On games where involuntary permanent death isn't possible, it hurts new players a great deal. Characters will exist on those games who have been in play for RL years. They'll have every skill perfected, piles of quest rewards, etc. (On a game with a pay-for-perks model, they may have steadily spent a great deal of money on that character as well... one poster on TMS admitted having spent ~$5000 on one character on such a game... all on benefits that the character retains forever.)

In a game with an inherent competitive aspect like ours, eventual permadeath means that every so often, the most powerful and experienced characters (not players) are rotated out of the mix. This creates 'room at the top' that newer players can eventually aspire to.

Example: My first hero on CF (in 1998 or 1999) was in the now-closed Scarab cabal. It was a small cabal- I was only aware of maybe 5 or 6 members for much of my character's lifespan. I wanted one of the leadership positions, but the problem was that it was taken by a very skilled and interesting shaman (Shinkoujinei, for old-timers that remember him). I couldn't displace him- he had taken an interest in training my character, he had been a favored priest of the Cult for much longer than I, he played a large role in getting my character into the cabal, and my (Chaotic Neutral) character would have seen the downfall of an enlightened priest of the Cult as a tragedy. (Certainly not worth working against him when so many others were unenlightened.) So for 100-200 hours of play, I waited for him to die.

If age-death (or CON-death... Shinkoujinei fought constantly, and I don't remember which got him) wasn't around, I might have never been able to grab that position. Instead, turnover meant that eventually, the old generation went away, and there was a fresh opportunity for someone new (me) to step in.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com