Immortal staff and player base as well. But disagreement or no, this is the most competitive and balanced multi-player online game I have found, and I have played LOTS of multi-player games.

The thing that makes it great is the amount of reward you can achieve for the amount of risk. It isn't just a respawn and run around taking chances, it is a game of true depth. Sure, the learning curve is tough, but any single person who considers themselves an awesome gamer can't walk away from this game, for anything. And many a vet comes back because every other game they go off to play to take a break just does not compare.

The immortal staff as well has nothing but the best intentions in mind. They work tireless and thankless hours trying to balance this game as evenly as they can and improve it as much as they are able. The amount of in character role play intensive interactions that happen are more than ample, and the constant massive quests that fill the text based world are just as rewarding.

All in all, I have not found a game that is even remotely comparable to this one, and I have looked.

It took me what? 6 years to realize this before I returned, and at first it really pissed me off that I had missed 6 years of evolution. Nothing beats CF.