Terra Nova recently covered a “textual world” (presumably a MUD) which has quarterly wipes. Everything goes. It sounds harsh but there are benefits here. I think the strongest is that things can finish. Imagine if PlanetSide could have an ultimate periodic winner instead of a tiresome, unending tug o’ war. Imagine a full story arc in an MMO with a start and finish, bringing things closer to being a “proper” RPG. There are downsides of course, all covered in more detail at Terra Nova. (Spotted this on Alice’s del.icio.us feed)