I do think there's a disconnect between old/young players. I feel like I came into a game heavy into RP and light-hearted chatter, without this really slack hierarchy and revolving door positions here there and everywhere. You had to work a lot harder at progression and recognition. Even then, there was a lot more fun to be had whether you were going up in the world or not. There was greater emphasis not only on working together, but forming relationships with other players/characters. Newer players haven't experienced/don't see that same world. They don't have to care either, because their first position will probably come with some lordship election uncontested by any other character.
(Though the above could possibly be rose-tinted glasses? It was infuriating waiting for a chance at lordship, or rulership years and years ago. Rulers just didn't budge. They were as solid as rock. Positions were as hard to get then as they're easy to get now.)
I suppose I agree in a way that people have got nastier towards each other. But with chat and interaction harder to come by, who is teaching the new players what the accepted forms are and ought to be? Why aren't we older players playing the game like it used to be played and interacting in the same ways? Surely we ought to be leading by example, but a lot of us have withdrawn. Older players who once might have been a pretty interactive bunch tend to be silent now - I mean, my characters tend often to go through these long periods where they're essentially silent automatons whereas a few years ago, I made more of an effort.
It doesn't help, either, that we have so many older players who have been around long enough to know whether they like playing with this or that player. It definitely feels like a few of us are carrying grudges with our characters and that isn't helping any. Then there are all the issues of player nepotism which has been mentioned, or realms where a few old players dominate top positions yet have become fairly quiet inactive and inadvertently suck the life out of realms.
So yeah, not only did I start out playing what I feel to be a very different (I'd say more more fun) version of BM, but now I'm one of those old players with all the baggage that brings. I play out of habit more than anything these days. If I go for positions it's probably just so I get to see and indulge in more chatter than seen in typically deserted realm channels than for reasons of ambition or wish to make a mark. All that's very same-old, same-old now. A lot of the fun I do have is based in continuing to play with players I've played with for years, like all the ASI folk and what have you.
I have tried the last six months or so to be more interactive with my characters, to try and provoke more discussion and chatter. But newer players don't seem to have the knowledge or the tools to reciprocate and I too easily fall off the wagon back into silence again myself. So I'm not even a decent poster-child for that old, inclusive, light-hearted, chatty culture I wish we still had. I suppose it's pining for a bygone age and I should get involved in the politics and all the strategy side again, but as I say, don't have the passion and General/Marshal positions are things you had to get to prove yourself back in the day. Probably still now. The point is that you get them done and move on to greater things. Then never, ever go back :-P
That's the same issues I have with dueling, really. The only people actually good at it are the ex-adventurers and people who have a lot of gold and who, for long periods of time, did nothing but train at the academy.
And then they go out of their way to challenge any and everyone to deaths duel as a form of meta-execution/assassination. I love that this age-old debate keeps on raging >.<
