What could be done to enhance the game so that "cherry picking" is looked on as a positive thing and everyone has the same opportunity to be selective in their choices without reducing the opportunity of other players to have the same selection?
Maintain the same spawn rates as the devs feel are necessary for each asteroid, crystal, or hulk BUT create an "internal rotation" of the items so that they change on a much more frequent basis.
In this way if a player looks at an asteroid or hulk and does not like what he sees he can leave it and go on to the next asteroid or hulk. The next player who inspects the asteroid or hulk will find something totally different and EVENTUALLY that asteroid or hulk WILL have something that a player will mine.
In this way, selectivity of mining is up to the miner and in no way affects any other miner.
In a Non-game situation, selectivity would be a normal competitive process but in a game environment the only way for selectivity to be a productive game component would be if it was available to all.
Anyway, this scenario would eleiminate any "cherry-picking" concerns.
