Originally Posted by
ironhands
I assume you meant rewards for skill based game play. The reward doesn't have to be an item, it can be satisfaction from the completion or a high rank on a leader board, just like it is with a lobby based game. Even if it was an item though, as the OP said, most games are pretty pointless overall. The reward of an item gets pretty pointless in Borderlands as well.
Really, it comes down to WHY we play games to being with. If we play a game for story completion, we can usually resolve the current main story set in a day or two, and wait for new content and DLC. If we play it to develop a character and feel good about making a character who can now crush everything from last week in a single blow, there's much repetition, and content made obsolete, leaving very little content once we've peaked, again, until new content is made. If we play it for personal satisfaction for leader boards and bragging rights, it's likely the same event over and over with different people. If we play it for loot, what do we do after we get "the best" loot?
Strong story focus, means limited replay value, and generally a short play time (Bioshock series). Focus on character/item progression? Generally an illusion, since the enemies will also scale in difficulty, until they eventually plateau, meaning any replayability would lose appeal and lock you into an end-zone(WoW, D3). Focus on leaderboards, you deal with the same levels over and over, with different characters, and a massive difference between noobs and l33ts (tf2, dota2, l4d)
Really, at the end, it's all the same, and a matter of balancing all of these things in an enjoyable package. Is it possible?