Thoughts about Medusa's Head Auction

[Mercury]

Hey all,

I logged in last night just in time to see the auction for the Medusa's Head property finish. The 300k paid for it does not signal a market crash from what I've seen in the past year. What I'd like to point out is the poor planning of an auction by MA or FPC (lord knows who does what part of the game anymore); an auction ending at a time far too late at night for most who play EU. It isn't that people can't stay up to bid, but if they wanted to try to get in cash last minute, could they via wire? Could they go to their bank while it was closed and shift money between accounts?

I am not talking about myself, I do not deposit and had already decided not to form a group this time around. Why didn't I want to bid on Medusa's Head?

TIERING! I really think it is total bullshit the way the system was changed and not one person got on this forum and explained it or offered compensation. As I said before, I came out fine from the tier change; however, how can they just ignore all the people who lost such valuable items? It shakes community trust and leads to this sort of thing happening. I am having trouble understanding how FPC Pioneer has time to answer 50 questions about Mayhem and yet not 1 person said shit about the tier change. Other than pointing the finger at MA and saying it was their change. Well then I suppose we need a MindArk forum too now? A MindArk community representative too? Or is there one already?

Qeteshakoz got a good deal on this land. It is worth 1.5M PED. I wish him the best with it. He's not my favorite person in EU but whatever, we all have our faults. Grats on the LA and please make some sumima stalkers.

As for other property, I'll take any LA for 100k as long as I have time to free up PED or seek investors. I can't just summon money via credit card like other people because I don't and won't deposit.

I know EU isn't ending soon. I still love this game and have had a great 2010. Won WoF as USA Captain, Eomon ATH 180k value, won 124k in Naomi's contest, bought a Proteron LA with Skippie, and just won 2 LA's in Mayhem with UU. A great year by any standard.

I am asking MA for this in 2011: Hire a knowledgable player to help test things (I volunteer my account in order to work for you to make EU better), communicate via the forum (do we need a MA forum?), and be mindful of people's investments as well as market value of items.

Take care all and have a happy and healthy 2011.

 

[mastermesh]

Qeteshakoz got a good deal on this land. It is worth 1.5M PED.

Things are only worth what are paid for them. Remember MA only guarantees the TT value, and TT value of a deed is zero.

As far as tiering goes, the change was a good thing. Many were not willing to risk the chance of loosing items just to increase the number of slots in the items. The need to own two items just to increase the tier level of one of the two was super silly to begin with as it created a false sense of supply/demand in the global rce. An avatar can only equip one item at a time so forcing an avatar to have duplicates of the same item was complete and utter nonsense.

Since the change happened, many more are using items and are more then happy to pay more to upgrade the tier levels since the chance of loosing the item is not there any more, even if the chance of loosing the other ingredients is still there. (just wish the price of some stuff like the the Medical Compress for upgrading EK-2600 was lower)

 

[Audrey Cheerful]

Things are only worth what are paid for them.

This ^! Thank you!

 

[SamNinja]

...

I read your post and it although it's somewhat of a rant, I agree with parts of it.

 

[SpikeBlack]

Well looking at two others who could have made a bid.

Nevedie is broke, he had to sell CND to keep his studio running.
Deathifier is investing in another planet so doubtful.

Taking those out of contention your looking at who is capable of raising $200,000 / 2Mped which was the estimate many were making. If all the estates were sold seperately then they could have allowed many more to attempt a bid but there are so few players willing to deposit $200-$300,000 that the result wasn't that big of a surprise.

At the price it ended at I could have a bid but knowing that I'd be up against a consortium estimating the price to be about 2Mped then I know I could have been outbid easily by them and I'd be wasting the transfer fees (my banks £ to $).

To say it ending when it did was a discentive isn't really valid in this case. If it were armor or any other item then yes but if a 3am end time stopped someone bidding on this then they weren't that interested in the first place.

If details of how much was in the warchest of the Qetesh's group was known if only by a few then who'd be mad enough to deposit as a single player, just join the group.

 

[kingjehu]

Come on... Star posts and you guys light up your flamethrowers...

I thank you for the post Star...

