ITT: We're arguing real world economics for a video game.

Ok, I'll play.

You have 2 separate types of economy in this game.

The first, is the player run market boards. This moves money between players. The market boards are based on perceived value of the items listed there, and pricing is determined based on what people already have. Legacy servers, with players coming from 1.0 have more gil total on the server. I am not disputing that. It's a fact.

The second is money coming in to the players via quests, leves, npc selling etc. The amount of gil awarded by these methods is the siame across ALL servers. Population will affect the amount of gil brought in to the economy. I am not disputing that. It is a fact.

Here is what I take issue with. Legacy servers do not house only Legacy players. People that started with more money, still have more money. People that started with no money were limited as to how much money they could acquire.

"But, they could have played the market boards just like everyone else" you say. Yes, they could have, but without the benefit of a level 50 war/magic class to farm, or level 50 crafting/gathering class to make/gather things to sell, they were not open to much of the opportunity early in the game to make large quantities of cash. After that initial rush, moving money between mainly Legacy characters, the markets started to balance out.

So, you want to compare real world costs to the housing situation here. Ok, again, I'll play.

Land in New York City is more expensive than land in Cleveland, Ohio. Truth. Will most people in New York City have a higher income than people in Cleveland, Ohio?

Unless someone on Durandal makes 10x the amount of gil from a quest/leve/npc than a player on Asura, then the housing prices are unfair.