MMO Housing in Massively OP article

[Merlin]

Considering the ‘housing crisis’ in MMOs like Ultima Online, FFXIV, and EVE Online | Massively Overpowered

massivelyop.com

Not sure if this has made it's way around yet, interesting article on housing issues in MMO's. Ultima Online mentioned. It's a short piece but makes you wonder how and if UO I'd being effected by a bubble that will pop and drive prices back down in the market for housing and rares.

EDIT:
For those not reading all the way through, there is a more detailed article that prompted the discussion at Massively OP. That more detailed article can be found here:
Land speculators will kill your game's growth (gamedeveloper.com)

 

[Captn Norrington]

UO has always had the same issues with housing and rares. It's not that they suddenly become more or less popular, the issue is a small group of people buying everything and causing the prices to increase because they are then competing only with each other instead of a broader market. If you know every castle is going to get bought by the same 10 people, it's not a matter of what the castle is worth anymore, it becomes a competition of how much you're willing to pay to prevent the other 9 people from getting it before you. The only time prices seem to go down is when a bunch of those people quit the game at the same time.

My rares collection was a good example of it. When I sold off my collection of hundreds of rares, that took over a decade to build, I only really had to talk to maybe 15 people total before it was all sold. The established collectors simply absorbed my stuff like an amoebe, getting larger each time it feeds, just like I had done to other collectors who quit over the years. There was no market correction or lowering of prices due to me dumping tons of stuff at once, it was barely a blip on the radar, because none of it even really got to the market before it was snatched up.

 

[HRH Liz]

Very interesting read. Maybe UO should get some real world realtors working for them.

 

[Anon McDougle]

Other than money there's no reason to not open up all facets to castles and keeps..

 

[HRH Liz]

Other than money there's no reason to not open up all facets to castles and keeps..

BUT BUT BUT you would devalue all those Castles and Keeps on Atl Shard and OMG could you hear the screaming now. LOL
Side note I would love a Castle just outside Luna, I would even sub another account to hold it.

 

[Merlin]

I updated the original post to include a link to a second article that reportedly led to the article at Massively OP. The second article is alot more detailed and also has it's own separate discussion about Ultima Online.

 

[Spartan]

I've heard it stated time after time here ... no one lives on "dead" shards. Right? Well, my shard has almost all of the usable Malas area available. There are Tram spots - in fact I placed a Crowley Villa at the Brit Crossroads area. I believe a couple castle spots are nearby and open.

But no one wants to live on a "dead" shard. There is space - just not on Atlantic. Use your shard shields for cripes sakes.

 

[Anon McDougle]

I've heard it stated time after time here ... no one lives on "dead" shards. Right? Well, my shard has almost all of the usable Malas area available. There are Tram spots - in fact I placed a Crowley Villa at the Brit Crossroads area. I believe a couple castle spots are nearby and open.

But no one wants to live on a "dead" shard. There is space - just not on Atlantic. Use your shard shields for cripes sakes.

Give shard shields to everyone...

 

[Danpal]

Give shard shields to everyone...

And have EA and BS lose money

 

[Whitewolf of *VK*]

why not do away with shard shields and just put up gates to all servers, so people can come and go as they please, it would solves the house crisis, and make some of these dead servers active again.

 

[Loriel]

why not do away with shard shields and just put up gates to all servers, so people can come and go as they please, it would solves the house crisis, and make some of these dead servers active again.

I have been saying something similar to this for years as I feel it would also help fix the economy with less barriers to trade.