I imagine a real-time game with a beginning safe area to learn the game before the players go out into a huge uncontrolled area. Players tame an area, mark it as their own, and travel back to the starting area to claim it. Return and level it up into settlements. Players attempt to attract NPCs and other players to their settlement. The leader chooses other players, or AI controlled NPCs as a council to help manage area. Owning a settlement, or being part of the council generates constant income. Of course you need that income to manage the settlement also.

Players might join existing settlements to grow their levels before trying to claim their own area.

As a settlement grow, mobs in the area become more hostile. The leader can't deal with this themselves, so they make quests for other players to complete for extra exp, gifts or boons from the leader.

All the while, there is invisible story-telling sprites all over the map. If these sprites witness a player do something, it gets written down. The logs are reviewed (by a human or AI) and the story is written.