Dionysis: Why hasn't anybody implemented permadeath in a major MMORPG until recently?

Dan: Well, most probably because of the fear that permadeath (Dan uses a nifty acronym "PD") will drive away their customers. Indeed, a wrong implemented PD can do that, but I think a good MMO can't skip past implementing PD as one of it's base parts. There's a need of good rewards as a recompense for very dangerous situations in actual MMO games, and the best way to implement danger into a MMO would be Permadeath. Of course that permadeath won't occur in common fight situations, but nevertheless it can.