It stated why you did not bid, which some people will wonder...
It gave your assesment of the value...
It gave your begrudging, but still confidence in Calypso... which some people are claiming the sky is falling.


MA will never come out and address this auction and what it means, so I thank you, as someone who understands this game FAR MORE then myself, for clarifying the situation a bit, and not coming out with a tin foil hat to say the game is busted because of this sale, though we all know the company could make some benificial changes.


JEHU

 

[Mercury]

1) I agree things are worth what someone will pay: The end time of the auction was foolish.
I'd have paid 1M PED np, as would neomaven after speaking to him on skype this morning.

2) I'm not "jealous": Sure I'd have liked it for cheap but I've gotten other things for cheap and have never looked at what others had in my life and wanted it. I want what I can get, not what other have.

3) Tier System change: Compensation isn't needed but a statement by the company as well as some questions answered would be the least they could do as compensation?

 

[Raffaele Meiers]

Hey all,

I logged in last night just in time to see the auction for the Medusa's Head property finish. The 300k paid for it does not signal a market crash from what I've seen in the past year. What I'd like to point out is the poor planning of an auction by MA or FPC (lord knows who does what part of the game anymore); an auction ending at a time far too late at night for most who play EU. It isn't that people can't stay up to bid, but if they wanted to try to get in cash last minute, could they via wire? Could they go to their bank while it was closed and shift money between accounts?
...

Just to point out this is because Auction Timer is stopped during VU's, Maintenance etc. so therefore the Ending wasplanned for the Evening of the 3rd of January Swedish time but becuase of the VU's and Updates for MM etc. was pushed back to end early in the Morning of the 4th....

Made a Support case to moan about this some weeks ago and explained to Support that it makes my well timed auctions end at the wrong times.

Now maybe they will take care of it and only postpone Auctions witch would end during VU's and not all Auctions.

 

[XeroX2]

Just to point out this is because Auction Timer is stopped during VU's, Maintenance etc. so therfore the Ending wasplanned for the Evening of the 3rd of January Swedish time but becuase of the VU's and Updates for MM etc. was pushed back to end early in the Morning of the 4th....

Made a Support case to moan about this some weeks ago and explained to Support that it makes my well timed auctions end at the wrong times.

Now maybe they will take care of it and only postpone Auctions witch would end during VU's and not all Auctions.

thanks for pointing this out and thanks for confirming the LA price which some others tried to conceal.

 

[Terminator]

Just to point out this is because Auction Timer is stopped during VU's, Maintenance etc. so therfore the Ending wasplanned for the Evening of the 3rd of January Swedish time but becuase of the VU's and Updates for MM etc. was pushed back to end early in the Morning of the 4th....

Made a Support case to moan about this some weeks ago and explained to Support that it makes my well timed auctions end at the wrong times.

Now maybe they will take care of it and only postpone Auctions witch would end during VU's and not all Auctions.

I hope so!

 

[Droops]

Why didn't I want to bid on Medusa's Head?

TIERING! I really think it is total bullshit the way the system was changed and not one person got on this forum and explained it or offered compensation. As I said before, I came out fine from the tier change; however, how can they just ignore all the people who lost such valuable items?

It's not only about tiering but ignorance/arrogance or whatever which keeps being displayed in many fields

who is capable of raising $200,000 / 2Mped which was the estimate many were making

Thats not the problem i think, enough people (or even a small group) who have no problems at all freeing up these kind of amounts.
If people really want something and have the cash they will get it so the problem lies deeper indeed.

I am having trouble understanding how FPC Pioneer has time to answer 50 questions about Mayhem and yet not 1 person said shit about the tier change.

Well take it from the bright side i find Pioneers posts/feedback refreshing and much needed and lets hope its a start.
I totally agree that more feedback/open discussions/answers and whatever MUST be given on lots of different areas.
Whether it be MA/FPC or other Planetpartners that does not matter much even while most of us understand the "relationship" between them.

If i spend xxxxxxx on a new car/house/boat hell even an electric toothbrush in most cases i know exactly what i get, where i can go to and what to expect while in here ? which in some cases i even find insulting

Bad timing, trust and a few other "minor" glitches might be the unexpected outcome of this particular Sale.

