Editing Player owned houses

{{External|os=Player-owned house|rs=Player-owned house}}
{{Historical}}
[[File:Varrock map (November 2000).png|thumb|right|[[Manual:WorldMap#November_2000|Historical map]] of Varrock as teased on ''jagex.com'' in November of 2000, prior to the release of ''RuneScape'']]
'''Player owned houses''' were an early concept present in ''RuneScape'' even before its release on [[4 January]] [[2001]]. Ultimately, "Player Owned Houses" were never made available to players to own. In most respects, the content was unreleased, and the concept was abandoned entirely in ''Classic'' on [[26 July]] [[2001]] [[Update:Runescape updated (26 July 2001)|(Update)]].

==Beginnings==
Player owned houses existed on the [[Manual:WorldMap|World map]] for the first 6 months of ''RuneScape'' as an [[Inaccessible areas|inaccessible area]], teased to be released fully in the coming months.

This quote from Tip.it archives<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20010303014542/http://www.tip.it/runescape/oldnews.htm Tip.it "www.jagex.com DOWN !!!" 25 January, 2001]</ref> in January 2001 describes the original concept:
<blockquote>As I have seen on new Official Discussion board Andrew posted a reply on houses. I can't remember all but in short lines there is still a some months before it will be finished, there will be different houses from 3 x 3 rooms to 4 floors building and there will be chests in so you will be able to leave your items in guards and thief's permitting ;-), There will be ton of things to buy for your house too. He don't know yet what a prices will be but it will depend on offer and demand. .</blockquote>
The Player Owned Houses concept predates the ability to [[Bank]] items, so it would have been the only place to leave your items. Houses would have been non-instanced, and the land on the map actually owned by a specific player. As RuneScape had not exploded in popularity yet, or even been released, this still seemed like a feasible concept.

===Models available===
On the release of ''RuneScape'', these buildings existed in [[Varrock]]:

* An estate agent building near the front gate. This was the only building with furniture in it, as the concept would have allowed players to furnish their own homes (other than the ladders)
<gallery>
Bignews05.jpg|An historic picture of the estate agent building, just visible from outside the gate
Estate agent building (Varrock).png|The estate agent building
Estate agent building (Varrock) (inside).png|Inside the estate agent building
</gallery>
* 24 houses 3x4 tiles, with no garden. The most basic house.
<gallery>
POH 3x4 house (surviving) (outside) (2001).png|The most basic 3x4 home
POH 3x4 house cluster.png|A typical configuration of the 3x4 home, in this case 10 are clustered together
POH 3x4 house (surviving) (inside).png|Inside a solitary 3x4 home
</gallery>
* 14 houses 4x4 tiles, with an upstairs equally as big. A 2x4 fenced front garden is provided. A house for a richer person.
<gallery>
POH 4x4 (outside).png|A 4x4 two-story house for a richer person
POH 4x4 block.png|These houses were also typically built together as terraced rows
POH 4x4 ground floor (inside).png|Inside the 4x4 home
POH 4x4 upstairs (inside).png|Upstairs of the 4x4 home
</gallery>
* 6 houses 6x6 tiles, with 7 rooms each across 2 floors. A 2x6 fenced front garden and a 2x6 fenced back garden are provided. Likely intended for smaller clans.
<gallery>
POH 6x6 clan house (frontyard).png|A 6x6 two-story house for smaller clans
POH 6x6 clan house (backyard).png|The back garden of the 6x6 clan house
POH 6x6 clan house ground floor (inside).png|Inside the 6x6 clan house
POH 6x6 clan house upstairs (inside).png|Upstairs the 6x6 clan house
</gallery>
* A unique castle-like clan building, for a very large and powerful clan.
<gallery>
POH 4-level house (frontyard).png|The most massive player owned home, likely intended to be owned by a huge and powerful clan
POH 4-level house (backyard).png|The back garden of the 4-level house
POH 4-level house map.png|A map of the 4-level house
POH 4-level house ground floor (inside).png|{{FloorNumber|uk=0}} of the 4-level house
POH 4-level house (middle floor).png|{{FloorNumber|uk=1}} of the 4-level house
POH 4-level house (top floor).png|{{FloorNumber|uk=2}} of the 4-level house
POH 4-level house (basement).png|Basement of the 4-level house. This was the only POH to have a basement.
</gallery>
* A unique second sprawling building, for a very large and powerful rival clan.
<gallery>
POH 8x12 massive unique clan house (frontyard).png|An also formidable massive home, for a large and powerful rival clan to own
POH 8x12 massive unique clan house (backyard).png|The back garden of the sprawling clan building
POH 8x12 massive unique clan house  ground floor (inside).png|{{FloorNumber|uk=0}} of the sprawling clan building
POH 8x12 massive unique clan house  upstairs (inside).png|Upstairs of the sprawling clan building
</gallery>
* 3 enormous apartment buildings 3 floors high. Each floor had eight 3x3 rooms and 2 wide hallways.
** Later on, around May 2001, the two apartment buildings to the east no longer had their ground floors finished. It seems that Andrew considered re-dividing them into rooms only 2 wide and 3 deep to help meet growing demand. However, their top floors had the same 3x3 rooms. If he finished re-dividing the apartments into 2x3 rooms, as was partially begun, each floor would be able to hold 12 apartments, for a maximum of 36 domiciles per building.
<gallery>
POH eastern apartments (outside).png|The apartment blocks
POH apartment building west (ground floor).png|Western-most apartment {{FloorNumber|uk=0}}
POH middle apartment (ground floor).png|Middle apartment {{FloorNumber|uk=0}}
POH Eastern-most apartment (ground floor).png|Eastern-most apartment {{FloorNumber|uk=0}}
POH apartment (top floor).png|All three apartments have two additional upper floors, which all look like this.
</gallery>

