Housing Issues In The Virtual Gaming World |
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In many areas of the U.S., housing is a burning issue - especially when it comes to who can build where. For example, in the Pacific Northwest, there have been court battles over housing developments in environmentally sensitive or particularly scenic areas, while "urban sprawl" - the relentless paving over of farmland and wilderness area - is bringing people to blows in some cases.Who would ever have though this problem would come to the MMO gaming world...?
Players of Ultima Online and Star Wars: Galaxies were free to build houses wherever they liked. It wasn't a problem with SWG, because most of the land is wasteland, but in UO this is becoming a problem. One player tells the following story:
"I remember being on a server when housing was introduced, and the day before I had been hunting seal and walrus on an icy island. The day after the island suddenly was a big city, because it had so much flat ground, and the seal and walrus were running around in the streets. And when I some time later wanted to build a house, I searched for two weeks all over the world and couldn't find a flat spot left to place my house deed."
Other problems existed, as other players could easily break into one's house, or simply camp out on the lawn until the house disintegrated from disrepair, then help themselves to one's content. In SWG, houses do not degrade. Some homes abandoned for 3 years still stand, a blight on the virtual landscape that prevents active players from enjoying this aspect of the game.
Now, apparently, some kind of system is being considered in World of Warcraft. Can you imagine The Barrens becoming an over-crowded slum? Vanguard has a system somewhat closer to that of the "real world," which involves specific zoning (for many of the same reasons that real-world cities have these ordinances).
Amazing how, increasingly, the virtual world of gaming is less and less an escape from real-world societal ills.
Via Tobold's MMORPG
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