raise the flagpole.

Why would one strive but to set the standard? To be average? Things are measured according to the average, whether they are above or below or simply average. So instead of "setting the standard since 1XXX", they should have slogans like "we let others set the standards." It sounds much more appealing.

Anyway, I was thinking about something that could be implemented in MMORPGs that would take the players off the treadmill. I came up with something that I thought was nifty, but through past experience, I know that this does not mean that that is the case with others. I'd like to call it "You are what you beat."

It's essentially, where your character's base stats aren't dependent entirely upon killing things. There are no levels. The base stats can be changed much in the same way as they would in real life. If your weapon's weight was more than some calculation from your strength, then you would gain a comparative amount of strength for each time you use it. Anyway... instead of you gaining levels, different monsters train different stats of the weapon. Killing special monsters - unique bosses (Meaning that there will only be one of them, ever, optimally.) will result in the awarding of special abilities to the weapon - abilities that are unique to that boss. This system hasn't been fully thought out yet, though.

I'll get back to it sometime.