It seems I have read a lot of discussion lately about some of the weaker points of the game, and areas where things tend to fall stagnant and produce stale game play. One of the larger contributors to this seems to be complaints about stale, boring and lame religions. Particularly those that are "successful" in a mechanics sense, but possess no real atmosphere or drive.
I would like to open some discussion about what makes a good religion, as opposed to these boring ones that many of us would claim only hurt game play. There are several notable ones in game, what defines them and what has set them apart from other religions? Is creating solely state-supporting religions the big problem? Is the recruiting of uncaring nobles it? Does it merely depend upon possessing confrontational and active leaders? No? Then what?
Very curious to see some analysis on this, as religion has the potential to be perhaps one of the largest drivers of game events, conflict, roleplay, etc. in the game and it is a shame to see it fall so short of this at times.
