Which islands do you want to keep?

[egamma]

The continents are in alphabetical order, by the way.

Please provide a reason for the islands you want to keep.

[Foundation]

Honestly I think in the end it will be decided by data and generally available information rather than on personal preference of the forum's vocal crowd.

This is one of the things for which a poll will not aid the decision making process.

[Tom]

I am locking this topic and the vote.

Nothing good can come of a negative poll and discussion. If you want to weigh in, I am a LOT more interested in which islands to definitely KEEP and why.

[egamma]

Okay, I've redone the thread and poll and reset votes.

I want to keep Dwilight because it's very popular; I like the 1-character limit; and it seems to be the most active continent.

I want to keep the Colonies because it's the only 1-turn-per-day island, and there are several people who simply can't play two turns a day.

[Frostwood]

I wish to keep Dwilight because of the unique nature of contient, and the rp atmosphere.  I also like the size of Dwilight and the amount of different realms.  I found a lot of the other continents to be too small for my liking.

Beluterra, because the invasion and magic concept seems cool, despite the massive damage caused to the lands.

Atamara, I'm kinda meh about, as well as Far East Island.  I believe bringing sea travel would spice things up on these islands.

[jaune]

Atamara! Old, great history... even with all of its problematic diplomacy and powerbalance, its great place to play... very harsh, very violent and aggressive island.

Beluaterra! Also great history, always something happening and full of surprises.

Mayby EC...

Now, these are the only continents i have chars :P Well, not EC anymore, so thats why there is that mayby :)

I really think, most people will vote the islands they have chars, they have chars on those islands for reason... mayby if you could choose only one.

-Jaune

[Foxglove]

My choices to keep:

The East Continent because of its depth of history that still has an impact on current events, interesting politics, and lively and diverse religious aspect.

The Far East Island because, taken as a whole, it has the friendliest playing atmosphere I've found in the game. Lots of well defined, and well played, characters and realms. Good roleplay. The smaller number of regions mean that realms compete for limited space much more than on the bigger islands, leading to island-wide wars in recent times.

My last choice is Atamara. I've mainly chosen this one because I think the map has good potential as a target island for invading realms from the closing island/islands. It's a big territory with very few choke points and good travel times between regions, meaning that the migrating realms would stand a good chance of gaining footholds and their arrival would trigger all sorts of wars that would shake up the status quo in a fun way.

[Wolfang]

Dwilight: Because I like 1 char policy, the dynamic and the activity.
FEI: Because I hear good things about it
EC: Seems like there are some alright wars going on (?) 

I have chars in Dwi & Atamara (not enough fame), didn't pick AT, because I feel like nothing will ever change there.

[Geronus]

I would keep Dwilight. It's quite a bit different that the other islands. The odd geography and long travel times have given rise to some truly unique cultures like Luria and Sanguis Astroism.

I also feel that it is one of the better islands for retention, based on personal experience. Many of the older islands feature realms with static political cultures and entrenched characters with virtual monopolies on power and influence. Some of these realms (and even entire islands) have effectively become the personal sandboxes of a small handful of players. When I first joined the game in 2008 with a small group of friends, I joined a realm and island such as I am describing. The culture I first encountered there was a huge turnoff, to put it lightly. Within two months I had left the island with my friends and emigrated to the then-new Dwilight. Had that experience not proven to be significantly better, I likely would have quickly given up on the game.

The long and continuous history of BM islands, while in some ways a boon, is detrimental to the health of the game in other ways; on many stable islands meaningful turnover at the highest levels is virtually non-existent in some realms (if not most realms), and all the plum positions simply rotate between a set cast of characters that changes only rarely. One of the best things about Dwilight (and also Beluaterra before the Invasions were officially ended) is that this dynamic has yet to set in (or in BT's case was completely upset every time an Invasion happened). In both cases, opportunities were and are there for newer players to join realms that truly need them, not as cogs in a machine, but as leaders and story-makers in their own right. That's the opportunity that I had with Astrum, and it is definitely what hooked me to the game. I eventually had similar experiences on Beluaterra. I have notably failed to find such opportunities anywhere else, despite (in some cases years-long) sojourns on the stable islands, excluding the Colonies. I even had a ruler on one of the stable islands once, but it wasn't much fun, it was mostly a chore. Thanks to preexisting power structures and entrenched relationships on the island, I had virtually no ability to make a difference. There was nothing I could do as a ruler that mattered at all in the long run, so I found it to be totally uninteresting and gave it up within a few months.

My point is, Dwilight (and maybe BT still, though BT has started to stagnate now) bring something to the game that is different than the other islands: A more welcoming, dynamic and open-ended experience. Change is still possible (and frequent), turnover in the leadership positions in still relatively high, and alliances and relationships between realms are still shifting to an extent not seen in most other places.

[Foundation]

I would randomly select 1 of the 2 testing islands to keep, and randomly select 3 of the 4 stable islands to keep.

That is all.

[Poliorketes]

I would keep Dwilight. It's SMA, have the one-noble rule... It's different.   8)
The other islands? I wouldn't mind too much if they sunk!  ;D

[Vellos]

Dwilight: super unique and I like it, see others' comments.

Beluaterra: I've always had fun on Beluaterra with now like 5 different characters, which makes it the only continent I can say that about besides Dwilight, where I've only actually had one character.

Colonies: I've never played there, but, again, it's so unique and different than the others, and I recall from my retention stats a while back it actually had some of the strongest retention info. I think it appeals to a unique player set we shouldn't lose.

I'd suggest closing one of the two continents with the most overlapping characters; i.e. find the two continents with the most accounts that overlap between them (and maybe don't overlap elsewhere), and delete one of those continents, so you minimize the chance of deleting one of the only continents people like. I'd wager that means deleting either FEI, EI, or Atamara.

[pcw27]

Dwilight for many many reasons. In addition to my love of its unique culture, history, geography and politics it somehow feels especially wrong to kill off the youngest continent.

[Eduardo Almighty]

I would like to keep Dwilight and East Continent.

[egamma]

I'm starting to regret the "three islands"...I think we would have more meaningful results if players only picked 2 islands.

I would like to note that you can choose only one island to keep, or two.