http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/432/432071p1.htmlBringing that gameplay and purpose to a wide-open public sandbox is extremely difficult. There are just too many people doing too many things all of the time everywhere. Instead of building adventures and campaigns for people to play together, we focus more on developing game systems that govern advancement and exploitation of the levelling treadmill. We develop content that is sized different, skinned different, and has different hit points, but for the most part is that same little rat or snake you killed at the beginning of the game. Sounds like fun... right? Right?
Sadly, but not surprisingly, not one of the game developers interviewed offered a solid alternative to repetitive gameplay epitomized by the level treadmill.
So here's my out-of-the-box idea: develop a system which has no central server. Do not plan to charge a monthly fee. Do plan to release boxed or downloadable expansions for a fee. The cost is you must develop a P2P game engine that is capable of either resolving input from untrusted clients or is secure enough to make all clients trusted. By paying that cost, you forgo the need to pay for central servers, support, a live team, CCRs and GMs. By doing so, you can afford not to charge a monthly fee and are no longer constrained by design choices that are meant to keep your users actively involved in your content for two, three hundred hours.