Even if they did for whatever reason 'have' to choose either stepping down or changing allegiance, that's the enemy realm losing a region + 3000 CS of militia vs. they lose a few points of H/P. No player with the interest of fair play at mind would make the decision they did.
The player didn't have to accept that they're the lord. They could have made any kind of IC excuse to -not- exploit the bug. "Oh, I'm not the lord anymore, that information is outdated." "Everyone's just confused after the takeover." etc. And any excuse would probably make more sense than them just straight up taking the region back to Libero, instantly, and convincing an army of militia who just came from our capital to come work for the enemy. They didn't do what made the most sense IG, they did what made the least sense.
Oh, I agree with you -- I think it wasn't particularly honorable, and a bit silly to see the region switch back like that.
However, what I'm trying to get at is that the stated positions of the devs and Tom DON'T support this. Since what the games tells you can NEVER trump RP, then since the game told him he was lord, obviously he was. And if they don't revert bugs, then he just has to play on from being lord of the region, even if it's a bug that he is.
I don't agree with this, but it seems to be what the devs have suggested (at least, what logically follows from what they said), and how they have often handled things in the past.
