Permanent death is a good thing for a game like this i think.
But i can understand the concern... My charecter (i am a new player this is my irst ever in CF) would be long dead if i was a human, and i only now am starting to get into the flow of the game.
All that without any sort of "chilling" out or just having a drink with some friends.. Mostly hunting, or exploring and collecting the shattered bits of my pride when the amound of asteaks of my own corpse in my sack is more han any other :/.

I don't know how much this opened for consideration at all, but may be if it would be possible to slow down the game time, to allow longer life span, that would permit people - who don't know every stone and branch in thera like their own handpalm - To just sit chillout and empty a keg of beer without worrying of being killed by old age before they get around to hunt.

Also a question on the subject of char death:
It is said that a charecter's name can nae be restored after it hits level 41. I am a person who (it might sound spooky) gets attached to meaningless things, and one of those is nick names/char names (which is part of why i don't enjoy the short lifespan).
What i was pondering on is, how is restarting a charecter with the same name is viewed?