While it's quaint that you're all getting hung up on moral issues like payment methods, they're just pebbles being kicked around the bottom of the technical mountain. If the engine's collision system is as detailed as it seems, it'll be a massive task to get it functioning reasonably online. Nearly impossible. Small scale co-op is a distant possibility.
[GSF]Bang 说:
But, just as a thought for this discussion, why is it that no one has developed a persistant online environment?
Because it's very, very hard. The combat, which in M&B is the focus of the game, would suffer.
An MMO using the current combat system is impossible. Think of the combat in MMO games and how limited it is. They don't do that on purpose, they do it because it's the only way you can make a reliable combat system with that many players. Planetside, the FIRST EVER REAL-TIME MMO ZOMG was the bare bones of a shooter compared to normal FPS games, and even then had to draw upon all the bandwidth-management lessons already learnt from popular, well-developed FPS games of the time. Mount & Blade has nothing to draw upon because hardly anything has done online melee successfully, beyond giving players very short range axe-shaped guns. Like Rune!