[Molly]

We've had farming and gardening for a very long time in 4d, both are slightly interactive in that the crops don't just grow, you also have to protect them against various pests. The crops can of course be sold or developed further.

The closest we've come to player generated content is mining, where the players dig their own tunnels, looking for ore and gemstones. The rooms in the mine are premade, but the players choose which direction to dig in, and the tunnels sometimes collapse behind you, (or on top of you), so the layout of the mine is never the same. For quite a while we had just about every player in the mud working hard in the tunnels, which was somewhat amusing to watch.

The problem with features like this is that they can become obsessive for a while, to an extent where the players also will try all sorts of tricks to abuse them. But sooner or later they tire of it, and return to the usual mob grinding, and the feature gets forgotten until some new player discovers it, and it gets popular again for some time.

In the long run they will always chose the task that yields the biggest reward. The only reason why they never stop mining in our Mud is, that there is an unusually good magical sword in the heart of the mountain, which is extremely difficult to get, since it also involves several steps of a hard Quest. Everybody knows about the sword, but very few have managed to get it, which is what keeps the rest of them digging tunnels long after they stopped collecting the ore.

I guess random drops is another way of keeping the interest up. The point is that unless the reward is conceived as big enough, the feature won't be used in the long run. Maybe it's different in RP extensive games, but as soon as there is competition involved, they'll spend their main time on what they think gives them the most exp or the best equipment, to ultimately reach the biggest power.