Ok, to bring this note back to the topic:
Some feedback on "death lost the bet".
Has it led to more PVP? I am not sure... I started my mage hunt event before the change to death, so I would have gone through with it anyway. I can't speak for the others who's been bothering mages lately. At first I thought no death penalty made it a little less fun to do "dangerous" things, but lately I must say I kind of like it. I mean you still dont wanna lose your EQ and herbs and stuff so it is still exciting. It hurt a little when Morrison killed me, since I lost some good items, but it did not stop playing at all, not even for one second, which is a pretty common thing that happens otherwise when you do die. This time I felt a little sting, but I was generally okay with it. I dont think it is such a bad idea at all to be honest. I might still suggest maybe a small XP penalty would be in place. How about ONE fantastic prog? So it stings a little more, and therefore also makes it more exciting. It also makes it less useful to leave your herbs and EQ home and just go out and bother people with NOTHING to lose. Which would be the case with no penalty at all.
Nobody seems to have "abused" this though, nothing I have noticed at least. People generally tend to be a little braver in PVE combat though, maybe a little too brave, making some areas that used to feel dangerous, feel much less dangerous, since you can just go back and get the stuff from your corpse and carry on as nothing happened. So... again, just a slight XP penalty would probably work here too. Nobody would willingly lose a fantastic prog, but it would not make you wanna quit the game either...
So yeah... while I was a bit skeptical at first, I am in general pretty pleased with no death, but would suggest he returns, but is nicer.
Now, thats the positive side.
Negative? Well its pretty obvious I think. I have angered the mages, and since they (or some of them anyway) feel the current death is not punishment enough, they have instead decided to wait with their "punishments" until death is back in full force. The idea with this change was to encourage PVP, but what it seems to have done is more like postpone it. Which I guess was not the intention in the first place?
So if any "crime" that happens during this period of no penalty, will just be enforced when death is back... well then it's hard to draw any conclusions from this test. Attacks made during the trial period were made with little risk for the victim, but if the retaliation will be when death is back, and full risk for the attacker. So in reality, attacking someone during this trial is just as lethal as before... so... yeah...what conclusion do you draw from that? Personally I definitely have it coming, and have expected the mages would wait for death to return before hunting me/us down... still. It gives little useful info about this test.
Should there be another test, there would be little use for anyone to try to start trouble, since the enemies will just wait to fight back until death IS back.
I do think the trial period show that some players will restrain themselves from PVP for an entire two months, just to be able to "save up legal kills" until it hurts more. Now I totally get some mages would do that, I may have done the same had it been the opposite, but I am not so sure it's a fun PVP system, where people will refrain from PVP unless it hurt their enemies. Is hat really a fun system?
I think as long as the main purpose of PVP is to "reward" the winner by punishing the loser, then we will continue to see people quit the game when killed in PVP. Especially when the PVP abilities are imbalanced. Now I wont quit if Fluffy kills me a dozen times (and I have little doubt he will), and maybe Fluffy enjoys PVP more when he sees I am a veteran, and it's easier and easier to kill me each time. Still, I dont know if it's a great system for PVP.
I believe a very small punishment for the loser, and a pretty nice reward for the winner, is the way to go for more fun PVP. And this test has at least shown me, that even with NO penalty at all the game is still fun.