The Global Quest

[Tyhm]

A wild-eyed idea, based entirely on technology that does not exist - yet.

The Missing Piece:
string global.[servername]=
Can only be written to by the named server
Sticks to the player's global account data (same general area as their account name)
Can be read by any server (serverside, for safety - the server can decide if it wants it to be clientreadable on its own)

Take this, and say:
When a player enters the Warp Gate in the mountains in Classic, trigger the server.
The server reads in the player's data, takes the pertinent information, strings it together and sets
global.classic=head0.png,shield1.png,sword1.png,bo dy.png,gray,blue,pink,red,green;hasbow;hasbombs;hp =9;maxhp=9;
It then does its normal trick of warping the player to the set server.

Now, let's assume Valkorlia trusts Classic explicitly. A player warps in, and the server checks their global string. It reads in the player's appearance, their stats, etcetera. It then checks the player's local stats - in fact, this player's never been on Valkorlia before. So instead of starting the player out at the beginning, it warps the player to Valkorlia's Warp Gate, gives it the appearance of their Classic counterpart, and even gives it some starting equipment. Let's say Valk is a world without bombs - it gives the player a Bomb NPCW that lays duds, and as the player enters there's a sign saying "Hmm, the air's much thinner here - I don't think my bombs will ignite."
Let's say Valk is a world with a Health Bar instead of hearts. Well, it still has Max HP upgrades, so it sets the appropriate flags for "Player has already got the HP Up from the Orc Caves and the Dragon Keep" and gives the player health upgrades equivalent to what he earned on Classic.
Let's say there's one more Health Upgrade quest on Valk than on Classic. The player goes through the Crashed Alien Spaceship, gets HP+10%, goes back to the gate.
Same routine, but now he goes to Zone. And he's been on Zone before. In fact, his Zone account has more than his Classic/Valk account. So he warps in, and the NPCServer says "Hm...he's already got an account here." So instead of replacing the Zone account with the Classic/Valk data (after all, it isn't blank) the player is left where he is in his room at the guild house. His pager goes off, and checking it he finds "You have a guest in the gatehouse, coordinates HE275-BU891". He tools down there in his own good time and finds his Classic/Valk self floating in space, semi transparent. Approaching, he's given the option - "Merge with your alterate self?", and assuming he does, the stats are mixed - the best of both worlds. His Valk self had one more Heart maybe, his Classic self has bombs that work in this world and arrows that are totally ineffective, and his Zone self provides the armor and firepower.
Then on a lark he dives into Classic again. NPCServer clears his Classic string as he steps back through the portal, reads his Zone string and says "The gravity in this world's playing havoc on my guns...", and in fact they now have a range of approximately 2 tiles, or the same as the Mace did. Mostly only good for show on Classic, but totally effective on Zone.
Then say he logs off for the night, comes back on Zone while his Global Character's still on Classic. The server says "I left him in the gate room...and in fact I still have it set that he left for Classic, but I don't see a Global string for Classic anymore...", and instead of the player appearing from out of the gate, an annonymous tech paces back and forth, then says "He's been gone in Classic too long. Maybe I should recall him...", and his finger hovers over the big red button. If you have the tech press it, your character's ripped back with his normal stats as the Server remembers them - any quests he might have done on Classic, well his Classic character remembers them but his Zone character doesn't, you just "restored from backup." Or you can press F8, jump on Classic, and walk through the gate to get back to Zone. Or you can restore, and later merge characters again. It doesn't really matter.

I'm probably mangling the message, but my point is - we'd have a game that spans All worlds. And each server can ignore or accept as much as they like of the Import Data - if say Maloria doesn't trust Classic, they can take the appearance data and make you do the Maloria quests all the same. Or they can ignore the string altogether and not even have a warp room.