I am asking MA for this in 2011: Hire a knowledgable player to help test things

To take the MM bug, this requires "static" testing which also seems to be an issue and could have been avoided ofcourse if proper testing had been done.
No need for a knowledgable player here.
No need for this in most of the cases actually to filter out the programming errors.


Regards,

Droops

 

[Davies Davies]

Star is right, and Droops too.

And personaly I am very pleased to see it is sold only for 300K and not some crazy record breaking 3 million peds

In the past there were so much record breaking sales, but we never see those money being invested back to the game for the community, like fixing some bugs or compensations for the missing features.

Today I see a rare momment of justice in EU, somehow everyone gets what they deserve ...

 

[Endi]

Thanks, Star, for sharing your thoughts about how MA and FPC could improve customer relations.

....

Sorry, SamNinja, but I did not read any hint of jealousy or ranting.

Medusa Head
I agree that the auction for Medusa Head was mis-timed, but also in relation to the holidays and Merry Mayhem. (What percentage of people spend large amounts of money upon family and friends for Christmas and New Year's?) If the deed had been sold before November 15th, more people would have had more monies available and might have been able to form competitive bidding consortia. FPC must have been aware of the holidays when they had the auction lot expire soon after Christmas and New Year's.

The Merry Mayhem event, itself, crashed the general volume of normal auction sales for purchases not directly related to Merry Mayhem. At a rough commitment level for decay and ammo of around 3.5 PEDs (TT value) per point, that works out more than 4MM PEDs in decay and ammo for just the top 20 contestants (and their support teams) in each category. (Also, with extreme over-decay and over-burn, average TT return on expenses was horrible for Merry Mayhem participants.)

Let's hope for FPC's sake that the next big auction will not end on April 16, the day after personal income taxes are due in USA.

Tiering
Conceptually, tiering is a good thing(TM) for both MA/FPC and players because tiering gives players customization options. People like to have things their way and will pay for to get things their way.

The original implementation was overly punitive (it required a second like item which could be consumed during the tiering process). Even now, the components required to tier up items can have higher TT values than the base items, and for what: an option invest more in enhancers (with unknown Mean Uses Between Failure) to realize an additional level or 5% of performance? Skill enhancers (an effective increase of one professional level) are nearly worthless for old-school, non-SIB items. Accuracy enhancers are really only of limited use to PvPers (increase in critical hit chance, with a corresponding increase in misses).

People have more confidence in certainty than in uncertainty. To increase player confidence in and usage of enhancers, MA/FPC should provide MUBF or breakage chance for Enhancers, and rethink the cost/benefit for tiering and enchancers to players.

 

[Zorander]

Things are only worth what are paid for them. Remember MA only guarantees the TT value, and TT value of a deed is zero.

I do see your point, but in the case of a land area or shop the worth isn't in the TT value of the deed. The worth is in the PED you can generate from the property. So I suppose the worth of the land really depends greatly on what the owner(s) does with it. In the case of Medusa with the scip and sumima DNA at least 2 of the LA's will do rather well I imagine.

The return on the medusa group's investment of 300k ped should be very quick indeed. I suspect that is what we'll see in the press release in place of the record breaking sale numbers. What investor doesn't like to see a 100% return in under a year?

 

[Mega]

I think the original deadline of the auction was around midnight, but auctions freeze when a VU takes place, and as we had a few VU's / patches between the deed being entered and the end date, it ended up being 3:15am GMT. As you say this far too late for Europe, although an ideal time for USA. I'd imagine if the end date was 8pm GMT, there would have been complaints from your side of "the pond"


With regards to tiering, they had to change it due to low value items not being worth tiering, high value items too risky to tier (well for your average player - especially at higher tiers) and unique items werent possible to tier. As a result I think they decided it needing altering as not enough tiering was being carried out.

As for those who lost out, I sympathise, every time MA / FPC makes a change or nerf, people lose out.


