King Richard -> RE: =AQ= Houses With Estates - Discussion (3/11/2009 2:59:49)
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Thanks etching for quoting my first post elsewhere in this thread before editing it to include all the new estate/portal info. I was interested in seeing how AE would deal with the escalating house z-token interest rates, and now it seems we finally have a bigger picture. First they slashed the z-token interest from houses by 40% (from 5% to 3% weekly). Second, they effectively removed the top two highest-price houses by removing all houses in the 11k-18k range, and then shifting the FME and DME down to fill the gap. This change was done so slowly (and unannounced) that relatively few seem to have commented on it. The change in DME cost from 20k to 16k alone will cost DME owners 6250 z-tokens a year in lost interest into perpetuity (assuming they sell and rebuy the DME). Moreover (as fredrick pointed out) owners of the original 20k DMEs who wisely refuse to sell and accept this huge 20% long-term interest loss will never be able to capitalize on the huge value of their houses. This leaves the 20k DME owners on the horns of a dilemma. I'd be interested in hearing from 20k DME owners whether they intend to sell or keep their 20k DMEs. I, like etching, do not intend to sell my 20k DME. Not only was the change in FME and DME prices unannounced, it coincided perfectly with the release of expensive z-token portals into new worlds, tempting people to prematurely sell their (unbeknownst to them in many cases) RARE 20k DMEs for the immediate gratification of getting a head-start on portals, exploring new worlds, etc. Pretty darn sneaky, AE. Of course, as etching so astutely alluded to without actually stating directly, this was all part of AE's plan to reduce the inflated z-token interest from houses so people will buy more z-tokens. As SIGMUND also expressed, I wish AE had been more transparent about the change to FME and DME prices by changing the name of the higher-priced DME/FME to something like... DME/FME CLASSIC and announcing they were going to go rare, similar to what they did with Darksplatter Classic. But then a lot more folks probably would have realized their value and have held on to them, costing AE $ in z-token revenue in the long run. I'm just glad my secondary, who got hosed by the sudden and mysterious 11k-18k gap in housing, barely managed to get to 18k tokens and get the RARE FME CLASSIC before the FME/DME price decrease.
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