WE DON'T NEED CORPORATIONS IN GAME TOO! Sure, planet partners can and should be corporations, but individual avatars should not be...
I've sometimes thought about the possibility for "corporations" ingame. Consider an example as when Star wanted people to join to purchase CP, or the "EI fund". They would exist with or without MA support, but with MA support, it would have been possible even for player with smaller budget to buy a slice of CP, if things like profit sharing was automatic.
Also consider the banks.
Now imagine if there were a built-in coroporate function. Then there would be limitations that are enforced by technical rules, for instance an avatar that is the representative for the "Crystal Palace" corporation would, by votes, get certain rights to manage the CP deed, for instance get x% of the total taxes for maintenance, he would be allowed to add fertilizer and to change maturity levels in estate terminals but not destroy DNA, or to restrict (and sell) the estate deed.
And there could be limitations as set up by the EULA, for instance to regulate what an Argus Bank manager avatar can do, it could be stated in EULA that a an coroprate representative avatar is not allowed to do trades not directly related to management of the corporation (he he's allowed to buy fertilizer but not IMK2s) and a corporate avatar is not allowed to engage in ingame activities (ie hunting [including pvp3-4]/mining/crafting/store items for someone else).
Also we already know about a recent example about something that practically is a corporation; shogomat shoti who said he was a representative of a group of people (and thus couldn't make decisions by himself - he had to ask his investors before doing anything).
It's just that things would get much clerarer if there were corporate avatars: We would know if we deal with an individual, or a "corporation". And with with help of built-in systems and EULA rules, there would be less space for cheating by using the corporate avatar in a non-intended way - and less risk someone who buys a share in a land area gets scammed if the pseudo-corporate avatar decided to withdraw and vanish.
Practically, you don't even need special avatars as corporate representatives, you could think of a system where an avatar who is CEO takes on his "hat" when managing the assets a corporation own, and then is limited to certain actions. And, if the CEO avatar is locked for any reason, the corporation still remains, and the shareholders (that aren't locked) can by voting (proportionally to the shares) assign a new CEO. And if a shareholder gets permanently locked, there could be a system where either his shares vanish/gets sold to "TT-value", gets sold in ingame auction, or is offered to the remaining shareholders.
In the worst case: Even if the CEO and all shareholders get locked, the company and its asset, for instance a land area, can continue to live if the shares are sold to other avatars (for instance offered through some "stock exchange").
Again, we already have "corporations" ingame. It's just that some of it is invisible, and the lack of support for it is a loophole for a potential scammer.