I think LA prices may have taken a knock with this sale, but no one forces an owner to sell and no one forces a buyer to pay over the odds, so the sale price will be somewhere in between as usual.

New mobs will undoubtedly arrive in 2011, and DNA availability will be as just as much a factor into the desirability of being a land owner.

 

[aridash]

Just to point out this is because Auction Timer is stopped during VU's, Maintenance etc. so therefore the Ending wasplanned for the Evening of the 3rd of January Swedish time but becuase of the VU's and Updates for MM etc. was pushed back to end early in the Morning of the 4th....

evening of the 3rd or early morning of the 4th is slightly acedemic. there is an underlying problem of having the auction end over a bank holiday. i assume its a bank holiday in Sweden and most other countries? even if not, can you reliably get substantial funds moved inter-country in a day? really the whole christmas/new year is a poor choice of time for this sort of auction, it would be better two weeks earlier. as it is, it seems clear some who may have been able to pay more ingame simply didnt think noone else was ready either, just left it for each other. lol.

 

[Aladding -2]

Our players are smarter and smarter, they know how to use telephone to gain profit from MA, sky isn't falling, more ppl will support it in the later future.

Watch carefully, it is no sense to give MA New Year's bonus. It is a grate moment our player work together to gain profit from buying and selling virtual property, not MA's turn this time.

Long live the player ! Long live Star !

 

[ChairmanEdgewise]

Our players are smarter and smarter, they know how to use telephone to gain profit from MA, sky isn't falling, more ppl will support it in the later future.

Watch carefully, it is no sense to give MA New Year's bonus. It is a grate moment our player work together to gain profit from buying and selling virtual property, not MA's turn this time.

Long live the player ! Long live Star !

Word...

I love that Medusa sold for such a small amount, absolutely amazing.

 

[aia]

I somewhere read something like,
"Look! Every player can do this" (buy Medusa for 300k ped).

That's not my general feeling. My general feeling was, general rich player who knew they couldn't match Qetesh in terms of funds stayed off. At least, stayed off spending time bidding in the end of auction.

Just because Qetesh was able to buy it for 308k peds, doesn't mean anyone else (without backing PEDs to continue bidding) could.

And as for the group of investors, since I'm pretty sure it was a closed group with specially invited people, those people was the ones that got a bargain.

From the perspective of a genera player outside that group, probably will get less as less peds will be "cycled back into the economy" - but we probably will need to pay as much taxes hunting/mining there as hunting/mining on land areas that did cost the buyer way more PEDs.

Again, gratz to a real bargain. (As was the land area next to the TP in vu 9). But this achievment is nothign a normal palyer will gain from, as I see it. (Well unless more money is cycled back by buying teleporters and outposts - but if the investor people outnumbers the active player people, I guess a minimal amount of PEDs would be spent on the land areas.)

At least Star was honest, telling us about his investor group and offered people to join.

As for tiering: The old tiering system sucked imho, because if you had a semi-rare item, there was no chance to tier it up if you weren't able to borrow one. Someone (Marco?) said somethng like "you haven't seen the entire system yet", but well after half a year there was still no option. I would have wanted the option to "gamble" with my only item. (I'm still waiting to tier up my rifle; after the change the bottleneck went from item to Opal...)

I think I could sum the result of the auction: "The rich just got richer".

 

[Xavier Target]

Maybe exactly what is planned

The return on the medusa group's investment of 300k ped should be very quick indeed. I suspect that is what we'll see in the press release in place of the record breaking sale numbers. What investor doesn't like to see a 100% return in under a year?

Seems to me that it is likely MA was well aware that the timing of the Medusa sale would affect the possible sale price negatively. I bought a new car right after xmas one year, but that was because my current car broke down and needed expensive repairs which I was not willing to do. In general, large purchases are not a popular choice shortly after xmas and before tax return time. Perhaps MA wanted this sale to be for a low price and the buyers to be able to be financially successful in a short amount of time. A different kind of headline than the headlines produced by previous sales.

To be honest it was the previous headline which got me to check out EU. I quickly came to the conclusion though that profiting from EU is a rare event for any player, but it is possible. (just like the Lotto) I am also unwilling to put in the PED necessary to make a purchase of a revenue generating land area or speculative items.

