One thing I like about PSO is it does not have server side saving.

I'm not a huge RPG freak partially because of server side saving, and the fact that I for one consider it equally threatening to players as hacking. In essence, they hold your data hostage for a monthly ransom.

Let's say you've been playing for 4-6 months. You've invested a great deal of time in your character and found many rares through countless hours of toil.

Then, some ST beaurocrat loses a piece of paper and BAM.. your account is cancelled and your file is erased?

How about all you student gamers? What happens when you receive a sudden demand in extra fees, or perhaps the shoestring income is stretched too thin one month?

As for security... at least there is something immediate you can do to prevent/repair damage when you're hacked on the gc version. If exploits are found to corrupt data or steal items and your data is controlled by apathetic it managers, it makes recovery harder.

For the above reasons, I personally like the fact that I control my character data in the GC version.

I sincerely hope they will allow you to back up your data through official means client-side. By overlapping the two you can avoid a lot of the drawbacks above without opening the door to rabid duping/hacking.