I am having some trouble getting into the new player dimension feature that came along with the Storm Legion expansion to Rift.
I ran the little quest that introduced you to dimensions, and dutifully placed the few little items that you start with in my new space in Telara.
Dimension by the Sea
But I am not really feeling inspired to do much with it. You can see all of my starter items have sort of been dropped off around the front of the little structure.
The view is nice… so long as you do not get too close to the edge of the dimension, at which point the invisible wall gets all non-invisible in your face.
Trying to see the wall edge on…
Anyway, my dimensional malaise sort of took me by surprise, as I have been much more enthusiastic about housing in other games, like LOTRO and EverQuest II.
I think there are two things that are different in Rift.
First, the dimensions are kind of a raw material, a palette on which to express yourself, on which you can build your own home. A lot of people really go nuts for that, as I saw in the beta tour. But I don’t think I really want to actually design and build a house. I think I prefer one pre-made, a structure within which to work. Rift is, perhaps, a bit too much “from scratch” for me.
And then there is the second factor, which I think feeds into the first.
I have been playing some EverQuest II lately, and I went to look at the home of my berserker, Sigwerd, who has the base level house in New Halas. It is one of my more decorated locations. It is out-done by a couple of my original characters, but the theme is the same when you look at what they share in common.
Sigwerd’s living room
Almost everything in Sigwerd’s house is something he picked up on a quest, or an event, or via a LoN card, or as a veteran’s reward. It is not so much a place I have decorated as a place that represents where I have been and what I have done. This is especially true with the wall of prizes from the Lore & Legend quests.
Wall of Weapons
I think SOE made a good decision in creating so many such items that can be displayed in player homes.
I hope Trion picks up on that aspect… and maybe comes up with a few more house-like dimensions going forward.
In the mean time, Frostfell is nearly upon us. It might be time to pick up some snow globes for Sigwerd’s place.
The Ancient Gaming Noob 
We’ve largely lost the third member of our three-person GW2 guild because of Rift’s Dimensions. While she was a bit sniffy about them at first, seeing the UI as distinctly inferior to EQ2’s, after working with it a while she changed her views. Now she’s there most of the time, building.
In EQ2 the “serious” decorators stopped decorating years ago. They build. When someone worked out how to “breakout” of EQ2 houses a huge land-grab ensued and since then people have been building temples and castles and whole towns on the land they were only supposed to be able to look at from their balconies. For those folks, Rift’s Dimensions are another opportunity to express their creativity, only this time it’s legal.
I’m with you, though. My houses represent my characters, where they’ve been, what they’ve done and who they are. I can wander round them, pick things up and evoke memories just as real as if I climbed into my attic and started opening boxes. That’s what Rift needs to replicate to get me really interested.
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I’m with you too — all my houses had a wall of weapons in EQ2, though the rest would tend to be haphazardly thrown in. I had my 10 yr old daughter do the actual decorating. She loved it! She also loves to play Minecraft in creative mode and makes these massive structures and caves and such with hidden entrances. I think she’d go nuts in Rift’s dimensions. I might have to turn her loose. . . . But as for myself…. meh. I’ve never been into building or decorating in meatspace, much less cyberspace.
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I chose my dimension specifically because it had no structures and I could build my heart out, but I can understand your point and I absolutely hope that RIFT adds more Dimension items that tie into game experiences. I only played EQ2 a bit, but the way they handled housing decor was really neat. Given a choice between armor or a bookshelf as a quest reward, I’ll take the bookshelf any day!
That being said, I see there are some items associated with the new Chronicle, so RIFT continues on that path and adds more items that relate to player activity.
You might want to check out the Central Necropolis dimension — it has a big hall in the middle that while a “fix’er’up” is definitely the best pre-built structure available, in my opinion. Breach Chamber and Empyrean Mill are both entirely indoors so they also might be a little closer to what you’re looking for.
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Pretty much a “me too” post. My Ranger’s house in EQ2 is basically all about displaying quest rewards. He has a wall of weapons. The other walls of the living room are covered with tapestries and paintings he got from LoN and/or other quests. The bedroom is rather spartan. And the basement is simply packed full of items that reduce the Prestige cost of the house. Rows upon rows of beds, chairs, and other furniture, all minimized and stored neatly.
Oh, yeah. I also have a cat, a monkey (from DoF?), and some clockwork helicopter (also from an expansion).
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More me too-ism. Both over and underwhelmed. I haven’t seen any dimension quest rewards yet but I haven’t really been looking either.
To me housing needs to serve two masters– provide a sense of place in a virtual world as in, my place. The hook that binds me to the world.
Secondarily, it’s a mini game into itself– the crafting, decorating and building.
Right now it seems a bit too much of the latter and not enough of the former. Rift usually dies a good job with these kinds of challenges. Like the soul system. A paralyzingly number of potential choices that give many interesting combinations as well as presets that permit those less inclined to spend their lives soul synergy crafting to even develop a workable build. The presets reduce the burden and provide a guide that sctually encourages more experimentation and exploration because it lowers the barriers to entry.
I’d have loved to see more of that with dimensions. Something to start with that’s functional but expandable. I should be able to be completely engaged without building.
A trophy case has got to be a must have. I’d love to be able to place literally any item I own– old armor, weapons, mounts, etc. Minecraft is all well and good but I need a nostalgia itch scratched.
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Same here, Dimensions in Rift haven’t grabbed me yet since I’m not interested in playing Architect. I want neat trophies of my triumphs and the zones through which I have played to display. EQ2 wins hands down in that regard, so far at least. I’ll keep an eye on how this one develops.
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The Chronicle, Raid and PvP vendors all have Dimension rewards – they’re not drops, no, but they do come from doing this content.
I haven’t built anything either, building games aren’t my scene; but my daughter re-subbed just to build her dimension and did a great job. Of course, when she ran out of plat and reached her Dimension item-limit, she stopped playing again :) but still..
I’d personally like something more house-like; I liked LOTRO’s housing because the house was there, I just had to stick decorations around the place. A dimension like the Stonefield guild dimension (it’s the big hall from the main town in Stonefield, essentially) but a bit smaller would suit me just fine :) There’s always Faen’s Retreat, too: that has a house, if a bit non-traditional.
But I don’t really think the market is us trophy-displayers; LOTRO’s system gets lots of grief because of it’s lack of flexibility, and the RP’ers on my RP server have all built amazing dimensions – there’s a large market for Second Life/ Minecraft-type builders, and that’s where the Dimension system is successfully aimed.
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