Yes. I'm convinced that the current arrangement of mode agnosticism ensures a maximum number of players in open, while minimizing the amount of griefing, player-killing, combat-logging, and overall jerkish behavior in the game.
In my experience there are four general types of players in the game:
- Players who need other players to be their content, and are willing to be the content of others in return. These players are usually fun to play with. They're usually interested in a fun and fair fight, and are gracious in victory or defeat. This means they usually go out of their way to ensure that anyone they attack is a willing participant, even when playing the villian, as opposed to attacking other players at random.
- Players who don't need other players to be their content, but are willing to be content of others anyway. These players are usually fun to play with. While they don't go out of their way to interact with others, they also won't shy away from it either. When it comes to PvP, while they generally don't initiate it, they usually consider it part of the challenge, and maybe a chance to test their skills against another player, and don't mind when they inevitably lose.
- Players who don't need other players to be their content, and are unwilling to be the content of others. These are the player who would much rather be playing a single-player game, or perhaps a co-op game with trusted friends. Unfortunately for them, the features of an MMO game are attractive enough that they're playing the game anyway. When given a choice, they'll choose a mode or server that is PvP free. If not given a choice, they'll sometimes try to combat log, rather than have a game session ruined by another player. It's generally better for everyone else for them to be given a choice of who to play with, because they're not fun to play with if they're being forced to do so.
- Players who need other players to be their content, but are unwilling to be the content of others in return. These are the players who are usually not fun to play with, because they act like jerks in the game. They will use any method, legitimate or not, to get their jollies off while evading the consequences of their actions. They attack newbies and those playing civilian roles in overpowered combat builds that they probably ground endlessly for, just to ensure that they can kill without being killed. When faced with a fair fight, or even the possibility of a fair fight, they'll combat log at the first opportunity. If they ever attack someone who looks like they might put up a fair fight, they'll ensure that they have an overwhelming numerical advantage before attacking, or bug out if they don't. And of course they'll often use exploits or hacks if they think they can get away with it.
In my experience, it's group #4 that cares, in any way, where everyone else is playing. The reason for this is simple. Group #1 is good enough at this game to kill them easily, even when at a disadvantage, so group #4 can't get their jollies off them. Group #2 is also no fun, because while they may not be as dangerous as group #1, they're frequently just as hard to kill, and it's hard to generate salt off of them. Only group #3 can give them their fix, but if they're in another mode, they're unavailable to generate salt for group #4. So they start insisting that group #3 be punished for their choice of modes.
