[Wollongong]

I have just submitted two support cases with some suggestions. I am not entirely sure yet whether I did this against my better judgement, but okay.

Please read the suggestions, and if you like them, submit your own support case with the same suggestions, so MA may know that there is some popular demand for it (which I expect there will be, as these suggestions are inspired by this forum, and another RCE which is appealing to many).

1: Shop-buyers (based on this thread

Support Case 132045 history
20 Jan 2008 You wrote:
A suggestion I came across in a discussion somewhere, and which I really think you guys ought to implement: a shop-buyer.

Basically, this is your average shopkeeper in reverse: instead of selling stuff at a set price (set by the owner), it will BUY stuff at a set price.

Say I need a regular supply of belkar for my crafting, I could then set the shop-buyer to buy belkar @ xxx% of tt. If wanted, the owner could also set a max (buy 10 Belkar @ xxx%), or unlimited (in this case, the buying would stop if the buyer has no more money, of course).

This would very much help the economy, and also the newer players, who have difficulty getting along. It will not cost you anything in terms of lost deposits, as the money the sellers receive has to be deposited by someone else.

Please do this!

2: Cities (based on a post I made in a thread in these forums)

Support Case 132048 history
20 Jan 2008 You wrote:
Cities... Hadesheim, for instance... should be alive and vibrant. But they are not. Only place with some live is PA, and Twin. Why?

Because the other cities have nothing to offer.

I posted in a forum once that you guys could learn a lot from that other real-currency-economy in which Anshe Chung is also doing business.

The cities have GREAT potential, but you just don't do anything with it.

Possibilities:
- Yes, build a hospital in one, or two cities, where people can be healed for little money.
- Yes, build some shops there, skip the whole tt thing where you can get everything from the terminal. This doesn't mean that items are no longer buyable from the game, but you just have to GO to certain places, just get a mall, with a tt mining equipment store, a tt gunshop, a tt ammo store etcetera. Spread the shops around, and have "empty" shops in between them. The empty shops will be rented by people who want to sell "similar stuff". For instance: between a tt-lasergun shop (selling Opalo, and Omegaton) and an ammo shop, a crafter who builds M1a can rent a shop. People who are used to the Opalo, come across the M1, and buy it. Good for the economy.

If you force people to come to the city to buy stuff, then you get traffic, making the empty shops more interesting, which will then be sold (and paid for maintenance).

- Yes, get some bars open, hell, let players be able to buy them and select the music to play there (obviously.. with a bit more censorship than in that "other RCE", to avoid all the furry-porn and other adult stuff normal people do not want to encounter).

- Societies: give them the opportunity to "own" an HQ: a floor in one of the big buildings would be great for it.

- Open the stockmarket in city A, create a school in city B (with tutorials and such).

All this may cost a bit of money, yes. But it will create traffic, and may increase earning potentials. Not only could sales of appartments rise, but it'd be more fun in general, making people stick around longer. Also, you will appeal to that other group of clients, the ones who now use SL a lot, to "buy a house" and "go to parties"

MA could even chuck in one or two advertising boards, and play RL advertising in it. If there are people around, it is bound to make some income.

Thank you for reading. I hope you like this initiative, and are willing to support it by posting this, or something similar, in a support case for MA as well.

UPDATE march 2nd 2008

3.

Sir, madame,
I have noticed that a lot of shops in the malls advertise stuff. I noticed LA messages are saying at what time a player is online. BUT... we can't get in touch with them.

Therefore, I'd like to suggest a new feature, which can be used on properties (land, shops, appartments etc): the mailbox.

The mailbox enables visitors to send a message to the owner of the estate. This message would appear in the same way as any other message (like auction sales, or "you entered a LA" etc. The recipient can then read the message, and reply, upon which a reply is possible.

WHY, you may ask?
If a shopowner has, for instance, a number of M1, M2 and M4s, and I am looking for an M3... I could get in touch with him, asking him to put an M3 in his shop as well.
Such a system works in Second Life, that other RCE, and to my experience, it sure increases the speed of the economy. More is being produced faster. And for you too, it would help: the shopowner will increase his turnover, increasing the tax income of transactions, making malls more attractive again.

Will this gain you guys cash directly? Probably not. But it WILL increase the amount of trades, and hence the amount of overall economic activity in the game, thus in the long run, increasing your income.

This is the content of my latest suggestion to MA. If you like this concept, please support it by filing a support case suggesting the same, or similar idea.

Also, if something is unclear, ask, so I might edit the suggestion so that MA knows what I mean more clearly