The only online game that I’ve seen that effectively deals with this issue was City of Heroes…Which is now defunct for reasons that I just don’t agree with. For one thing, they set up the game to have a definite *ending* based on how players participated in the PvP aspect of the game, regardless of how others wanted to play the game. Once the hero-side or villain-side “won,” it ended the game for EVERYBODY! Thus, only the long-time & highest-level players really had any chance of influencing the outcome, while late-comers never had the time to build up & players who aren’t into PvP aspects of the game never HAD a chance to play the game-quests for themselves before before the game ended.

The creators of City of Heroes lost out on the concept of long-term profitable gain *because* of that decision…

(I’m still not totally sure if that’s a real condition, or something Milton Bradley made up for Operation)

(puts sunglasses)

… immersive experience.