Another option is to extract a different sort of price for the settlement of new territories - risk and death.
If the "newly opened" continent is a hideously dangerous, wild environment - one that will effectively take years of gameplay by thousands of people to tame - then the virtual economy will probably boom instead of being destabalized, as support of the "brave explorers" and first few colonists becomes a part of the economy...
Of course, the new continent would need to have the riches (resources) to make settling it potentially worthwhile. Still, that can be managed easily enough; and unlike the real world, the expansionist economy can literally be kept up forver, since the virtual space is limitless.
Re:virtual inflation (Score:1)
If the "newly opened" continent is a hideously dangerous, wild environment - one that will effectively take years of gameplay by thousands of people to tame - then the virtual economy will probably boom instead of being destabalized, as support of the "brave explorers" and first few colonists becomes a part of the economy...
Of course, the new continent would need to have the riches (resources) to make settling it potentially worthwhile. Still, that can be managed easily enough; and unlike the real world, the expansionist economy can literally be kept up forver, since the virtual space is limitless.
-Samrobb