The difference is, we tried that experiment, and we know where it lead- groups of six guys sitting in a lab somewhere, cleaning out their PK range with a pre-designed group. If you scroll down Gameplay a bit, you'll see what a hot topic ganging is, and how much the playerbase dislikes when other people beat them in unfair fights. (Portions of the playerbase are apparently OK with winning unfair fights, or there wouldn't be a problem.)

Allowing permagroups will necessarily lead to more gangs. Also, for every person who is helped by your perspective (a 'mentoring' permagroup), you're going to have a person who finds the game, wants to play, and soon figures out that they can't compete alone. The PK side of things would devolve into "Who has the most OOC connections". The current rules don't eliminate that problem entirely, but they do work against it.

I think you're misidentifying the problem, in any case. The factors Qaledus mentions below are a lot more believable to me.



valguarnera@carrionfields.com