Why Saris is better then a gnome (and why not to play a neutral gnome):

You reason 'OK I'll be a gnome mage/thief. That should keep my companions from being frightened off when I open chests.' For kicks you look at your other guild options as a neutral gnome- Barbarian, Cleric, Explorer, Artisan. You think, 'Well I don't get warrior like human, so I will never have great a/d at the upper levels, but I can be barb which will give me an extra swing. And yeah, playing barbarian for its warrior skills may be a bit of a drag, since explorer's a/d will top barb, and thief skills from thief are better than barb, so I will probably drag barb along to the 60's for a first extra, and then maybe drag it all the way into the 200's or 300's for a 3rd extra, hmmmm....'

You start to think that maybe you would be unhappy levelling barb into the hundreds for another extra swing might be worthless, since by then you should have a 4 swing weapon and one more swing won't really matter that much. This gets you thinking- 'is that first extra swing from barb really worth it'? You decide to drop barb and go with art/expl/mage/cler/thi.

On impulse you look at the race tables and find this other cool race called Saris. 'Hmm... saris gets 90% stone, mental, acid, and electrical resist- all the resistance spells that are on treatises and I can never learn as a gnome. That is cool! Oh wait look, they also get warlock. I don't get warlock. Hmmm... If I could be warlock, I could have all those resistance spells, and better hp from lvls 30-38. Wow look at the saris dex! Why should I be a gnome when Saris is so much better at the neutral alignment?

Why Yeti is better then Gnome(and why not to play an evil gnome):

So you decide to consider another alignment. Evil. Evil will let you be a sorcerer and get those high level resistance treatises. So you decide to be a barb/art/expl/sorc/mage. You are about ready to punch that one in, when you on whim decide to look at yeti. Wow! With yeti, you can have natural resistance to fire, cold, electricity, mind, magic,drain and acid. Look at that 95% paralysis resistance! That should be cool. Even the 50% resistance to mind is better than a gnomes 40%, the only resistance you get. You look at the breathing and sight table. Not only are they better breathers, but they see better too. You look at the guild list for yeti- they can be in everything you can be, but warrior too! Surely they must have a high racial penalty.. you look and yeti is 0.4 and gnome is 0.7. You start to think perhaps good is your alignment.

Why Yeti is again better then Gnome(and why not to play a good gnome):

So you punch in good. You can be an art/expl/pala/sorc/mage. That is pretty good!  Yes, you will never be able to open a chest ever again since you will always set off fright traps. Again you look at yeti- HAH! all they can be is warr/expl/art/sorc/mage. Surely paladin must be special somehow. You start looking in the guild stats table-warrior is superior in crit hit, swings, fighting, but at least you got it in perception and language- oh wait, sorry, both of those are coming from explorer. Well surely paladin must have some great spells. You look. They get really expensive healing, much more expensive than mage. Oh wait! They get the dispel group that becomes cheap when you are level 660 paladin. Hmmm... Maybe warrior is better. You look at human- wow! A human could be a ninja and get thieving ability and swings as a good mage. Hmm.... You look at elf. Well, elf gets more guilds than you do- they get warlock on top of everything you can get.

Pro-Gnome arguements so far:

1. The 'pecan pie' argument
Here people like gnomes for no reason they can state, just as they would like pecan pie or the color red. About all you can say to this is your taste in races sucks. Of course that would just be a meaningless opinion, but that is ok, that is all this argument is anyway.

2. The 'I've-had-no-problems-with-them' argument.
This doesn't say much as there is probably another race with a better guild combo for a paticular alignment that will have fewer problems. I think that given raw guild power you can even overcome something like gnome.

3. The 'I want to play something pathetic so the game is more challenging' argument.
- About all I can say in response to this is there are other ways to challenge yourself without having to resort to playing a gnome. Also, I hope you are happy in the full release with your gnome.

4. The 'secret abilities' argument.
-We hear this a bunch in the form of 'well I get more treasure or better treasure with my gnome than any other character, so drops are linked to hidden racial abilities'. The random nature of drops makes people associate them with strange things. I have not seen any kind of statistical proof of such claims, nor does the help lesson in any way support this. Whatever. If people want to belive angels push planets about the sun, you can not disprove them, about all you can do is offer a simpler theory that predicts future behavior.

5. The 'I want to play a gnome just to annoy the gnome haters' argument.
-Go ahead, knock yourself out. There will be more monsters and treasure deeper for me, with you lying dead on level 2.