It's a problem of economic inflation. The games start out easy at release, but developers see the need to tighten their belts to prevent game currency/abilities/skill from being worthless. So the template has been in MMO land for developers to let a few early adopters climb the ladder to the top until they patch the ladder away. Or the opposite, like WoW, just keep it easy and let everyone into the top.
The right way to solve this problem is to keep the game as easy as it was at release, but to implement economic atrophy and redistribution of outcomes. I'm not aware of any game that does this other than Eve Online. I do not play these games but I like thinking about their economics.
And boy does Eve bring the redistribution of outcome-hammer down hard.
The incredible effort of groups to build up military strength as well as economic factories that also require skills to be able to do any of those things makes sure you never think Eve is too easy, but also not too hard. Thats why I quit. I learned from Runescape how horrible a well made game can be to your productivity and sanity. Better to obsess over algorithms and programming than MMORPGs
I used to play on a Minecraft server called Civcraft[1] which, while not "massive" in the conventional sense, has/had a large enough player base and a persistent world. In Civcraft there is no skill/XP ladder, all you have is your wealth and reputation. You can lose your wealth by having it stolen, and your reputation by your own behavior or the words of others, so it makes for a more dynamic game. Still, you ended up with people at the top of the pyramid who wouldn't be readily dislodged, just like in real life.
