[silvarilon]

XP is a motivator. If it's not, it should be.

It is used to make your character better, which is either a goal itself, or gives a greater ability for the player to reach other goals.

So idle XP is a good idea, or not, depending on what you'd like to motivate. If you want players to do something, reward it with XP. Simple as that.

If you want players to be online, so the game looks full, reward it with XP.
If you want players to go out and fight and kill NPCs, then reward THAT with XP, and don't reward the idlers.
If you want players to mingle in social areas, reward being in those social areas with XP.

And so on.

Idle XP is a really bad idea, for my game, because the game is so social. Players look at the list of other character online to see whether someone they need to speak with is available. Seeing that the head of a house is online will motivate them to seek out that character to negotiate politics, or whatever. If they regularly find that character idling and unable to respond, they will learn not to use the online list, which means they will loose that opportunity during the times when the character *isn't* idling.

So, for my game, idling players is bad. We should avoid rewarding them, as I'd rather the players log off when they're idle. In your game, it might not be harmful.

Personally, I don't see the point, other than making the game look full. If you're going to give idle xp, why not just give them the xp whether they're online or not? That way returning players get a swag of XP to spend, and will be excited about trying out their new skills, probably have more fun the first few days, and be more likely to stick around.