TG is currently in the process of having meetings for the design of the Elder Game for HZ, in IRC we've come up with an idea that we think would work, and satify most people. Not every detail is thought of, tell us what you think.
The elder game exists in the Eastern Deadlands. A series of fortresses would be placed inside the deadlands, all owned and occupied by the WA. The idea would be to attack the forces inside the deadlands, destroy the fortress, and rebuild them in the name of the Empire.
Once rebuilt the WA will attempt to recapture the fortresses (what happens during building, I'm not sure of). The gifted must defend the fortresses (which would probably have a machine type npc similar to the satyr islands, and a bind stone). If the gifted fail, the fortress is captured by the WA and you must retreat to the last fortress that is built.
If the gifted succeed in defending the fortresses, they will need to attack and destroy the next in-line (the building of the fortress would make the next vurnerable to damage). And again rebuild it, as you get closer to the edge of the world as we know it, the attacks will get harder to defend against.
A key to making this work is a few things.
Non-repeatitive battles. The invasions on the fortresses should come in many types, from boss mobs that are random, to a couple large groups of mobs, or maybe even a series of 2 or 3 blight anchors that spawn and being launching attacks on the fortresses.
Reward - There are a lot of different types of loot rewards you can gain, but I was thinking along the line of the emblem reward in kion right now. Quests can be giving that are extremely vague and extremely difficult to complete, they will give you rare titles and possibly bonuses to combat, or crafting (depending on what you did to get it) These should be very hard to get, and not possible by just killing a named mob or something similar.
I personally feel this system will work for quiet a long time. It gives the adventures a big challenge, the battles will be difficult, the reward rare and valuable. It gives each class a job, there will be use for mages and archers in defense of our fortresses, melee classes battle along the front lines, while healers run to where they are called for most. It can bring our shard together, make the community strong again.
At the same time the battles keep raging, the crafters will need to supply the adventurers and the crafters will need push their limits and run into dangerous areas for this. The forts might require supplies to "repair" the machines the WA damage, and a steady set of building materials (hopefully some novo types).
One issue we have is timezones of course, since the EU have their own server, the number of people that play 4am in NA is very low, attacks and defenses will need to be adjusted.
Any other ideas, or changes that could be made?