I've never actually been convinced we've correctly identified the problems. Perhaps that's why the solutions fail. Also, each island will have different problems and any solutions need to be specifically tailored to each island rather than trying a catch-all fix like the ice age.
Looking at Dwilight, there does seem to be a pretty good level of interaction between many realms and there are already enough realms close to each other to provide wars. There seems to be a reasonable level of international diplomacy going on. It's hard to say what interaction is like inside each realm, but that's a player problem rather than a game/Dev problem since no-one can force people to write letters to up the levels of internal interaction within a realm.
So what problems are there specific to Dwilight that need solutions? Well, we have Madina and Fissoa isolated down in the south. Whether that's a problem depends on if the players down there are bored and frustrated by their location. There might well be enough to keep them busy with fighting monster hordes. There seems to be a bit of an assumption that the western hordes kill the PvP aspect of the game, but that relies on a very narrow interpretation of PvP as battles between realms. But there's also the political aspect with people trying for political power; also opportunities for internal religious strife if people create it; and stuff like that. It's entirely possible to have both external PvE situations running alongside internal PvP situations. Also, the Zuma could be used to increase levels of interest in the south of the map. They don't really seem to do very much.
Trying to restrict expansion over the entire map isn't necessarily a bad thing in itself. But destroying realms to do it
is a bad thing. We know that has a negative impact on players and their feelings about the game. Nevertheless, if the idea is to use the monster hordes to push people into smaller areas, perhaps it needs to be pushing them towards the middle of the map rather than into one side or the other. If you had all of the realms arranged around the coastlines of the central body of water you then have the central islands as natural battlegrounds and you also maintain the seabourn warfare aspect. With all realms arranged in a loose circle around the central body of water, you pretty much have the chance for anyone to fight anyone else.
While I enjoy my time in Westgard, it should also be noted that it considerably dwindled over what it once was: it now has a lot less nobles than before, and the great density is partly a result of losing almost all regions it had. That being said, it remains one of the most populous realms.
Westgard was always going to lose a proportion of the nobles who migrated there simply because not everyone would decide to continue playing on Dwilight.
