's garrisons give that feeling of truly being a part of the game's world and being in charge of a large settlement.

Ultima Online

Ultima Online may not be as pretty as the other entries on this list, but when it comes to house customization, it can't be beat. From single-roomed cottage to sprawling castle, and custom build structures, players are only limited by plot size and imagination. 

You can add anything you want to your house, anywhere that you want. Bed, chests, chairs, chests, etc., are available for decoration. You can also take to the high seas in galleons that are the size of houses, but not quite as customizable. 

Ultima Online takes the cake for variety of player houses available, and is still going strong after 17 years online.

EVE Online

While the player-owned starbases of EVE Online don't have the features of traditional player housing, they're the catalyst that binds the game's corporation system. It's where ore is processed, materials are manufactured, moons are mined, and where newer players to the corporation can catch a breath before going back to nullsec space to find their fortune.

They're also a huge prize for other corporations to take. Many of EVE's greatest battles have been fought for control of sectors pinned down by a starbase. While they may not have posh rooms and fancy decoration options, the Starbases of EVE Online serve a more important purpose to the players that use them than any other entry on this list.