The long loot droughts dry up the ped fast and make it impossible to play at a high level without depositing increasing amount. The alternative is to scale back your level of play to decrease costs which I will likely have to due as my wife would lynch me if she saw me dumping the kind of money some put into this game. $25 a month is one thing. $100's and $1k's is outa my league. Guess I'll be putting my armor and nice guns in storage then run around in an orange jumper with an opallo for awhile. Maybe I'll even do some rookie mining. Sweeeeeeeeeeeet!!!(gag!) Guess I am reaching the acceptence stage of EU play.... I've realized I can't afford to fight the bigger mobs.... Better watch out Punys! I'll sell my jumpsuit for ammo if I have too. Where is that oil well anyway? If I'm gonna wear the jumpsuit I should make the oil well dash...

 

[xX Gently Xx]

I somewhere read something like,
"Look! Every player can do this" (buy Medusa for 300k ped).

That's not my general feeling. My general feeling was, general rich player who knew they couldn't match Qetesh in terms of funds stayed off. At least, stayed off spending time bidding in the end of auction.

Just because Qetesh was able to buy it for 308k peds, doesn't mean anyone else (without backing PEDs to continue bidding) could.

And as for the group of investors, since I'm pretty sure it was a closed group with specially invited people, those people was the ones that got a bargain.

From the perspective of a genera player outside that group, probably will get less as less peds will be "cycled back into the economy" - but we probably will need to pay as much taxes hunting/mining there as hunting/mining on land areas that did cost the buyer way more PEDs.

Again, gratz to a real bargain. (As was the land area next to the TP in vu 9). But this achievment is nothign a normal palyer will gain from, as I see it. (Well unless more money is cycled back by buying teleporters and outposts - but if the investor people outnumbers the active player people, I guess a minimal amount of PEDs would be spent on the land areas.)

At least Star was honest, telling us about his investor group and offered people to join.

As for tiering: The old tiering system sucked imho, because if you had a semi-rare item, there was no chance to tier it up if you weren't able to borrow one. Someone (Marco?) said somethng like "you haven't seen the entire system yet", but well after half a year there was still no option. I would have wanted the option to "gamble" with my only item. (I'm still waiting to tier up my rifle; after the change the bottleneck went from item to Opal...)

I think I could sum the result of the auction: "The rich just got richer".

well actually Quetesh and Squall made a thread looking for investors.

https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/...r-Co-owners-of-Medusa-s-Head&highlight=medusa

so u or I could be the lucky ones too

 

[Qetesh]

I somewhere read something like,
"Look! Every player can do this" (buy Medusa for 300k ped).

That's not my general feeling. My general feeling was, general rich player who knew they couldn't match Qetesh in terms of funds stayed off. At least, stayed off spending time bidding in the end of auction.

Just because Qetesh was able to buy it for 308k peds, doesn't mean anyone else (without backing PEDs to continue bidding) could.

And as for the group of investors, since I'm pretty sure it was a closed group with specially invited people, those people was the ones that got a bargain.

...

At least Star was honest, telling us about his investor group and offered people to join.

It is true you couldn't have gotten it for 300k in this particular case since my groups war chest was well above 2 million peds. However anyone was free to join our open investment group (https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/...202640-Looking-for-Co-owners-of-Medusa-s-Head). Once we get a share trading system in place it should be possible for new (and old) investors to take part as well.

 

[sndlwood]

Does the bidder feel retarded because he forced the bid to 300K PED in the first place? Maybe they could have paid a lot less.

Does the bidder feel retarded because he outbid himself (what was it 4 times)? Was that smart bidding strategy since we knew he had at least 600K PED to bid with? Did that alone intimidate other bidders?

Does MA feel retarded because they didn't post a buy-out bid of at least 1M PED, maybe 2M? Could they have taken in way more?

