It’s an underappreciated aspect of Valheim that’s hard to describe to people who haven’t played. The builds are often driven by practical function as much as or more than aesthetics, and yet the net result of taking all of the practical considerations into account is something that looks and feels really interesting. It makes sense to build a kitchen. It makes sense to build a workshop. It makes sense to have a covered walkway leading to a boat dock. It makes sense to build a cozy living room with an open fire and rugs on the ground and furniture to sit on. You can always build purely for aesthetic reasons, but even just making decisions for function ends up guiding you to create very elaborate builds, and then you end up actually using the different elements of the build.

I remember going back to Minecraft with some friends and realizing that you don’t really need more than a small box with a handful of crafting stations. Anything else is just for fun. In Valheim, a lot of stuff that you’d think is just for fun actually serves a purpose.