this is not pointed at any individual but rather at the Idea that being late to the game somehow puts you at a disadvantage. all of my exsamples come from pree 1.0. I feel that this is fine as the only real diforance between then and now is simply that we are all now playing in a bigger sandbox which is acualy good for the newer player.
so let’s began. I was the first person to conect the original 12 planets together in one portal network. this was before footfall so for a long time I was the only network out there. it was all for fun and to help the community get around.
finally footfall came out and over night there were tons of new lines poping in and out of the game. several months after footfall there wer probably four sucsesfal networks. mine and the fire caves being the top for quite awhile. then came the new guys. Ultima and the portal seekers.
I remember feeling bad for these guys 
we had such a foot hold on the network market that I figured they would be just white noise. realize that I had been on top for almost a year.
with in three month the portal seekers had become my equals and three months after that I was eating there dust. but me being a positive person the taste of dust was sweet becous not only was I still receiving a healthy chunk of footfall. I got to see footfall it’s self become the number one aspect of the game that fuled growth and exspantion.
to this day the portal seekers are at the top of the portal network game but this in no way means that will always be the case. people will enevadably come along and ither release them of that title or at least give them a good run for there money.
I say put on your big boy/girl pants and take your place as a contender. the power older players have is word of mouth but they have a weakness to and that is the fact that they are established. as a new player you have the flexibility to come up with that new idea that people will love, follow, and emulate.
@the-moebius and aquatopia is also one of my favoret success stories of pree 1.0. as a total noob he says to everyone. "hay lets start a new community based city where new and old players alike can prosper.
in no time and I really mean in no time at all his was the biggest city in the game. I don’t even think he had hit level 30 at that point.
so in short being new is only as much of a disadvantage as you make it. the people that are the most successful are the people that decide before starting that they will be the most successful.
unlike a lot of people who can keep an argument going for hundreds of postes I am not a master-debater. so this will most likely be my only comment here.
remember to keep it civil peace out 