And then you get 2 folks with wildly different stories, both from Primal Earth.
And in the 2 to 15 other folks that say the same thing, with wildly different stories from their own "Primal Earth" they quickly realize they aren't the first ones to label themselves "Primal Earth"
The 'spirit' of such Online Co-Op roleplay, I think... through lack of experience (though discussing the concept with my son who does), is accepting each other's truths and incorporating them into the 'mutual story each person is telling' to each other. Okay, that means there's more than one 'Primal Earth' at least to them. There's no 'rule' saying that any given 'Primal Earth's' claim to the title makes it any more or less so.
@AudryWinter, that's a great suggestion, and play as much a role as anything else. If folks are 'freeform' RP'ing then I would think a high degree of flexibility in at least this regard should trump individual viewpoints (even if it's 'true' to that character) in much the same way in tabletop dice-rolling games allow for a player to come back in with someone who should be totally untrustworthy being accepted into the group because their previous character died for some reason.
(more within my realm of experience) More than once in my tabletop games, there's a nasty 'suspension of disbelief' because everyone knows it's a player re-integrating into the group because their previous character died because of bad decisions or bad combat rolls, but accept it because spending X amount of game sessions of that player's character gaining the trust of the group would ultimately detract from the overall story, or there'd be no reasonable logic to accept the character in the first place... again, this is all the players working together to get back to the story, rather than dither over details.
'Everything is true' or 'accepting at face value' to move the story along to the actual point is a mechanic used by writers and storytellers to progress the actual 'meat' of a story and has probably been used since before written words.
I also think it honors the vision of the City story-wise. There was a lot of great 'meta' to draw from, but even the Dev's official news and short story compilations included alternate reality folks.
...at the end of the day, if the multitude of views irritate you, express it through your character. Many realities just suffered an apocalypse and its survivors are now on your doorstep, some resembling friends you knew (and disappeared suddenly, but these seem to be just like them... or not... GO!)
(and looking at the clock I realize I REALLY need to go to bed!)
Don't look at it as a break in immersion, look at it as a chance to explore something different from your character's point of view.
Lyc~