http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-775656482294094003If you haven't seen this, then its well worth watching.
My brother and I were talking about how procedural synthesis might also be applied to items. Think of a fantasy MMO where people can pick up sticks from the terrain and instead of building up a "whittling" skill, they would actually whittle the stick themselves and carve it to the appropriate degree. Procedurally the structure of the stick would be analyzed to generate its damage stats or its usability in other contexts. Blacksmithing would be a literal melting of the ore to purify it and then doing the actual work to hone and shape the metal. If each item could be procedurally generated then the skill with making the item translated directly into the skill of the player to manipulate the modelled raw material. Damage to items can also cause procedural defformations to the item itself.
There are several philosophies being demostrated in spore which will keep the user entranced
1) User generated content is easily shared.
2) The user has a very real ability to make their game their own unique experience.
3) The game is so variable that there's no way to predict what will evolve out of it.
Just thought I'd share the idea.