No from what I remember before the war islands disappeared sunk or uhh [insert]. It was just more activity going around more people conversed in realms and well regions were still building the culture some of them still have today, Ibaldesh "White City", Sirion "elves", etc. You could say pre-war island [insert] it was a more creative atmosphere and well a different crowd, though many still lurk.
Dukes would converse more and such with lords knights so forth. Realms were tight knit, but the difference is they spoke and knew other nobles around the contient they were in, not just their realm mates. War islands didn't destroy that, spying did. That's why realms have so many message groups.
Honestly, I don't see that at all.
First of all, in my experience, there was just as much spying back in the day. If anything has ruined trust in the game, it's not spying, but rather paranoia about spying.
Second of all, I was here for ~4 years before the War Islands closed, with characters on both SWI and SEI, and I don't recall seeing any significant change in the way people acted or culture was developed when they were closed.
Over time, however, the older realms—particularly on Atamara and the EC—started to lose some of the habits that were part of their culture in the early years. I don't think this means that they lost their culture, per se. Some of them, I think, suffered from having longtime players who used to develop the culture lose interest and either leave the game, or just become inactive Dukes holding onto power for its own sake. Others, however, just lost the players who used to develop culture, and had new players develop a different one.
I've definitely seen Sirionites describe themselves as Elves, and Ibladesh called the White City, and all sorts of other little cultural tidbits, in the years since the War Islands closed. I think you may be seeing the past through rose-coloured glasses, Blue Star.
