The culture of new and inactive players being the most valuable prizes is extremely unhealthy for any game.
Unless you want a game of ultra competitive elite players that prey on newbs. Since in commercial games it is this class of player that actually buys the in game advantages most, it can be quite advantageous to pander to them, at least in the short to medium term
Dave is working on the planetary assault system, I believe he has ideas that might change the fact that new players are such juicy targets.
