Interesting how this thread has morphed from "attract new people whose emphasis is not PvP" to "why can't we have more goon-like behaviour".
If-- and I say "if" EVE Devs really find the Jita thing amusing, then it is to be hoped it's for the free publicity. The only kind of people that would attract are those that think it's easy to grief in the game, and they might not stay, because it can cost you a lot of isk, until you know what you are doing.
I watched the Da Opa livecam for a while and it was incredibly boring: they were simply scanning for decent suicide gank targets and letting the rest go. This is new?
If the Devs really like it for the silly activity it is, then they are falling back into "drunken frat-boy" mode and they will end up killing their game, unless they can make enough money from Dust514 and the Chinese and Japanese 2nd and 3rd sandbox franchises. Stated CCP policy is to get away from stupid mode, after the Fanfest Mittani scandal, but whether they can hold that thought for a few months consecutively remains to be seen.
I realise that many are holding up EVE as a symbol of sandbox success, but look at the numbers: it is still very much a niche game.
Perpetuum, with the possibility to appeal to casual gamers, PvE-centred gamers AND PvP-centred gamers, could easily end up with 10 times EVE's actual live player subscriber population, if it got publicised well enough.
Now, whether the hardware could handle that many is another question.
Anyway, +1 to the OP. Wouldn't it be great if, by the time of PBS, there was also a huge influx of all sorts of new players. I am one of those that enjoys PvP, but would think it a great waste to only do PvP in a sandbox game that gives you 20 different sorts of activities to do.
And there are also a lot of non-PvPers that enjoy watching PvP and hearing about it, if they are not forced into it. Bottom line, which EVE still does not completely understand, is that you cannot make people play the game in a way that they do not want to-- they just leave. Now, if your player base is so large that you can afford to alienate, say, 30% of them and you are sure you'll get replacements (e.g. WoW), then fine. Otherwise, it is wise not to offend your customers too much.
If Perp can truly foster enjoyable play for all types of legitimate players (I exclude pure griefers), then it has the potential to become massively popular.