Daomei (atys)
While you are saying many interesting things, I must admit being a bit disturbed by this perception of players. You said so yourself, atys is not bipolar, why believing the players are?I have the impression that a number of players dedicated to a tough style of PvP gameplay are stemming from worlds of egoshooters and similar, often highly competent in interface usage and knowledgeable of all sorts of tricks (even the less licit ones), and are looking at their player characters as more a technical instrument, drawing satisfaction from speed and virtuosity while not only not caring about killing or being killed yet drawing satisfaction out of the thrill and the adrenaline rush caused thereby. That is clearly nothing bad, and a legitimate way of gameplay in Ryzom.
On the other hand, there are players who are strongly engaged in roleplay and PvE as well as in social activities in the game. They may identify quite a lot with their ingame character, even more than identifying with a literary character when reading novels or watching movies. This way of diving into the virtual world is called immersion, and players engaged in such style of gameplay are rather living than just playing the course of events their character is going through..
In my expierience, roleplayers looking for immersion want the gameplay possibility of pvp, even when not esppecially interested in pvp for pvp's sake. Because to be able to be attacked as well as being able to attack can be a factor of immersion. I know several such players,as well as some that both love RP immersion *and* pvp challenge, and are even happier when the encounter both in their opponents/fellow players.
This is not to say every roleplayer is like this, of course. Just please don't reduce players to two opposite styles of playing. Most often, those I've seen complaining most against pvp were non/casual-roleplayers who just wanted to enjoy what the game had to offer without being disturbed. (I am not talking about this thread of course since I don't know most of the people on it.)