Should MMOs put an end to veteran rewards?

In previous Daily Grinds, we've asked you whether you sub for veteran rewards, whether they should be recycled, and whether they should be more awesome, but we've never asked you whether they should exist in the first place. Massively reader The_Grand_Nagus wrote to us pointing out that while old-school gamers, accustomed to playing a single game for years, take for granted veteran rewards and expect them from studios as something they "deserve" as compensation for their loyalty, other players consider that attitude to be selfish and entitled, believing that what vets got for their loyalty and money was the game they paid for and that they deserve nothing more, certainly not rewards that future players or new players can't realistically earn.

The Ultima Online community, for just one example, spent the summer storming over whether new players should even be allowed to use veteran rewards purchased from actual veterans. Some players genuinely believe that all new players should wait another 16 years to erect a garden shed in their yards. Garden sheds are serious business. It all starts to seem a little silly in the context of our modern, free-to-play, game-hopping MMO culture, where veteran rewards teeter on becoming an outright waste of developer resources since few people stick around long enough to become vets (and games seldom stick around long enough to accrue such devotion).

What's your take? Are veteran rewards a product of a bygone era of subscriptions and loyal communities? Should studios do away with them? Or should modern MMOs use veteran rewards to encourage loyalty in a market that seems to provide fewer and fewer reasons to stay faithful?

TH