Tops:
1. The persistent world. Brilliant. The history, the cultures, the grudges and friendships. Wonderful.
2. Completely unique, it does not fall into any true category of game. Never known anything like it. I almost have a difficult time explaining it to people sometimes. "So it's an MMORPG?" "Well, sorta" "So it's a strategy game? "Well, yes, but more" "So, it's text based?" "Well, yes and no."
3. The pace. Not time demanding if you don't want it to be, but can be delved into for hours if you want. I believe this is why so many people have played it for years on end. Your devotion to the game can freely fluctuate with how your free time naturally fluctuates in your life.
Flops:
1. Oaths and Estates. No one takes them seriously. Discussion even devolves to how we should just switch people around the realm at a whim to help region maintenance, etc. It's just not a good system at this point.
2. Religion. Does not have the weight and sophistication and it could have. Religion could be one of the biggest aspects and drivers of the game, yet it falls short of this and becomes merely a background or demographic detail most of the time.
3. Economic system. The economic system is good, but could be so much more. The New Economy project sounded amazing but I haven't heard of it much lately. We have had the non-effectual in-game messages about for a long time now, though it seems other projects have taken its place on the to-do list.
All of this said, Battlemaster is fantastic!