In most MMOs player housing is a way for a person to earn a private living space for their avatars, but in most cases housing offers additional benefits such as added storage space and access to the local market. With all the options for housing one has to wonder how the developers will approach it in Lord of the Rings Online and if they will make use of some of the many benefits that can be implemented with player housing.

Several MMOs in the past have made use of various mechanics to improve player housing. Star Wars Galaxy allowed the player to set up an NPC merchant within their home turning it into a shop complete with crafting stations. Similar mechanics were used in Everquest 2 by allowing the player to access the auction house like brokers from their room using a market board. This has proven to be a reliable and popular player housing mechanic, but will we see it in Lord of the Rings Online? Time will tell, but the developers can’t overlook its potential use to the player base.

In all likelihood, housing in LOTRO will be instanced in some form. My guess is it will probably be similar to the Dark Age of Camelot instanced neighborhoods. This is an instanced area separate from the rest of the world, but designed as an open neighborhood. Players could buy plots and build their houses on them. There is also the possibility they could take the Everquest 2 approach by making housing available within a building by clicking on the door and being transported to your private room. My money is on the DAOC approach, but so little is known currently it is hard to say. Whatever the approach, this will make a nice addition to the world.

The possibility for additional storage space is always a tempting prospect for housing. In Vanguard: Saga of heroes, housing allowed players to place chest of varying sizes in their homes to store items. Everquest 2 provided a vault that you could add chest to for additional storage space. What will the LOTRO approach be? One can assume it will be very similar to one of these two. There is the possibility that the developers won’t add additional storage space to housing, but I think it’s safe to say they have already weighed the likelihood of a heavy community uprising if they don’t.

There could be any number of possible housing implementation when this is launched. I believe there will probably be at least one type of housing for each race. The race of men may have standard housing much like we see in Bree, but the Hobbits of the Shire could have underground or hillside homes much like those we see around the Shire. Perhaps even along the lines of Bag End. There are many possibilities for how the appearance may come, but one thing is for certain, there will be some degree of customization involved once the initial look is established. That could be with cosmetic furniture or even perhaps gear and items you have acquired, but no longer use. All that will reside with how far the developers allow us to take it.

The ability to customize a player’s house has always been an important part of housing in an MMO world. This approach has been taken in different ways over the years. Everquest 2 allows players to place items anywhere in the house, but only allows a given amount of space. Players could only store so many items based on the size of their home which also varies. LOTRO may take a different approach if the information from E3 remains true. During an E3 interview with Tentonhammer, Adam Mersky, Director of Public Relations for Turbine offered a bit of insight into how housing might be implemented by stating…

We're thinking that in the way a character has slots, housing will also have a vault with slots. You can earn stuff, say a carpet, and then you'd put it in your carpet slot and it would show up in the room.- Mersky

This could prove to be creative or limiting and has been the subject of debate for some time. By adding the item to the slot, can you then move it around the house or is it stuck in a fixed location? These answers will have to wait until we get to see just what lies ahead. Mersky also pointed out that we might get to see player housing during the fall as part of an event to preview the housing system.

Player housing can add a fun and useful layer of content to any MMO. We can earn our own little living space, extra storage, and maybe gain convenient access to the auction house market. How housing in Lord of the Rings online will be implemented is anyone’s guess at this stage, but it’s safe to assume it will contain at least some of these elements embodied by other MMOs. The developers for LOTRO have proved to be capable and very creative in the past when dealing with new content and Idea and I have faith that they will bring us a great form of player housing, whatever its form may be.

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You can read the E3 interview Here.