I think it would be beneficial to people who want to see what Vendetta Online is about before they buy or preorder if we made the backstory available to people without needing to login.

Rationale: ... is it really necessary (the rationale)? I think people will want to know what is going on before they start to consider buying a game. If they have to have an account to do that... it defeats the purpose of having it.

...maybe a brief synopsis (back-of-the-box, preview teaser, etc..), rather than what we ourselves have access to (pages 2-26ish of the printed manual). The example that comes to mind for me is StarCraft. You knew there were humans, insecty-things, and funky blue-faced things, but you had to actually buy the game before you learned the history of the Xel'Naga and their experiments gone awry.

now, I definately think potential players should be given SOMEthing, but I respect John's writing enough that I don't think he should feel the need to give it ALL away for free.....

....just my .00002cu of Xithricite

Awww! Now you've ruined it for me! Thanks, SPOILER! ;)

I'm not entirely sure Starcraft is a fair comparison.
Afterall, Starcraft is made by Blizzard, which is a little bit more respected in the game development community than Guild.
I actually think the story is cool enough that it'll help market the game. It should be more publicized.