Players want to own houses in the world. Store stuff, customize, bring friends over, etc. However, real estate is too valuable, or you get urban sprawl or huge empty areas. Is there a compromise?
I believe current games could solve this with little change, just by paying attention to the trade off between permanence and risk. That house in the middle of a big city is prime real estate and everyone wants it. So great, let the hardest of hardcore fight over it and actually be able to own the apartment next to the auction house. Towns on the outskirts, out in the wilderness have less valuable property, but still only worth it to the most dedicated players.
What about the casual player that doesn't want to log in every hour to make sure no one is plotting against their claim? Less risk, less commitment, less permanence. Boats are a good solution for the casual masses - mobile homes that can move in and out of the world proper, still providing many of the benefits but without the risks. Mobile fortresses of some sort form a middle ground for guilds who want their own place but can't defend it 24/7. All it takes is inventing an "ether", a not-in-the-world space which these fortresses can move in and out of. Then you simply have a ruleset that allows a guild to "warp in" and park their fortress over downtown, but with the attendant risk of having it nuked out of the sky. Put some kind of cooldown on how long before they can warp back out and you have a reasonable housing system with player controlled risk profiles.
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