So there has been a lot of talk in the community about player housing, long before the game was even released and with ZoS stating that they have not started development on it yet, I figure there is still time to chime in a little bit. I've had an idea about a player "housing" system that would blow every other TES and MMO game out of the water. Five words:
Player-owned Planes of Oblivion.
Now, I'm not talking about full-sized realms, like Couldharbor, I mean small Pocket Realms the size of a (large) backyard. I mean, think about it. That type of system would be perfect for this game.
As we all know, the Daedra are incapable of originality, but are perfect at imitation, since every race has its own type of architecture, players could collect Architecture Motifs from boss loot (putting them in cupboards and closets next to racials would make motif farming even more OP) and players could then build their houses/castles/manors/whatever in their realms, but it wouldn't stop there.
The player-owned realms wouldn't be anywhere on the map of Nirn, but in the endless expanse of Oblivion, so players could also customize the landscape and be able to place rocks, boulders, trees, giant mushrooms, streams of water and lava, hedges, create caves, alter altitude, place signs, letters and texts, change the weather and "sky" (make the sky red like Deadlands, blue like Couldharbor, colorful, nigh-like, aurora-filled, day-like, stormy, whatever).
This would allow for an endless amount of customization. It would allow the players to make anything they wanted if they had the time. A castle on a cliff surrounded by lava, a hedge maze complete with palm-trees and a bright sky, a giant mushroom jumping puzzle, a small town perched on a mountain cliff, an array of towers erecting from an ocean connected by an underwater system of tunnels... it would all be possible. Oh yeah, and we'd be able to name our realms as well.
It would also compliment the lore nicely, since the veil between Oblivion and Nirn has been shattered by Mannimarco and Varen and that has made traversability between these two realms much easier. Players could lay down small tears/portals that led to their realms and everyone in the group would be able to pass trough. Any player could also request to visit another's realm anytime they were online with the player interaction menu or trough the friends list.
In conclusion, not only would this be a big time-sink that MMOs need to keep going, it would offer an alternate activity to take a break from slaughtering mobs, questing, devling and raiding, where you could just relax and do what you wanted and would feel rewarding and would be a huge incentive to buy the game for many TES fans, I mean, in what Elder Scrolls game are you truly able to say you're the master of your own Daedric Realm?