I Break My Weapon to Break Your Bones!

The revelation of the weapon breakage rules over at Dungeon's Master came as a shock to some of the people who frequented that blog. I believe the main concern is that characters will generally avoid to risk having their precious items destroyed - after all, the economy of the D&D 4E is set in such a way that keeps these items expensive. If these rules are used in a typical D&D world, I understand how unappealing this could be. But Athas, the world of the Dark Sun Campaign Setting, is anythingbut a typical D&D world.