it feels like a lot of the reasponces against the wipe has been along the lines of i don't want to loose my
pretties. and a lot of the yes responces are along the lines of ouch that is going to hurt, but i still know who i know, and "i have my life to live over, nowing what I know now." (bonus, not points, not cookes, but brownies if you can name the source of that line.)
a full wipe won't be undertaken lightly. the dev team will debate it long and hard. if they can get away with a much more focused wiped will be done. but, everyonce in a while you just have to take everything back to zero and rebuild it. at the risk of quoting myself, a wipe isn't an end. it is merely a new beginning. i survived 2 full wipes and a handful of partials, or something like that, after 3 odd years it all gets a bit hazy. but i knew coming in it was going to happen. each time a full wipe occured it gave me a chance to rebuild my characters. since the last big wipe there have been many new additions to the settings, and more yet to come down the pipes. religion perhaps is the bigest of the lot. when i first built my chars there was really only talad, laanx, atheiest, and i think blackflame. i chose athesiest because none of the other options fit well. but, as the settings have developed, for example, steuben has come to be more of xioxisa's ilk then any other. but, having invested such time in him, i'm not going to go back and rebuild his character just to bring him inline settings wise. i'll just play him that way. as the mechanics of the game continue to develop more, i know that the initial choices i made will eventually have a greater effect on the mechanics of my play. till the mechanics overwelm my choices or a wipe i'll continue on. when such a time comes, it will suck having to spend all that time working to rebuild his stats. but, if such is the second price i have to pay, the first being my soul, then i shall pay it gladly.
any game in development, mmorpgs more so, undergo wipes. allowing for the relative pace of delevopment planeshift, we are probably seriously lacking in the wipe department. so maybe we should have more wipes. if we want to play with the big boys we shouldn't slack on any metric. as a game matures in the development process wipes are necessary. planeshift is one of the very few games that have pulled back the curtain its development. you get to the gerbils running in the wheels, the guys running franticly with the wrenches, the 30 foot ladder being carried by the same guy at both ends. much of planeshift reflects this. the fact that a wipe is even being discussed is just a sign of much people are invited in to observe and participate in the development process. many other games, this would be fait acompli, it would occur without discussion or much warning. we all knew going in the planeshift is in alpha stages of development. at this stage wipes both big and small are a fact of development.
the true reality of a full wipe is, well to indulge in a bit of a vulgar metaphor, kind of like loosing my virginity. there was a bit of pain, a few tears, but it didn't stop me from coming back for more.