I am in the process of writing a skills base RPG as a hobby that at in the event of frutation would end up being part 1 of a 3-phase roll out of a MMORPG that ends. Set in an Asian based setting, the first part would be a single player affair with about 200-300 subquests and 3 potential endings. Part 2 would be the MMORPG roll out using an new engine with an expanded world of 6 total ''cultures'' with subspecies to choose. Part 3 would be the update phase which would last until the protagonist''s eventual victory or demise. The actual question for this post is how does one pace the MMORPG so that it will end in an approximate time frame. I know most companies would prefer to milk a project dry and simply turn the game off when the green wasn''t there. I am also posting this here as it is a writing issue in the regards to the game needs to be written at a pacing that the die hard 24x7 players won''t win the game in 6 months or less. I am writing the first design reality test demo currently to test design theories. Design-wise, I know where I want to go, how I want to do it, but I just need to work out the details and balance via a series of reality checks. I just need help writing the story for the pace I could reasonably expect the game to end. Also are there any documents on the web that could at least point me in the right direction?