I’d be curious to see how they handle the problems which have cropped up with similar systems in the past. Player housing, for example, can be an absolute nightmare. I was actively playing UO back when they implemented player housing, and it was a clusterfuck. You couldn’t go three steps without slamming into someone’s house and most of them ended up being owned by a few big guilds, because space was at such a premium that no one else could afford one. And with the land so littered with houses, they had to create an alternate world to quest in, which specifically didn’t allow player houses. I can also see the systems they are designing becoming a playground rife for griefing. Look at that nice home you built. It would be a shame if someone diverted a river into it while you weren’t online.
MMO’s greatest strength can also be their greatest weakness: and that strength is other people. The more open and free-form a world is, the easier it is for the griefers to find and exploit edge cases.
I’d be curious to see how they handle the problems which have cropped up with similar systems in the past. Player housing, for example, can be an absolute nightmare. I was actively playing UO back when they implemented player housing, and it was a clusterfuck. You couldn’t go three steps without slamming into someone’s house and most of them ended up being owned by a few big guilds, because space was at such a premium that no one else could afford one. And with the land so littered with houses, they had to create an alternate world to quest in, which specifically didn’t allow player houses. I can also see the systems they are designing becoming a playground rife for griefing. Look at that nice home you built. It would be a shame if someone diverted a river into it while you weren’t online.
MMO’s greatest strength can also be their greatest weakness: and that strength is other people. The more open and free-form a world is, the easier it is for the griefers to find and exploit edge cases.