Metaverse: Is Land Scarcity Good or Bad?

Virtual real estate has a lengthy history in the gaming business, beginning with Ultima Online in the 1990s, Second Lives in the early 2000s, Final Fantasy 14 (FFXIV), and Elder Scroll Online in the 2010s. Traditionally, video gaming has been a one-way relationship between the game developers and players, with the latter spending their money and time simply playing the game. 

As technology progresses to the blockchain, the relationship between the two parties has now changed to where players can "own" a piece of the game, either in the form of NFTs or fungible tokens. For instance, one can acquire a land parcel in a metaverse platform such as The Sandbox, Decentraland, Somnium Space, and Voxels (formerly known as Cryptovoxels). Blockchain technology is critical in opening up an existing closed virtual economy and connecting it to the real-world economy. Thus, owning virtual real estate has been the driving narrative of the web3 metaverse.