SOS, have you ever played Ultima Online? over 5 years ago it was almost a completely different game. It has gone through 'ages' and there are all the old items and artifacts from those times that people have hung onto. About once a year there is some kind of huge overhaul on the game. All the areas are the same, but sometimes they function differently (like when they made the moon gates into permanent portals)
No, I haven't. I was too into Gemstone when it was released to consider switching games. One of the things I regret for sure as the original design of Ultima Online was the closest thing to a real "game as world" environment that I've ever heard of.