So this is what a conversation at one of those exclusive wall street investor clubs is like.
All of us, long time players had gobs of influence to spend and play with. My whole problem with the system we had in game was that it was simply too confusing for anyone who might be somewhat new to the game.
The few times I got a friend involved they would look at things like the prices of certain IOs and think that they had to be playing the game hard core for months and months in order to get even one. Let alone the concept of filling out an entire char with IOs.
In order for them to understand all of the tweaks that could be used to bypass all of that (merits, farming, whatever trick you might want to employ) they had the n00bish glazed look over their eyes and went back to whatever game they were playing before. Kind of a better the devil you know approach.