Bringing more excitement and value to building

First off, let me pose a question. What was one of the big features that made the Sims (tm) so entertaining? Well for me, it was building up my home.

Now you're probably thinking.. "yeah.. and you can do that in SL, too!" Of course, but unless you used the Rosebud code, your resources were limited to how much work you put in! This is what made building so much of a thrill!

My proposition: Make objects a commodity.

While taking away SL users rights to creating as many objects as they want, without using up a limit, would 'sting' a bit, think of the potential for enhanced gaming.

Consider this example. You want to make a house.. but you need, say 500 2x4's. You could have two options: Run to a local hardware store (private ownership.. i'll explain shortly) or Go to a forest and collect it yourself (with a decent amount of effort).

Now why would hardware shops be private? Owners of those shops could collect the resources in the same way as everyone else.. and create a real market for the items.

Meanwhile, these 'forests' (or any suitable environment for collecting resources) are controlled by the Lindens, almost as if they were mother nature.. limiting the amount available, perhaps on a timer.

What we're left with are items that have a value beyond just creativity.

Nowadays, anyone can own a slot machine, sofa, and even a huge house for nothing. What if it actually cost money or effort to create that object. Now you're looking at a economy that becomes closer to RL.

There are many ways this idea can go, and hopefully this thread will spark some brainstorming, and hopefully action from Linden Labs.

I look forward to everyones responses!

We used to have to pay to create things, the more complex the more expensive. And, we had to pay taxes on everything. It was a way to manage a sims resources, but too many loopholes caused the need for the system we have now.

A server can only handle so many objects, roughly 15,000. The rich could afford the taxes and actually hold a server hostage by filling it with their objects so no one else could build. The system we have now is based on the amount of land you own. The number of objects you can create is proportional to the amount of land you have.

It can be frustrating to manage your objects on a small plot, but you are always guarenteed to be able to use your object allotment on your own land. No one can take you hostage.

Its sort of an interesting concept to have to go buy lumber, but I think it will be hard to convince many it is the way to go. I personally would like SL to be less like RL.

While we're at it, lets make Avatars have to piss and eat and hug random people.

im still in favor of how land works with how many objects one may use in a sim..

I just think the value of most objects are very cheapened and you dont feel as much accomplishment building up something that you know is worthless if resold because you can just 'copy'. (In most cases)

Now a needs system is something we tried to move away from, if you put restrictions like having to buy 2x4 s to build a damn house, you have to physicaly rape the entire building system and trun it into dun dun dun! a crafting system, it no longer becomes fun and easy to make what your imagination desires it becomes a cookie cutter plan based system like every other MMORPG on the face of the earth and specificly more like the darn Sims, and what about those that can't afford to buy 500 2x4, hell we have people struggling to buy land for christ's sake let alone worrying how they're going to beable to pay afterward to put something on it. Constricting the users ability to create is definitely not the way to go, the ability to do just about anything in SL is one of the things that has made it as popular as it is and that brought many users from TSO and There and other worlds(among other things)
PS. As for the vaule of things being cheapend....for the most part prices in SL are comperable to those of most poser products sold ove at places like Renderosity though those collections are usualy larger and have multiple textures per clothing item the prices about average out and are usualy perportioned by the creator to the amount of work behind something, why have only like five of one great object in world, sure they'd sell for a lot if they were good(TSO had some bad looking stuff that sells for outragous prices), some of the big clothing people do do the occasional limited release though which is just about the same, if we really wanted to do this with everything it would be more up to the user to decide when to take it off the shelf then LL.

Actually I covered this worry:
"Consider this example. You want to make a house.. but you need, say 500 2x4's. You could have two options: Run to a local hardware store (private ownership.. i'll explain shortly) or Go to a forest and collect it yourself (with a decent amount of effort) "

once agian this brings me back to my main point then it's no longer a building set, it's a crafting system like EQ or Horizons(closer to Horizons though) it's not a worry it's a fact, putting in a needs based system for building would be like castrating a prize stud.

Yeah, I dont really want to spend an hour chopping trees for the right to build for 30 minutes. What a waste of time. I know under this system I could just buy it from someone who wants to spend the time collecting it, but that would also be a drag.

We already pay for the right to build freely. I dont want SL to be work. It sort of reminds me of Age of Empires, it was a drag keeping those guys cutting wood and growing crops, if I was the one that had to do it I would not hang around very long.

There are plenty of games where you have to level and produce to excel. SL has no goals and it allows us the freedom to do as we please. Dont start a drive to make us work at mindless tasks in order to just do as we please. Thats the beauty of SL that kept me here for so long.

Jimbo, maybe you should try 'A Tale in the Desert'. Its a good game for exactly what you're talking about. Collect materials, craft, collect more materials, more crafting, and so on. Eventually you build things that give you some satisfaction. I recomend it for anyone who is seeking the kind of system you want. It's well done and rewarding. If after doing all that labor though, you just want to do some creative stuff, come back to SL.

Jimbo, if you want, I can create a scripted object that'll emulate this that you can have.

For the love of whatever diety you hold sacred, NO!

This is not a 'game'. When I'm building something, my sense of achievement comes from what I create, not the fact that I fulfilled some meaningless task that let me move forward a bit more. SL is just a canvas for ideas. I dont want mindless goals and prequisits inserted to let me do what I want with SL.

And I assure you, you can't just copy anything someone sells you. They have to specificly allow you to do that.