I dream of more sandbox type play in MMOs where unused zones offer rare or better "things". Back when I played UO I always wondered why they didn't put special crafting items and such in remote islands. Sometimes even just color would do, like iron that was white mined from the winter peaks vs. the iron that is mined from the red dessert. You want the color you want, you travel to the area and get it.

In that example, then Auction houses can be separate but connected. So if you put something up for auction in the south and someone buys in the north, it might take some extra minutes to deliver or even a slight fee for transporting the goods. Basically making it so that areas have items of commodity that are rare elsewhere.

Very light/simple example. Shame games that have months of time put into a single area to have them almost completely empty most of the time. Seems to reason there can be ways to make every zone interesting to visit over and over for various reasons...er, reward based reasons.