GVO Questionnaire: Expansion: Real Estate

There is a choice for players to decide whether they want to introduce a real estate system to the GVO. Owning your own private house in the busy and prosperous city of London? A summer retreat in the country side? Or your own special island in the middle of nowhere where you are the king/queen? While few of us could afford such luxuries in our real life, it sure would be much easier in a game.

Developing such a system sounded wonderful. I wonder whether Delfin gets this idea from the real estate system in Nobunaga's Ambition Online (NAO). But who cares? Nobody says they couldn't borrow a successful idea, after all they all belong to the same company. And even better, with the real estate system in NAO up and running already, Delfin could get their hand onto some data for research before they really decide to embark on this quest.

From what I've heard, for NAO your need to pay daily rental to continue to own your own house. Though for me, I would prefer a fixed cost for my house, but surely this would continue to burn a big hole in the pocket of those who have too much money and don't know where to spend them. A big boost for trade and economy (and also RMT). :D

Owning an empty house/building that looks like every other Joe's is like no fun at all. Maybe we could have different kind of building that reflects the cultural and geographical influence of the region. With the addition of furniture you could decorate it according to your taste.

Then it would be possible to introduce a new set of crafting skills or maybe the Carpenter occupation. And if Delfin is evil (cough, okay, visionary) enough, they could also make the furniture depletable items. And nobody says you could not embark on some long and difficult quests to get your hand on some rare/antique furniture/decoration items. Live events on this theme would also be quite fun.

Apart from adding a new flavor to the game, it could also give Koei another advantage. You know why there is Yahoo! Mail and GMail? To create brand stickiness. To switch search engine is just an URL away. But if someone is using the mail service, he/she would be less likely to make a switch.

The same goes for GVO. A player, due to any possible reason under the sun, could just uninstall and leave the game any moment. That's not good. But if I own a house which I've painstakingly customized and decorated in a game, I'd think twice before I quit. This would be a really sticky game stickiness.

But then again, I've to wonder why doesn't they just open up customization and decoration for guild buildings. The buildings are already there, and I'm sure it would be less work for Delfin. Every guild member could then pitch in to make their base a homey one. This could also offer a form of stickiness and Delfin could also study the response for feasibility. With many guilds struggling to make sure that they could keep their guild building, I really wonder how many could afford to keep another private building.