There are unused assets in the original World of Warcraft that suggested a player housing system was being developed but never finished. The idea is as old as MMORPGs are.
The Anime/Manga/video game series dotHack, which is about a fake MMORPG, predates WoW by several years and has player housing for some of the characters.
Again copying guild wars 2?
Ultima online had player housing in 97, it’s not exactly breakthrough tech
There were probably text based online games (MUX/MUSH/MUD/…) that had it even earlier.
There are unused assets in the original World of Warcraft that suggested a player housing system was being developed but never finished. The idea is as old as MMORPGs are.
The Anime/Manga/video game series dotHack, which is about a fake MMORPG, predates WoW by several years and has player housing for some of the characters.