[Batsu]

In the end, the hurdles to overcome to build a game that is both player friendly and Pure PK are pretty high, but only because the players make it that way. On a basic level, if the consequences of PK are too high, it's not worth doing. If they're too low, new players are inherently punished by the (lack of a) system. If it's just right... well, EVE has probably come closer than any other modern MMO, and while I can't find subscriber stats, their most users online record was recently broken at ~60,000. World of Warcraft, on the other hand, boasted 11,500,000 active monthly subscriptions late last year. Any PK oriented game on the same grounds as WoW (in a world, have skills and equipment, etc) hasn't come even remotely close. Really, you might argue that the people have already spoken.

[loewenskind]

Is the only goal in game making to support the most people? What about those 60k? Should no one provide for their interests because they are a smaller group than the 11 million? I would say there is very little overlap between the two groups so you can't say WoW is servicing both.

[euccastro]

While your point stands, note that 60K are the number of symultaneous online users. Active subscriptions are on the low hundreds of thousands. While not in the league of WoW, it's still very respectable.

You may argue that in music the people have already spoken and that Lady Gaga (or whoever is all the rage these days) is it, or that the Da Vinci Code had set the direction for literature a few years ago. But there's a whole universe of tastes out there. Not only the mainstream is worth catering to.