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[Bodhesatva]

Gnizmo said:
It is not entirely accurate to say there is no death penalty. There is a very very small penalty for your casual player, and a very severe penalty for your hardcore pve player. This works out really well I think because it keeps motivating the elite and does not penalize the casual. You could probably write an entire book on just how much better WoWs game design is compared to everything that came on the market before it.

Severe? :/ It's not severe at all. The death penalties involved in all cases are so pithy that I chose not even to acknowledge them rather than to take the 4-5 sentences needed to explain: "there is a tiny death penalty, but it's so comparatively small that it's not important." 

But regardless, Blizzard's singularly brilliant recognition was to not listen to MMO players. The people who yell loudly about how MMOs shoudl be done are people like me, who play literally 30-40-50 hours a week and want content suited for such unhealthy playstyles. They tuned these people out, and instead listened to the millions of PC gamers who were turned off by the horrendous amount of time needed to accomplish anything significant in an MMO. 

It really is a particularly powerful gift -- listening to the people who aren't talking because they aren't currently interested.