Time-Based experience thoughts

[CidHighwind]

When I first heard about the experience over time system, I was extremely worried about it being generous to the 'main-stream' FPS player - simply a way to pull more people into the game. Even now, I believe that this mechanic makes it so that those people who DO have the time to play many hours a day, even if that rate is sped up by that consistent play, feel as though their efforts mean slightly less when their friend who hops on for an hour a day is at least keeping pace.

That being said, I do see the merits of this system, if only because I, as much as all of you I assume, want to see this game succeed and expand to more than it currently is and was in the past. It WILL allow those individuals who just want to hop on for an hour on a Friday to do so, and still enjoy the game to the fullest extent.

I was thinking about this on the drive home, when what I think is a fairly simple solution that fits the mold of the game hit me. What if you made the best of both worlds and let people CHOOSE which they wanted at character creation!

For example - Joe Fragger and Billy Popsin represent the two types of gamers just mentioned respectively. Joe Fragger plays 8 hours a day for 5 days a week - this game is his freakin' job, and he's good at it. Billy Popsin plays for 1 hour a day, 7 days a week. Both of these individuals know their personal gaming habits, and can reasonable make a choice to either FOCUS (like certifying!) their experience gain on offline leveling, or on in game leveling.

To be clear, this would not mean that Joe Fragger would earn less experience overall, or lose the benefit of offline leveling. It WOULD mean that perhaps he earns 5%? (arbitrary, don't hold me to this number) more experience through consistent in game play (after 2 hours in game, this kicks in). On the other hand, Billy Popsin plays his one hour a day consistently, and whilst offline, he earns 1-2% additional exp from the offline leveling system after being logged out for a period of time.

Both of these players would CHOOSE to be either a "Hardcore" player or a "Casual" player at creation, and be locked in to their decision from that point forward (maybe switch after a 5 level trial period or some such, and then be locked in?)

Perhaps I haven't been as clear as I could be, and these examples really have been drawn out of my hat, but I do believe that a similar system would allow those gamers who HAVE the time to play to feel more like their time put in is having a distinct impact on their character's leveling progress, without leaving the 'not as often' players feeling left out.

Looking back, I'm unsure how the community would feel about this type of tradeoff, or being locked in to a certain style of leveling, but I get the feeling like most of us know what type of gamer we are, and I feel like this allows us to make the most of that knowledge.

Thoughts? Critiques? Fires to burn this to the ground?