I personally am not looking forward to bandits at all. I've mentioned before that I play this game for the zombies. If I want to kill bandits, there are many other games out there that I'd choose first. I think bandits will end up taking away the interest of killing zombies in here and just be in the way to me. I am open to being proven wrong and that they will be a good addition for me, but I'm not really expecting that to happen. I'm really hoping for an option to disable them.
That being said, saying that bandits == PVP players is dumb. Just because they use weapons like a player doesn't make them the same thing as a player. From what I've seen, the majority of gamers do not enjoy PVP, or at least prefer PVE. You have a relatively small niche of players who love PVP and a somewhat larger group who likes it, but are just as happy (or happier) in PVE. But most want nothing to do with it. And there's a big reason for that. PVP players are some of the most annoying group of gamers overall (I'm not including everyone, obviously). The hardcore PVP players (the ones who focus almost entirely on PVP and not PVE) are very often griefers. They will kill people who haven't even had a chance to get equipment or levels. They enjoy hurting the newbie players. They feel superior because they can sit and snipe a player who is just spawning or who just started learning the game. Most do not want an actual challenge. They won't let an opponent gain an advantage or equal footing and will just attack someone who can't do anything to defend themselves. In fact, there was talk not that long ago about people in this game who would camp a spawn point and kill people repeatedly without letting them ever have a chance to fight back. Even though not every PVP player is like that, and people can sometimes act differently in different PVP games, this does seem to be a common theme among the main PVP players. And this is why most players just have no interest in PVP. If PVP players allowed people to actually have a chance before attacking them, you might see more gamers interested in PVP, which would lead to more games supporting PVP. But this attitude of "I'm better than you" just turns people off from PVP. On the other hand, bandits or any AI enemy do not have this attitude. They are simply there and attack if you're close enough to be noticed. And they aren't going to camp your spawn points. Most gamers prefer AI enemies because of that. Sure, they are easier, though with difficulty settings, you can make them very difficult, even though they'll never have the skills and unpredictability of a real person (at least, not until AI gets involved). But they aren't going to act stupid either.
I've done PVP in various games, and there are some that I like because they are set up in a way that eliminates a lot of that killing people before they are able to fight back nonsense. But even though there are some that I like, I find that PVE is just far more enjoyable and relaxing. I don't play a game to get annoyed at people. I play a game to have fun. And that's true for most gamers, I think.
.
if you then tell me you had sooo much fun I may believe you. Aaaah, not really.
I hope the 2.0 development diary will be released in February.