Question...

[Snowreap]

I can think of at least one legitimate answer to that second question: player training.

any game with enough complexity to not be boring is complex enough to require a learning curve. novices need to start with a limited number of basic abilities, and as they gain fluency in them more can be added.

a lot of us have the Orange Box, I'm sure, for TF2. but Orange Box also came with Portal, which is an excellent example of player training. when you start playing the game, there are obvious levels, and the apparent goal of the game is to reach the last level. actually, the levels serve no purpose except to train you in the various usage techniques of the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, and the real game actually begins when the training ends at the end of the last level.

the failure to account for player training was one of the big failures of the PvP server (Darktide) in Asheron's Call 1 -- after creating your new character you were dumped at a lifestone in a starter town, where you were mercilessly corpse-camped by high-level players, making the game nearly impossible to play, never mind learn. in AC1, the only way to learn the game was to play on a PvE server (or have enough resolve to wait for the griefers to tire of killing you).

if your game is going to have a PvP focus, then you need to provide an area where new players are able to learn the game without interference from high-level griefers (safe zones). but you need to force players out of those safe zones at some point, or they'll hide in there forever. in such a game, "endgame" then has a very clear boundary: the endgame begins when your access to the safe zones ends.

-ken