>But generally I doubt those first groups were completely done
>IC, imm or not. I mean what are the odds that a group without
>any previous knowledge or OOC connections actually makes it
>through all of Hell?

Oh, I absolutely was using knowledge from previous characters to lead the first 2/3 or so of that Hell trip. I won't deny that.

What I will point out is that was completely the standard at the time to do things that way.

Along similar lines, if you go back far enough, the staff did absolutely participate in mortal permagroups. It was only after a few years of having to team up with guys like Cador and Twist to compete with the other perma factions in the game that we started to say, "You know, maybe it shouldn't be this way. Maybe you shouldn't need to know 2-5 other people who play CF when you do to compete."