The answer, at least in the world of Star Wars Galaxies, came to me over last Thanksgiving. I had to suddenly leave on short notice to head home and the farthest thing from my mind while I gathered together my luggage, was logging onto SWG and paying the maintenance on my large Naboo house. I also had a vendor stocked full of the latest Master Tailor made items at low prices. What I found on my return from my Thanksgiving vacation was that I had not paid enough on my house to keep it in perfect condition. Now for those of you who do not play Star Wars Galaxies and after this experience you can count me among those who don’t, you might not know what that means. I arrived back in the game to find my house had poofed and all items within it had also evaporated.

So my time in Star Wars Galaxies has ended, all that work simply disappearing was too frustrating to continue. But it did put a thought into my head. What if player housing and towns went a step further? What if you could hire other players to manage you house for you? What about investing in other player’s products or fields? How about being able to hire a housesitter while you’re away on vacation to feed your animals or restock your vendors? Perhaps adding such features makes online MMO games depart too much from adventuring and engaging in battles. Maybe adding in such features makes the game a bit too social and starts to creep towards the type of game that you might find with the name “Sims” in front of it.