I have about 1.75 million worth of property. That is 175k per month at 10%.
Ok, taxes are good and all, but taxes are also implemented to serve a purpose. At this point, there is no real purpose to add taxes. We all know that taxes irl are to help pave roads, water lines etc. This is not the real world. On a server like this, there are several reasons why there should be taxes:
1- Keep housing space available for more players instead of people like me taking all the prime real estate
2- Avoid an excess of decayed houses by using taxes as a deterrent
3- Taxes force players to play more to pay them
4- Taxes could be collected, counted and used as prizes or contribute to an in game lottery system for those who paid them
--Just a suggestion
These are all great reasons to HAVE taxes...when the game has a sustainable player base.
At this point, that is not what we have. Let us further examine points 1 to 3:
1- More space is not needed for new players because there are none
2- Once houses decay due to inactivity they should be deleted before taxes are implemented...although taxes should be implemented when the player base recovers and new players are being recruited on a more regular basis.
3- At this point taxes on housing may entice players to come back and hunt a bit....for a while. This will soon change to having to work on an empty server with no fun to pay for taxes. This will probably push people to question if being taxes for lack of fun is worth their time. Then it becomes a stay or quit situation that I am sure everyone would rather avoid.
So, what I would suggest, in my humblest opinion
is this:
A- Implement any vital patches that are left
B- Mass mail everyone on the forums giving an update and a link tot he change logs and the download link
C- Recruit using the top 100 list and a recruitment drive that would reward the player who refers the most new players
D- Fully staff the game with player GMs etc. PAY THEM with ingame gold to their player accounts. The more events, the more pay they get. Simple as that. Add in performance reviews to keep them honest and effective.
E- Add taxes now.
F- Work on major team/guild quests and other cool things that will keep players logged on.
So what I am saying is that adding taxes too early can be shooting ourselves in the foot. While taxes are a vital part of our game, they are not going to help in the short term.
Sorry, it was a long post.
I agree with everything, except paying the staffs player account. That is unfair, I would be staff for free, and there getting payed for it!