Well you have to remember, a risk/reward system has worked, and probably always worked with creative ingenuity.

FF11 had the famous "chain" system. In which you not only had a race against monsters but a race against the clock. It was very elegant, in using the age old "time attack" addiction to help your problems in having players of different types together.

I expect that kind of thinking on all MMO. It's not about being super orginal or super lipstick ideas, It's about pure elegant solutions that works like it was made for.