Guess my point is that is something that should not be buried in the forums, not everyone reads every forum topic before they pre-order. Along with player being able to be looted.

Guess, I'm a carebear at heart. I don't mind having zones of Open PvP, but have seen to many Open PvP games turned into gankfests. I'm not sure I would have signed up for the Prelude if I had known it was Open PvP. (To many flashbacks to running around in my undies in UO).

I never liked the idea of "Forced Grouping" either, and that is basically what you are talking about when you say hire someone to guard you while you gather.

As for Evil Alignment, I would think of things like stealing, poisoning the land, clearcutting, random terraforming peoples camps (griefing), and possibly damming rivers as being Evil.