Sorry, I just can’t see that that system will be different enough from what we have now that if makes a difference to me. People are already dropping plots in nice locations to reserve them with the current system. If someone puts extortion plots in a nice place, there is no requirement that you buy them. If they ask for a price that is reasonable, then the player who got out and actually explored the planet for nice locales gets some actual benefit for exploring (I personally think that’s a win, given the lack of other real benefits). If they ask for a ridiculous amount it, then nobody buys it, and nobody wins.
This is even more pertinent given the recently released code of conduct where:
Either people are going to be considerate, or they’re not. If they are, then no problem. If not, the eventually they will do it enough that it can legitimately be considered griefing, and it’ll be dealt with.
Unless you think that extortion and griefing are significantly different and shouldn’t be treated the same? But if that was the case, then extortion is already allowed in game. Look at shops. You’ll see shops where the owner is buying a resource and selling it in the same store for a 1000%+ markup. If is considerate or moral… almost certainly not. Is it extortionate gouging? Probably. It is allowed in the game, if a person wants to do it? Yes, because you’re not forced to participate.
Either this game rewards people for taking the initiative and pushing the market, or it doesn’t. Arbitrarily picking and choosing when and where that’s appropriate is a poor precedent to set. I should probably clarify, I’m not arguing for this because I want to plot land to sell to others. I couldn’t care less and don’t have the RL finances to do that even if I wanted to. My focus is on providing builders a way to build structures with their skill and hand them over, actually having in game mechanics for making money with that playstyle.
As a side note: We also had a similar line of discussion running when plots were added to the Exchange. There was a lot ‘But what if someone plots all the land, because they can buy them with real money’ statements. That doesn’t seem to have happened at all, and I’m glad the developers didn’t actually use the worst-case scenario approach to designing that element of the game.