All in all, this would have provided accommodations for 134 individual people<ref NAME="REDIVISIONASSUMPTION">Assumes the two apartment buildings to the east are subdivided as 2x3 rooms on all 3 floors and the west apartment building stays 3x3 rooms.</ref> (and perhaps their best friend/significant other), 6 clans of between 5 and 10 people, and 2 clans of two to three dozen members each, for a generous '''estimated maximum capacity of around 350 people''' and an actual 142 properties available<ref NAME="REDIVISIONASSUMPTION"/>.

== RuneScape gains popularity ==
By April of 2001, there was still only one game world, but it was sometimes seeing peaks of over 1024 players online simultaneously.<ref>[[Update:Server problems]]</ref> RuneScape's success was a problem for the concept of Player owned houses, but Andrew had not yet given up on the idea. He added more Player owned houses to the map with the release of [[Asgarnia]], in [[Falador]].

On [[6 April]] [[2001]], Falador's Player owned homes added additional capacity:
* 6 houses 3x4 tiles, with no garden. The most basic house.
* 2 houses 4x4 tiles, with an upstairs equally as big. A 2x4 fenced front garden is provided. A house for a richer person.
* A unique castle-like clan building.
* An apartment building similar to the ones in Varrock, divided into eight 3x3 rooms per floor, but with only 2 floors
* Enough empty space for another apartment building
<gallery>
Falador Player owned houses.png|An overview of all the POH buildings added in Falador
POH Falador giant clan castle.png|Unique castle-like clan building
POH Falador giant clan castle ground floor (inside).png|{{FloorNumber|uk=0}} of castle building
POH Falador giant clan castle (middle floor).png|{{FloorNumber|uk=1}}of castle building
POH Falador giant clan castle (top floor).png|Top parapets of castle building
</gallery>

In retrospect, the added capacity from these homes would have been like trying to put out a bonfire with a turkey baster. These homes were likely placed as a way to show players that the idea wasn't abandoned and was still planned to come out soon. Andrew would make a public statement to Tip.it<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20021014225436/http://www.tip.it/runescape/news/viewnews.cgi?newsall Tip.it "About Player Owned Houses.." 21 April, 2001]</ref> re-committing to Player Owned Houses two weeks later:
<blockquote>After talking to Andrew he said that Player Owned Houses WILL be for auction, so there will not be a set price. Also he commented that due to high demand it's looking like that POH's will be for clans only.</blockquote>

At this point, it may have seemed like the free market would take care of the supply-demand issue, as the continued growing popularity of ''RuneScape'' had not yet become evident. It wouldn't seem to be so bad if the houses were just so expensive that only the top 10% of players could afford one. However, that percentage would quickly become much smaller.

