What a great piece.
It is an unabashedly realistic view of human nature as applied to a simulated world. If it is a good model, the implications for NAP would be devastating.

The primary variable I suspect is missing is stake. Imagine the simulated world included a variable that determined the stake of players. A zero would equate to no stake - no consequences at all - no cost, shit talk, pk, stalk all you want because it is free. If the variable were set to 100, however, players would play strapped into a guillotine which triggered the moment their in game character died. ..no one would play, so a life's worth of incentive would have to be offered - say 10 million dollars.

In game theory that is called the payoff matrix. I think the real world has the stake setting pegged at 100 - or at least 90. I think it is perhaps the single most important variable in determining the viability of things like the NAP.

I could be wrong, that is one of the things Nth Society is going to try to study.