[dev1002] The entire world lacking as a battle environment.

[Boricua]

Also the death penalties have rarely if ever made a bad player a good one. I've seen bad players slowly progress through these harsh death penalty mmos from start to finish and never get better in any way.

Thanks OP~ XP/SP loss certainly won't make all 'bad players' better ones. What it is good at is fostering a sense of necessary teamwork: you ask friends, LS, shouts, forum posts for advice or to party up against particularly difficult fights in game where death is prone. Basically, things people can't do in 150 seconds. This even applies unlocking camps in XIV in Mor Dohna (sp) for instance.

Its this player cohesion that makes a realm a true battle environment (point of this thread) where players mitigate risk with strategies and teamwork, not "Lets try and just 'Return' if we die" or "A mob is chasing me that I will outrun anyway lolol".