good read, also the only reason i play l2 over any other mmorpg is because it has huge risk vs. reward. Games like world of warcraft have almost 0 risk associated with any reward. The worst you do is die and then have to respawn and repair your armor...no pvp xp loss, no pvp loss of really any kind.
That's a decent article. However, there is a difference between someone doing such a thing "in-game", being planted as a spy in order to bring your downfall (perfectly acceptable gameplay) and someone getting a group of friends to gank
TI shouting "You've been owned noob".
The interesting (and brilliant) part of the L2 gameplay is that it is completely based on player interaction.
You don't get the same type of discussions on the server forums of other games. Other than "clan x" is recruiting, fun group, adults or mature people only. Family environment.
But go to the official server forums or even blah's and you will see the game being played out.
There is a difference between the revel coup that was done in SWAG or that huge bit of deception that was done in EVE, that crowded their forums and some of the tiresome tirades that you see from players who still haven't learned to communicate in public.
I must add that I don't really care about huge risk. Things like raiding corpses or huge xp loss really isn't my bag. Having said that, the small losses that one experiences in EQ2 or WoW just don't do it.
I mean, heck, there are players who desire perma-death for characters. How many mainstream players really enjoy that?