Some Clarifications on the Real Estate Changes

So recently I did this big, long entry about the changes to real estate. Unfortunately, I got some details wrong. However, Monica cleared things some time ago, so I am reposting what she said to get the word out:

What's Really Changed in Real Estate

Real estate has been neatly divided into two different "types"

1.) "Countryside" spaces (spaces that don't exist in any virtual city) will be rental for globals only. Owners of these properties will be able to expand them to their heart's content. However, they will not be able to sell or transfer them to each other. And yes, the more they expand, the more rent they'll have to pay.

2.) Rent for globals has been eliminated for city spaces. Users must buy them with real money. They will not be allowed to expand their properties or "build outside" (for the obvious reasons). They are free, however, to put these places up on the market and resell them.

The changes are in effect for newly created spaces. However, if you had a city property before the transition and want to keep modding it, you'll have to ask Twinity to transfer it to a countryside location. Otherwise, you won't be able to expand it or "build outside".

Why this is great

The changes to real estate are so much better than I had originally thought, because everyone wins in the end:

1) People who want to make money off real estate in Twinity's virtual cities no longer have to worry about their properties being devalued by other players who want to expand their properties indefinitely. 

2) Twinity itself gets to save one of its most important revenue sources-- the selling off of its virtual properties to players.

These new changes also give players options when it comes to that one thing that so many of them are either unwilling or too scared to confront-- the fact that some money will have to be paid towards the game. Now players have a choice of how much money, if any, they'd like to put into Twinity:

1) If someone wants to pay as little *real life* money as possible yet have a home and business in Twinity, he or she can just rent a "countryside" place and then try paying for it by earning globals in various ways-- such as playing the Quiz Game, selling merchandise, entering contests, or using one of the sponsor programs on the site.

2) If someone doesn't like the idea of having to constantly struggle for globals to keep a home in Twinity, he or she can just purchase a city property for a one time fee. For example, say someone purchased an apartment in virtual Berlin for 20 bucks. That's pretty much all this player would have to worry about paying Twinity for the time being, since he'd no longer have to keep buying globals month to month for rent. At most, all he or she would have to worry about is buying globals from time to time for clothing, uploads, and objects.

3) If someone can't afford to buy an apartment but doesn't mind paying Twinity a little bit of money each month for a space, he or she can just rent a countryside property and pay as little as $6.25 USD a month for a decent-sized apartment.

But Won't This Mess Up the Whole Mirror World Concept and Screw Up Twinity's Virtual Real Estate?

So now we get to the $64, 000 question. If people are allowed to build in places other than Twinity's virtual cities, won't those cities-- based on the mirror world concept-- die? And wouldn't real estate die as well, since some players would sooner rent a space for virtual money they could earn than purchase a city property for real money?

There was a time when I was concerned about that very issue. But because of the new way that real estate is set up, I feel that the danger has lessened somewhat. This is because from a logistical standpoint, purchasing city property is the most cost effective way of paying the rent in "countryside" properties. You just buy a property for a one time fee, set up a store, and use the globals from your business earnings to rent as many countryside spaces as you like.

If enough players are smart enough to catch on to this strategy, there will always be a demand for city property as a way of "paying the bills" for countryside properties. This is why I wouldn't worry too much about real estate or Twinity's mirror concept getting damaged-- at least not yet!

There's No Reason to Panic ;-)

Judging from the reactions of many players to Twinity's original blog post about the changes to real estate, it seemed as if many of them were assuming the worst. Hopefully these new clarifications will go a long way in alleviating the panic that seemed to have ensued as a result to those changes.

--Dee