Business become resource-generators. I think that owning a business should be lucrative; and not just for those training vision. I propose the following setup:

• Business Owners generate "stock" or "clout" in their respective cities when their business is founded and each time someone visits.
• This clout can then be exchanged for resources in the following ways:
  • Launder Money - Exchange clout for money. (Lowest Cost)
  • Who's Who - Exchange clout for vision in that city.
  • Call a Favor - Exchange clout to launch a crackdown in the city.
  • Clean the Streets - Exchange clout for a bum to kill. (Highest Cost)
• Posts will no longer offer vision skill. The math used to calculate this will now be used to calculate the clout generated from the post.

The consequences of this change I predict:

• Business ownership would go up, making it a legitimate concern to manage good/bad businesses in your city's district.
• Businesses now operate on a group basis rather than an individual one; you visit your pal's business to help him out rather than just training your vision. Additionally, crews would be rewarded for being well organized in this respect; the better they treat their business district the more they get. And it's on the business owner to circulate those rewards.
• Businesses now grant resources beyond just vision (meaning it would be lucrative for anyone and everyone to participate).
• Cities may become more territorial about their business districts, as they can now wholly control who reaps the gains of their district.

Basically, I want to convert the individualized random posting for stats into a socialized strategic endeavor. I think this will make the Business Districts more engaging as a feature, and considering we have Crewleaders in charge of monitoring the BDs, I don't think this would in any way reduce the quality of the posts. If anything, I'd say it would improve the quality as the motivation for posting has changed from just slowly increasing your stats to helping out the business owner.

Some immediate concerns:

• Businesses with dead owners will need to have some means of transferring ownership OR they'll have to start over.
• This idea is somewhat complex and I'm unsure how difficult it would be to code it in.
• City-specific clout data may be confusing (i.e. "Why can't I use this clout in that city?").

P.S. This was very hastily written because I'd rather see what the userbase thinks of it before I go into greater specificity on the mechanics. Do you like the idea of more rewarding business ownership?

I think that would be cool to set up within the game, rather than build a feature around it. If this were implemented, the CLs could come together and agree to limit each other to x number of businesses per crew. That would be a cool way for the community to respond to a feature like this. I like it!

The central aim of this suggestion is to transition Business Ownership from a hobby to a means of building a character. Good Business Owners can train up a character off of their RP/Business skills. And I think it grants a more meaningful purpose to the Business District (than just a place to farm Vision skill).

I think this is a brilliant idea - but there'd have to be a tweak to vision xp from street posts as well wouldn't there?