Tight focus versus a sprawling playground

[Ffej]

What I love about GURPS is the open-endedness. The fact that whatever the players and the GM agree on is indeed possible. However, the game just needs a certain amount of focus because of the way it's typically played: a group of people all sitting at a table sharing a collective vision of an imaginary world. The characters all need a reasonable amount of motivation to stay together and work with each other. The GM needs to be somewhat prepared for whatever the players decide to do. And you don't want to have players get too upset when their character ends up in a situation where he's useless.

So I guess my answer would be that I'd be up for playing as unfocused a game as we could possibly get away with and still have fun.

What I've been contemplating doing (I'm not sure it's a good idea) running a Play by Post campaign that isn't at all focused. The PCs can all have different motivations, be in different places and sometimes have conflicting interests. I'm thinking the PBB format just might make this possible. No need to send someone off to another room because his character isn't with the rest of the party. And the GM can always take time out to adjust and plan according to what happens. I'm thinking it may be especially rewarding when characters who haven't met but have been influenced by each others actions finally come face to face. Anyway, it's what I've been thinking about lately and it kind of relates to this thread. I think.