To be honest I haven’t played a lot of different games – not because I didn’t want to. Mainly it was because I didn’t have a lot of time. When it came down to it I was more interested in reading and doing personal research. Which are both pretty nerdy things to do, you know studying the history of local plants for fun.
When I hit my mid-20’s I started to be more interested in making the time to play the games I wanted. My ex-husband introduced me to owning a gaming system so that did make it a lot easier. Growing up I had to share with my cousins, or rather they had a system and they would sometimes let me play. I loved the usual things like Mario and Tetris, with no interest in the sports games my ex played. It was also good that my older son also liked playing games and we would spend time in the store figuring out which games we wanted to play. I think another thing that stopped me was the price of the games, they were pretty pricey as far as I was concerned.
The first game I played all the way through (10 disks worth of gaming) was Legend of Dragoon – everyday religiously for 2hrs a day I went through it. I didn’t have or use cheat books, it was a lot of trial and error. I also dabbled in Kingdom Hearts (more my son’s thing than mine). So my love of gaming grew, at this point I also discovered Beta testing games. Which was fun and something I considered an honor.
Now Beta testing doesn’t guarantee that the final game will be the same. I played City of Steam all through Beta and made a few online friends along the way. I loved the look and feel of the game and was one of the few games I wrote fanfiction about. Unfortunately the final game was almost nothing like the original game I played – like NOT AT ALL. The creatures had sold the game and everything to some big company who made it into this “thing”. I couldn’t go back to it after that disappointment. Uhhh what was my point? Oh yeah so City of Steam had a “type” of housing – instanced housing as in 2 rooms. You could do some decorating, but rather when you did missions you got rewards that would be placed in your house. It didn’t interest me or rather it did but since I couldn’t figure out how to progress with it I sort of just let it go.
Going through my memory I know housing was not really all that important to me. I played alone and did not really socialize with other players. But of course I was always giddy once I found out about housing and how to work it. Now not 100% sure, but I think Aion had one of the first real housing that I dealt with. I got lost in the neighborhoods and apartments. You could more or less decorate anyway that you want and you could visit someone’s house if they left it open. It took a while for me to realize how things worked – and when I stopped playing I still wasn’t 98.38124648237% sure I had figured it out.
GW2 has an instanced housing – funny story there. I had NO idea how to get to it or where it was. Months and months of playing and I couldn’t figure it out. I didn’t stress about it too much until you know they let you adopt cats. SOOOOOO I found the housing, by accident. I had adopted a cat and it was apparently right next to the house or rather pod that I “owned”, Very much a derp moment. I was kinda bummed that I couldn’t you know decorate. I’ll be honest there are a LOT of pretty places in the game where I wouldn’t mind setting up a nice apartment. Even some villages that are nice I would love to set up house. (I’m looking you LIONS ARC).
OK so at this point we all know I play ESO (elder Scrolls Online) and it is my go to game to the point of obsession. ESO now has player housing. Not only can you buy furniture – you can find blueprints throughout the world and can build them yourself. When I was playing I would make a bit of gold building pieces of furniture. It is probably one of the funnest things in the game for me. Hunting down blueprints and finding mats to make these things.
There are a number of ways to get a house – you can spend crowns, which is real world money to be honest. I didn’t have a lot of them so I didn’t go with that options. I figured maybe I could use them for something else cool.
Another way is you can use gold that you have gathered in the game. I had a pretty nice amount and had started to save as soon as the housing announcement went out. I was a little short but figured I could figure it out later on. What I didn’t realize is with the paying with gold option you have to do certain quest lines – depending on where the house is. I would say they are side quests, but to be honest if you’re playing through your zone your going to have done and or started the quest anyway. The one I did took me weeks – I blame myself I wanted to buy the house with my main character and she is of course in a different faction from where the house is. Live and learn – or rather die and respawn a LOT.
Picking a house was all about research for me – or rather I knew the one I wanted and sent every one of my characters there to see how they would feel (Yes I know it sounds crazy – but whatever). In all honesty it only worked for 2 of my ladies – but hey one of them is my main so the other 3 will have to deal…for now.
A nice compact home
This is Twin Arches the house I fell in LOVE with is in DC near Hallin’s Stand. The price was 73,000 gold. It is plain enough that I felt I had a lot of options to decorate. There is a bit of a flat roof – so I wanted to do some sort of lounge roof area. Imagine my disappointment when I COULDN’T get on the roof. I felt so sad like I wanted to cry – FYI my guild mates don’t mention the roof any more cause of all the emotions I went through because of this discovery – lol. So I left the house for a few weeks, I didn’t want to do anything and was sad every time I went there. So I figured maybe I can’t go with another idea with the inside of the house.
The inside has this dome thing – I figured OH I have an idea for that space. But alas FREAKIN’ CEILING CAP. As in I can see the space and I can kinda put something up there, but I can’t you know ACTUALLY go in to use it. VERY FRUSTRATING.
After talking to Ari and a few other guildmates, plus helping other people do things in their houses I decided it was time for me to work with what I have. It’s not finished by any means but it’s a start and I had a number of clever ideas. (those pictures I will post later).
So now the next question is for me – since only 2 of the 5 like the house what am I going to do? There is another house I liked, costs a bit more gold – but i think I will get it as well. I’m not sure if I will be able to do the things I roughly have planned in it, but I might just be able to. It’s called Velothi Reverie, it’s in EP in the town of Narsis. It will cost me 323,000 gold or 4200 crowns empty and 5300 furnished.
Front of the House
Back of the House
Looking at the furniture that would come with the furnished house is down right UGLY. I may like the style of the house – but the style of the furniture is just not my speed. Then i also wonder if there will be Morrowind houses. Which I mean will make things very very different. What if they do and I like it better where am I going to get the gold. Why am I already stressing about this – lol. But I’m going to try and be positive, my computer should be finished soon and my understanding is the the PTS will be up and they will let us try Morrowind.
Hopefully at that point I get a better idea ^_^
Can I Play Too? 