By the launch of The Taken King, the third expansion pack for Destiny, which came out in September 2015, that flexibility was being used to offer alternative versions of missions, one-off challenges and special quest chains which could be played at multiple points in the story.
Apart from the obvious eccentrics – someone on a London hire bike; the couple who got married mid-route – I noted a greater mix of gender and age, and many more people riding more everyday bikes, who looked like 100 miles would be a one-off challenge, not a weekend habit.
But on Saturday's evidence, while the gulf may not be as wide as in 1997 when Super League clubs were humiliated in the disastrously expanded World Club Championship, it still exists, and has certainly not narrowed since Wigan stunned the Brisbane Broncos in the last one-off Challenge in Australia in 1994.
It doesn't parachute people in for one-off team challenges; instead, the projects are developed with the partners and they build on the existing relationship and aim to deliver long-term benefits.
Threadless has long been doing one-off Threadless Challenges for causes and brands, but it was having trouble keeping up with demand.
"It's an opportunity as a yard to have a special, dedicated division where we can build one-off's for record challenging, or round-the-world racing, or even the America's Cup.
The new policies, legal actions and organizing efforts (like Silicon Valley Rising) that are sprouting up around the country aren't merely one off attempts to challenge the Uberization of economies locally.
In this one-off, he sets himself the challenge of learning how to walk the tightrope in just two months, in order to perform an illusion while in mid-air.
"Interpretation of recent trends continues to be challenged by one-off effects," said Caroline Purdey of the CML.
The coalition had rewarded them with "city deals", one-off projects in the tradition of challenge funds, initiated by Heseltine back in the 1990s.
