Most people would say that Gamers and Writers, as I have just described them, are diametrically opposed.
And sometimes, they still are—particularly at the extremes of their respective groups. There are people who are so heavily invested in the Game side that they are willing to go to absurd lengths—and do things that, from a character or writing perspective, make absolutely no sense—to "get ahead". Conversely, there are people who are so heavily invested in the Writing side that they deliberately try to divorce themselves from the Game requirements—such as actually maintaining the region they are Lord of, or participating in the realm—preferring instead to sit and write long narrative scenes about their characters.
It is people like these extremes, generally, that cause the most problems in the game.
But the truth is that they actually support each other in a symbiotic relationship. The game needs ambitious players whose goals are to run things right and grab everything with both hands (like the classic Noble). It also needs players who are willing to take the time to translate those technical achievements (or lack thereof) into setting and story.
Absolutely.
And the game needs to support both, in the proper balance.
If I were a betting man, I would bet that our current rash of problems is at least partially caused by an imbalance in these two motivations: one has begun to eclipse the other. If we are to view the recent changes to BM with any objectivity, it should be done with the perspective that the goal of those changes is (or at least should be) to correct an imbalance.
Actually, I think that the perception that there's been worse troubles recently with players than in the past is just that: a perception, not the reality.
What
has happened recently is that with the Magistrates making grievances between players public, we've seen a couple of things: first, people are actually starting to see the issues that affect their fellow players; and second, a consensus has developed that harassment is not something we want to condone (and consequently, multiple cases of harassment being publicly reported and going through the Magistrate process).
As someone who was able to see many of the Titan cases as they happened (though I was never a Titan), I can assure you that though the recent spate of cases are unusual for their public and contentious nature, the rate of reports to the dominant judicial authority in the game (whether Magistrates or Titans) has actually been much lower recently than in the past.
