Okay, I was thinking about how to describe the view of neutral players, and I came up with this analogy:
Let’s view Anarchy Online as a car, more specifically the gear shift. Omni could be seen as putting the car in drive, while Clan could be seen as putting the car in reverse. Neutral’s, reasonably, would be putting the car in neutral. Now, when you are in drive or reverse, you can go along your path (i.e. playing all that the game has to offer). Sure, forward and reverse aren’t exactly the same, but you use just about the same tools with only a few variations.
Now when your car is in neutral, you have a far different situation. If you are on a slope you can go either forward or backward, oftentimes switching direction. Sure, your car won’t go that fast in neutral (i.e. not getting as many if any rewards for the same quest), but it will still go. Also, when you are in neutral, you have a very small amount of things that you can’t use in drive or reverse, such as the parking brake (i.e. Profiteer’s Helper)
However, the current situation for neutrals is moving more towards putting the car in park. You are still in the car, and you can still play with the gauges, lights, and even the horn, but you aren’t able to go forward or reverse, even if you press the gas. I’m not asking that neutrals are allowed to go speeding on the highway at 100 mph (i.e. PvP missions) but can we at least put our car on the onramp and coast along?