The first server i played on i managed to amass ~2k XP, only to be disconnected, which meant loosing it all... In a game where you earn xp in a running fashion, loosing it all when you disconnect is really unsatisfactory, and could easily turn people off (especially if servers are very laggy and prone to disconnects). I don't think it would cause any issue with the game concept to have XP be earned in real time, so that a disconnect doesn't mess up al lthe work you've done on that game...
thoughts welcome.
EDIT: Ok second disconnect i experienced i got my XP, so possibly a bug...
