I'm not so sure it will completely fail. There is a duel server called Warband Roleplay, in which, trade between characters and npc's is possible, as are proximity triggers for npc bandit attacks. Also harvesting materials and crafting are implemented and a primary function of the theme. Though the map is large, it is no where near what is being described here. Also I'm not sure how one would go about achieving a progressive advance in historical culture and technology, there would be a huge memory requirement for the textures and resources and if the map is as big as they say, you'd practically have to be running a alien ware computer, because even on the RP server, the lag can sometimes kick up a good deal, especially when large events with high numbers of players are in motion. That and there is always text lag no matter what. So I can see this happening, but only to an extent.