[DustyPorViva]

I always figured if I were to implement a day/night cycle, it'd be a global one, but one that would be very short-lived, like G2k1's. Basically, 1 RL second = 1 minute or so in the game. This would be fair to all players, as there would be many cycles of day/night in a single day, giving everyone an equal chance to participate in scripted events.

Even outside of online gaming, I'm not particularly fond of games that use real clocks. I mean... in some ways they have their perks, like Pokemon and Animal Crossing, but at the same time... I don't like having to go out of my way to participate in unique events, especially when I end up missing them and sometimes having to wait a whole year, or otherwise 'cheat'.

The downside is that the actual visual effects can be distracting, and effect gameplay in a negative and positive way. I hate walking in the dark, and to some it can be very taxing on their graphics cards and thusly lag them. On the otherhand, I'm on the fence about being able to disable/enable it. It's very easy to portray day and night without blacking the whole screen, via house windows and such... but I always find it odd that one player's screen can have darkness disabled and the other players screen not, thus a huge difference in what they're experiencing. So if one player's effects are disabled, the other player will most likely disable it to balance things out, then the next... and so on. It's a huge downward spiral that I think almost everyone does.