The Daily Grind: Home sweet home

In all the years we've played online games, one of the things that many of us have had some disagreement about the real use of was that of player housing. Some of us don't really care for it, equating having to bother with a space like that to playing The Sims Online. Others of us liked the idea, thinking it's a great way to show off our personal achievements and house things so we don't have to carry them around, if nothing more. In some games like EverQuest II, being a game veteran (or for that matter, having played the original EverQuest) can land you some extra goodies for your house. In games like Second Life player housing takes on a whole new meaning with people wheeling and dealing in land deals with one another.

As for me, I always wanted a house in WoW, but that was largely to show off personal sets of armor that I'd collected from running both normal and raid instances to death. I also figured it would be nice to have a small cupboard somewhere that I used to toss in mementos of adventures I'd been on that I simply didn't need anymore. Blizzard has met the desires of players like me slightly with the creation of Guild banks — thus allowing me to off-load all the bags I made for new people and make more room in my bank. But for those not in a guild, there still remains no real place to house all those bits and baubles without taking up valuable personal bank space, or having to go through the hassle of starting a guild just to get the extra room.

So today we ask you to join in the discussion we've been having for some time. Do you think that player housing is just a form of mini-game or time sink for trophy hunters, or do you like the idea of having a place to show off the stuff you've gathered together on your travels in your favorite world? Are you one of the many who have a player house? If so, what kinds of things do you do with yours? Are there any games that really need to incorporate player housing that don't currently have it?