We're all just theorizing, whether we say that itemloot will reduce the population or that absence of itemloot will make PvP meaningless. These are just discussions, largely to pass the time, and you said yourself that you won't pay much attention to it when it comes to determining the server's ruleset. That said, you have to at least agree that history clearly proves the problems with itemloot and the obvious connection between any given server's popularity and its presence or absence of itemloot. That's a valid argument. None of us are psychic, but what can we even discuss if past evidence and logical likelihood aren't allowed? Since Rogean started multiple discussions about the server ruleset, I take that to mean that we're encouraged to do just that.
As for your pre-p99 anecdote, I'd have to point out, as one of those people who were arguing in favor of boxing, that you're presenting a somewhat biased view of it. At the time, it seemed unthinkable that the server would end up with a 500+ population, so we proposed that boxing should be considered until such a time as it wasn't necessary. If the server turned out to have a population of 50-100, boxing would have been necessary. The launch numbers weren't even too far from that mark, and it was quite a while before the server population had grown to the point where non-US players didn't suffer from underpopulation. To this day it dips down under 200 when you're asleep. As for the soulbinders and that shit, we simply suggested that if the server population turned out to be so low that people couldn't easily find groups near their starting zones and couldn't find other players to bind them elsewhere, temporary soulbinders were a possible option. There's no need for hyperboles, I don't remember anyone claiming the world would end without soulbinders and translocators. As soon as it became evident that the population had grown to the point where boxing wasn't necessary in order to play the game, it became a moot point. That doesn't mean it wasn't a valid argument at a time when 100+ was almost unheard-of on an emu server.
There's nothing wrong with discussion, and the blind dismissal of all anti-itemloot sentiments is a little primitive, as are most of the arguments presented by the pro-itemloot crowd. You also have to acknowledge that PvP servers have historically been less popular than PvE servers and that itemloot only exacerbates that difference, even if you believe red99 will somehow be the opposite.
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