 

[Karmic]

300K is obviously a good deal but I think 2M value is an overestimation. The lack of competitive DNA on calypso means there are two useful DNA's and the rest of the islands will be empty of anything unique or interesting for a long time. Land areas on new planets would be more attractive than land area #60 whatever on Calypso. Honestly if I were to deposit a significant amount of money to buy a land area I'd rather take a risk on Rocktropia or Next Island in the hopes that there will be more variety there.

The best thing that can come out of this is for FPC to stop selling a new big land area every year and work on giving the current landowners more variety on the land they have. Raise the value of land by making land more attractive to own.

There was plenty of time for people to deposit funds for the auction if they wanted to, and the big guys know there will be a big land auction every year so you can't have been surprised. If no individual or group formed to compete with Qetesh it simply means nobody else really wanted to badly enough.

 

[aia]

300K is obviously a good deal but I think 2M value is an overestimation.

Considering it's 9 "items" (7 LAs, one mall and one hangar) it's a very good deal. It's roughly 33k/item. Then add value of very nice apartments (probably worth at least 500 ped each).

As for the hangar, this is the first hangar sold (by MA) since last one (=that came with CND). Not a bad thing either.

The lack of competitive DNA on calypso means there are two useful DNA's and the rest of the islands will be empty of anything unique or interesting for a long time.
Well, theoretically (at least) one low-end and one high-end spawn each of the two mobs. Enough to cover 4 land areas.

And if I got a land area for free, I wouldn't mind a land area with just the birds on it. Or when taming comes back, maybe a low-density exo stalker LA where miners can mine without getting overrun, and still possibility for leisure taming skilling. (Yes I have exo DNA in storage.)

Another LA option for Qetesh merps - I guess he missed a LA to be able to have both low- and higher maturity merps (for the iron and bronze mission). And again merps aren't rare DNA.

Land areas on new planets would be more attractive than land area #60 whatever on Calypso. Honestly if I were to deposit a significant amount of money to buy a land area I'd rather take a risk on Rocktropia or Next Island in the hopes that there will be more variety there.

First, I doubt land areas would be that cheap on new planets. At 33k PED, my guess would be that the "planet founders" would keep their land areas by themselves, or maybe give them to employees.

Secondly, hunting on other planets suffers from another handicap: the 80 ped fee to get there (out of which Qetesh now will get his share). (Keep in mind you'd want to get back to Calypso eventually to refresh your (L) armor, or to get new (L) weapons, unless you got shadow & mm).

The best thing that can come out of this is for FPC to stop selling a new big land area every year and work on giving the current landowners more variety on the land they have.

Another option: To, somehow, make it possible for other people than top-5 socs (mayhem prize) & top-5 richest (getting invited into a secret corporation) to be able to feel how it is to run a land area. (Landgrab? Remember last landgrab socs below top 50 was explicitly excluded by rules and there hasn't been any LG since.)

Raise the value of land by making land more attractive to own.

Well, that's nice for the land owners. But will depositing players want to deposit more, so existing land- and hangar owners can withdraw more?

There was plenty of time for people to deposit funds for the auction if they wanted to, and the big guys know there will be a big land auction every year so you can't have been surprised. If no individual or group formed to compete with Qetesh it simply means nobody else really wanted to badly enough.

Or, most people that have funds enough were contacted by Qetesh and got an invitation, and people who didn't realized it would be too tough to compete? (The repeated bids by Qetesh was a statement: "I want this. If you bid, be prepared for a fight.") And i guess most people who would join would realize the bids could go up to 2M range - and assuming that, wouldn't even bother depositing say 600k PEDs (or - maybe harder - sell items worth 600k PED and not be able to reverse the trades if auction is lost).

Or, as simple as having the last landgrab in mind: "This is a small world. Instead of we fighting eachother, let's try to cooperate to bring our costs down. If enough of us cooperate, we'll send discrete information about the arrangement to presmptive competetitors, and as for the general population we don't want more work than necessary so let's keep quiet until we have the deed, then we can start our public business."

It wouldn't surprise me if Star, when asking around, was given some information about the group lead by Qetesh ("sorry, your offer looks interestng but I've been contacted by another group that looks more promising"), and therefore dropped the idea, basically because he realized Qetesh would have more investors on his side than him (star), and decided not to waste any resources to even try.

