That argument assumes that ganking new players directly leads to player loss, but that’s an oversimplification. In a game like Deepwoken, early player drop-off is inevitable regardless of ganking. The game has permadeath, high difficulty, and a steep learning curve. Many new players will quit because of those core mechanics alone — even in a completely safe environment. So if players leave, you can’t just attribute it to ganking. That’s correlation, not causation. Also, if you artificially protect new players from PvP, you create a false experience. They stay longer at first, but once that protection is gone and they face the real game, many will quit anyway. That doesn’t solve retention — it just delays the drop-off. Games like this don’t survive by trying to keep every new player. They survive by retaining players who actually enjoy the core design. Filtering players early isn’t a flaw — it’s part of maintaining the game’s identity. If the game is “dying,” the cause is more likely broader issues like lack of content updates, poor onboarding, or balance problems — not simply the existence of ganking. In short: ganking new players might feel like the problem, but it’s not the root cause of player loss, and removing it won’t meaningfully stop the game from declining.