And the "need-to-prove-a-point, nit-pick-every-word" voices come out of the wood work over a single word in a single sentence. A more interesting statistic would be to exclude every realm (since it was convenient for your point to throw out the Colonies, namely Lukon), and instead focus of the issue of discussion, which was realms with "old" characters in power with a second character in the same realm. To say that ssituation doesn't happen a lot is not true, says over 6 years of game experience in multiple realms on most of the islands.
Sure, it happens everywhere (except for Dwilight). Anecdotally though, I would say that Atamara in general is the worst afflicted. I'd be very curious to see the rest of Vellos' list.
Seriously though, Atamara needs to be fumigated or something. The average playing time of the players who are rulers on Atamara is astoundingly long, which speaks volumes about the limits of upward mobility on that island. It is completely choked with incestuous old-timey IC cliques.
I'll be very curious to see what CE is like over the long term now that I'm playing there. It's a Republic for one thing, which actually serves it very well I think, as they have one of the younger and more dynamic rulers on the island. I'd very much like to get myself into the Senate at some point and see if it is also a dynamic institution. If so, that could go along way toward explaining CE's success in my opinion; the appearance of upward mobility and the opportunity to be engaged and have a say in the realm is a hugely important factor in recruiting and retaining talented young nobles. As a player I can remember that when I started playing BM, I nearly quit after joining an Atamaran realm as my first destination. The place seemed completely dominated by a clique of characters who had been around forever, and I really didn't see any point in staying just to march back and forth across the island on trips that took almost a week in one direction, especially when the prevailing atmosphere seemed to be that the opinions of those outside the clique were not welcome. Thank goodness I gave Dwilight a try when it was just being opened up.
