The game I used to play. Oldfags, fill me in!

[Patchouli_Knowledge]

Not only in quantity but also in varieties. Balance in power isn't exactly a huge difference if they all consist of the same archetype. We all know what would happen if the majority of the factions are raiders, but stagnation can occur if chaos is not allowed to grow either through excessive white knight faction archetype.

[ven]

If the world doesn't have built-in mechanics to encourage changes in our playstyles, all change will depend on players. So if the game isn't encouraging change, one can say it's encouraging stagnation. If it seems nothing ever happens, it's because you can do the exact same things every day and achieve the same results.

As Patch says, chaos is necessary, but chaos isn't just the possibility of being ganked while foraging or of having all your stuff destroyed by a faction. It should be something that affects everyone all the time.

Jesse Schell's pic