[Parhelion]

It really does boil down to the type of game you're running. In some, powergamers are helpful and -- if you've got a nice, friendly playerbase -- can actually be useful in keeping newbies because they have the ability and knowledge to help them adjust to the game without having the get hit the brunt of the learning curve.

In other games, I think its pretty detrimental. Such is the case in one game I work on, which is a roleplaying-type game AND has a fairly small playerbase.

Skill progression in the game is fairly slow, with casual players going full days without actually seeing visible progress; meanwhile, there are the grinders and power gamers, who have discovered PRECISELY how to raise skills -- what mobs to hit, and in what order, what postures to stand in while fighting, what weapons to use. These players can attain extremely high levels -- and even max out skills, particularly combat-related ones -- within one or two weeks' time. Oftentimes these methods are not in conjunction with the "spirit" of role-play, giving a feeling of an unrealistic environment, and I feel that detracts from the overall value of the game.

To make a long story short, the prevalence of power gamers and their ability to basically just "win" the game, hands down, means that the roleplaying element of the game gets overshadowed by a PvP element. Players form groups off-game and begin to get aggressive, taking character deaths a bit too seriously, and using the skill progression and grinding to "get ahead" of and grief one another, regardless of what is actually going on IC or what would even be reasonable in theme.

The whole problem with retaining newbies in a negative environment like this is just exploded. The game subsists on two or three "Old Player's Clubs"... but that's another issue entirely.