Minecraft is indeed a great example of a game pushing the envelope on player freedom - and allowing emergent gameplay. Tip of the hat to you, good sir! Still,

Minecraft is indeed a great example of a game pushing the envelope on player freedom - and allowing emergent gameplay. Tip of the hat to you, good sir! Still, Minecraft is pretty limited mechanically. The game doesn't actually recognize any of the stuff you mention. The games' mechanics - all the technological progression and stuff - work perfectly fine in single-player. Also the number of players per server isn't quite on MMO levels... But yes, some elements of Minecraft would be great ingredients of the game I'm proposing.