==Removal==
Three months later, on [[26 July]] [[2001]] [[Update:Runescape updated (26 July 2001)|(Update)]], the Player Owned Homes were removed from the map. [[Runite]] items and the item [[bank]] were released at the same time, two other highly anticipated updates, to help ease the disappointment. Andrew says in the news post:

<blockquote>The player owned houses have been removed. This is because since they were original planned runescape has become much more popular and there is nowhere near enough to go around. Instead the 2 updates above have been included to compensate. The item bank lets anyone store the items they want to, and the runite items are an alternative for people to spend the money they have been saving on.</blockquote>

==Final impact==
The idea of Player Owned Houses was one that Jagex never fully abandoned, as evidenced by their eventual release on [[31 May]] [[2006]] in ''[[RuneScape 2]]''.

Some players have believed the [[Carpentry]] skill (added to the [[stats]] menu on [[30 April]] [[2002]] and removed by [[12 December]]) had some relation to the idea of Player Owned Houses. The work required to implement Player Owned Houses would require several more years to be completed, but it would turn out to be true that "Carpentry" was linked to Player owned houses. This is evidenced by the fact the name "Carpentry" would be mentioned in a [[rsw:Update:Behind the Scenes - June (2005)|Behind the Scenes article from June 2005]] referencing the in-development Construction skill. 

A less obvious impact that Player owned houses had, is the impact had on the final design of the world map. Their influence on the world map is sometimes seen even into modern versions of ''RuneScape''.
* A 3x4 tile house in south-east Varrock would remain throughout the entirety of ''Classic'', be converted for ''RuneScape 2'', and survive several redesigns of Varrock. It still exists today in ''RuneScape 3''.
* Two of the 4x4 houses with front gardens would become accessible and remain in south-east Varrock until the release of [[Biohazard]] on [[23 October]] [[2002]]
* The giant clan house in Falador would remain as a mostly empty building throughout ''Classic''. It retained a mostly similar appearance in ''RuneScape 2'' until the space was converted into the [[osrsw:Falador Party Room|Falador Party Room]] on [[24 July]] [[2007]].
* The six 3x4 tile houses in Falador would remain throughout ''Classic''. Their configuration would change drastically beyond recognition when converted for ''RuneScape 2'', but the same number of small houses still persisted as apparent inspiration. Four of those six houses still exist today in ''RuneScape 3''.
* All three of the roads leading into Varrock Player owned houses area remained after the area was removed. The gate near the estate agent office was not the only entrance; there was also a planned north entrance and south entrance, which at the time had roads cut off in the middle with standard walls.
** The middle entrance is most obvious, as it would later become the eastern gate of Varrock.
** The south entrance road initially was converted to lead to some extra NPC houses in south-east Varrock, but in [[2002]], that area would be transformed into the [[Pay-to-play|Members]] only section of Varrock used in the [[Family Crest]] and [[Biohazard]] quests.
** The north entrance road was north of the [[Church]] north of [[Varrock Museum]]. This road was not changed at any point throughout ''Classic'', and seemingly doesn't make any sense, as it's just a road with a wall through it leading behind the church to nowhere. The north entrance road was removed on transition to ''RuneScape 2''.
[[File:Mysterious post in time.gif|thumb|right|Stray [[Post]] left over from the northern wall of the Player owned houses]]
* A stray [[Post]] was left behind in a strange location in the woods north-east of Varrock, where the northern wall of the Player owned houses had been before.

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Unreleased content]]