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People in real life believe in resurrection for crying out loud. The entire Christian faith is based on a resurrection. I don't have any problems with games that are permadeath and I definitely think such systems can add excitement and thrill to one's character. But to argue that it objectively makes for better or more realistic RP is just absurd.
Yup. It's not an OOC mechanism at all. The way we handle it is that each time you die, you return as a ghost at your temple, but you become (permanently) a little weaker. As time passes, you begin noticing that your body is regaining its old material form. If you die a whole heck of a lot, you become a ghost that gradually fades away, which causes the (wait for it.....) permadeath!
OOC, you want a mechanism that makes death unattractive (so characters try to stay alive, which adds to excitement), but it needn't confirm to RL "rules" of life and death. There are pluses and minuses to a single-death-equals-permadeath system, and it's a valid alternative that several games use well.
The important thing to remember is that it's a fantasy environment, and you're not really looking for "realism" as much as "internal consistency". When someone kills off an NPC (like Blarg the goblin soldier or whatever), and they log on several days later and Blarg is around the village... well, Blarg has a patron deity too! That's just how this fantasy world works. The residents wouldn't even think it's weird, for the same reason they don't find (most) wizards (*) or kobolds weird.
The second thing to remember is that just because your game does things one way, and other games do it another way.... does not necessarily mean the other games are inferior, poorly done, or "wrong". Just different.
(*) Kteng's wraith was unavailable for comment beyond asking that she remain walled up in her sprawling alchemical laboratory. After all, she has an experiment that needs a little tweaking.
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