If you simply cut down on the available regions by making them impossible to live in, then the current player base would be forced to readjust their borders. How you'd accomplish this, I can't say, but doing it with something temporary (Blight, sudden flooding of coastal regions that makes them uninhabitable, volcanic eruption that claims regions, but keeps them around) you can reopen them if player density increases (players suddenly have a way to clear the blight, the ocean starts receding, or the lava cools down leaving open territory once more.
This is the idea I prefer. Have a temporary, reversible, closure of some regions. It can be explained through storm-surge flooding or some magical hokus pocus. That way no-one is forced to play on an island they don't like, or for realms to lose their entire history.
I also think the idea of allowing people more playable characters on different islands is a possibility now. I know that it's been argued before that we need more characters played by
different players rather than more characters played by the
same players, but the higher playable character limit is already planned for Might & Fealty. Giving players more characters across different islands is bound to shuffle up the playing mix and have different people playing alongside each other. It might not be a perfect solution, but it keeps the game intact until some way is found to boost the playerbase (which may happen if M&F draws the attention of new players).
I remain convinced that the biggest reason BM has trouble attracting players is because it looks old and needs a graphical revamp (and I don't mean the maps here, but rather the front page and adding graphics to other pages in the game). The underlaying gameplay and mechanics are solid, but most other longlasting text-based games have been made to look prettier over the years. I'm sure there must be some digital art students out there who'd work on a graphical revamp in return for bulking up their CVs.