Maybe a way to do this next year, would be that MA instead of selling a land area, would sell shares in it, and that way even ordinary players could get an interest. I think it would be more fun for a normal player (who's not profiting) to hunt on a land area he has a real share on (and probably get the tax he pays back), than hunting on a land area owned by an anounymous group of people who'll withdraw every PED not spent on fertilizers.

 

[Tubbs]

.

 

[Karmic]

Another LA option for Qetesh merps - I guess he missed a LA to be able to have both low- and higher maturity merps (for the iron and bronze mission). And again merps aren't rare DNA.

I think there is a big difference between "yay another merp LA!" and, "Oh cool Mourner DNA finally dropped".

First, I doubt land areas would be that cheap on new planets. At 33k PED, my guess would be that the "planet founders" would keep their land areas by themselves, or maybe give them to employees.


Secondly, hunting on other planets suffers from another handicap: the 80 ped fee to get there (out of which Qetesh now will get his share). (Keep in mind you'd want to get back to Calypso eventually to refresh your (L) armor, or to get new (L) weapons, unless you got shadow & mm).

I don't expect land areas to be 33k ped, but If I could buy a Rocktropia or NI land area for that right now I would. Under 100k ped is something to consider, 300k ped, for me, is not. For others, sure, we all have our personal limits. The travel fee is a problem until the planets themselves have a working economy. I don't expect a land area sale on Next island to occur before blueprints start dropping and a lot of other things happen.

Another option: To, somehow, make it possible for other people than top-5 socs (mayhem prize) & top-5 richest (getting invited into a secret corporation) to be able to feel how it is to run a land area. (Landgrab? Remember last landgrab socs below top 50 was explicitly excluded by rules and there hasn't been any LG since.)

Land grabs are a different story, spreading those out more is a good idea.

Well, that's nice for the land owners. But will depositing players want to deposit more, so existing land- and hangar owners can withdraw more?

I don't understand what you are saying here. If there is more new DNA that would make owning a land area more attractive, and depositing players that want a land area will deposit in order to buy them thus supporting the prices. That is the cause of what I believe to be a raise in Land Area value, not an effect. More DNA -> more interest in land areas -> higher prices not more DNA -> higher prices -> more deposits.

Or, most people that have funds enough were contacted by Qetesh and got an invitation, and people who didn't realized it would be too tough to compete? (The repeated bids by Qetesh was a statement: "I want this. If you bid, be prepared for a fight.") And i guess most people who would join would realize the bids could go up to 2M range - and assuming that, wouldn't even bother depositing say 600k PEDs (or - maybe harder - sell items worth 600k PED and not be able to reverse the trades if auction is lost).

Or, as simple as having the last landgrab in mind: "This is a small world. Instead of we fighting eachother, let's try to cooperate to bring our costs down. If enough of us cooperate, we'll send discrete information about the arrangement to presmptive competetitors, and as for the general population we don't want more work than necessary so let's keep quiet until we have the deed, then we can start our public business."

It wouldn't surprise me if Star, when asking around, was given some information about the group lead by Qetesh ("sorry, your offer looks interestng but I've been contacted by another group that looks more promising"), and therefore dropped the idea, basically because he realized Qetesh would have more investors on his side than him (star), and decided not to waste any resources to even try.

Maybe a way to do this next year, would be that MA instead of selling a land area, would sell shares in it, and that way even ordinary players could get an interest. I think it would be more fun for a normal player (who's not profiting) to hunt on a land area he has a real share on (and probably get the tax he pays back), than hunting on a land area owned by an anounymous group of people who'll withdraw every PED not spent on fertilizers.

The main parties involved have denied any sort of agreement, that doesn't mean it didn't happen. My statement was simply meant to convey that the price was so low because there wasn't any competition willing to challenge Qetesh whatever the reasons. I think the reasons have more to do with a general lack of desire for Medusa's Head. It may also be that other bidders gave up because they expected it to go for a lot more, and if another large area were sold now it would go for more since others realize they have a chance. Getting together 2M ped to bid on it and losing to someone else isn't very attractive either.