We could have a set like 4-5 Kingdoms of the Skies where they own massive landscapes and maybe a few surrounding isles where the focus of NPCs would be while there could be random floating ones that hold various mysterious, dungeons, possibly epic loot, filled with savages, etc. 

And I see your reasoning, if they are gonna be unlimited in play style why make so many specialized classes, just let the characters evolve their own skills? I like the idea of the AI, maybe the AI could be the overall enemy to us all. Programmed to attempt to destroy the players, not knowing their real life hangs in the balance? I hope the others don't come back and get blown away by walls of text discussion :P

Just curious, do you guys have characters in mind already? Like what roles would you guys be interested in? Just to gauge if we have like 4 people looking at Mages or everyone wants to be an Archer. If there's only 5 of us maybe one or two could double and play two characters?