There's an interesting piece up at Terra Nova ruminating on the question of winners and losers in PvP-based games, taking a close look at EVE-Online in particular. Losses can be minimal in a lot PvP games, but the losses can be much harsher in games like EVE-Online - but Nate Combs says that the game has fostered a culture that 'recycles losers' (in a positive way) and helps retain players:

... the Eve-Online game culture has also developed, I think, a number of narratives that allow players to more easily detach themselves from their losses:
1.) conspiracy theories and the shadow-world stories (subterfuge) distance blame
2.) the scale of the alliance struggle dwarfs individual losses
3.) the "intel" / information superiority game introduces a helpful fiction (not bested, but undone!)

Beyond cultural considerations, I think there are at least two structural elements that help recycle losers:
A.) There is an interconnected social/economic/security ecosystem that spans the three distinctive types of "terrain" in Eve-Online: "0.0" space (alliances), "low-security", and "Empire Space".
B.) There exists a high degree of organizational fluidity that can exploit the ecosystem of (A.)

Since I don