Age sucks. No offense to our older players.
So, what is it good for?
Turnover? No. Oldies remain in power for as long as they want/ are allowed to. They just don't fight battles anymore. Hooray for encouraging idleness and stagnation!
What is it bad for?
Constant game-interruptions if you dare to fight battles with a char you've grown attached to over the years.
Idleness and stagnation. Encourage characters to sit on their butts and do nothing at all. It fills your realm with old-timers who can barely still contribute in any meaningful game-mechanic way. Create a character, build relationships, achieve something, then kill the character out of frustration. That's the BM cycle.
There should be more emphasis on fun, and less on "realistic" features that are detrimental to fun. Because seriously, who here enjoys NOT being able to play the game for days on end, enjoy a few days of playing then be stupid enough to fight another battle and be out again for less than a week, if you're lucky.
Whatever the intention of age was, the result is that players get a choice: play the game fully for half the time and be blocked of it for the rest or just play half the game, avoid battles and try to suck it up and be content. Together with all the other oldies incapable of fully playing the game. We can only have one character per continent now, there's less players but a majority of characters that remain get less hours, are wounded more often and longer and simply cannot play the game that should be encouraging to play it, and play it hard. Like, actually wage war.
For those of you who say "kill the old bastard already", this is an RP game. People get attached to their characters and the way they RP them. People also play for years on end and get tired of having to come up with new characters all the time to keep playing and then forcibly play him as a new inexperienced noble. There's the GoT mentality that dictates that all characters need to die and die easy. And it makes for great stories, but it sure does not for the game experience in a game that's built on long-term enjoyment.
So, get rid of physical age. Or remove it's effects and replace it with actual age for the rp element.
There, I vented. Now I'll go back to the game and try to write a couple of letters before I get wounded again.
