Maybe we should start expanding the 1 character per continent to other continents. I've never been a fan of changing the rules after the fact, but if we are going to close a whole continent, it doesn't seem as bad anymore, in comparison.
The solution may not be more characters per players (though I do understand the point some raise that lowering the max noble count of newbies is likely to be rather bad measure despite how I originally held it as being a good way to reward long-time players), but spreading players around a bit. I've always thought that forcing this upon newbies would likely be good for player retention... but perhaps it wouldn't limit itself to that. That rule really has dramatic impacts on inter-character interactions. When one has two nobles in the same realm, in the vast majority of cases the second character is just a bland drone that serves as an extension of the former and nothing else. The 1 character rule makes things more dynamic, which can only help making realms more fun, and thus improve retention everywhere. It might also force players to diversify the realms they play in a bit, and they might just realize they like those new realms too and want to invest themselves there.
I'd propose, for max noble/ active character count:
New account, private info: 2/3
New account, public info: 4/4
Old account, private info: 3/4+
Old account, public info: 4/5+
Overall, though, I'd reiterate my previous points: We will not fix BM's problem by shutting down continents. This is a band-aid solution. It will make things better for a while, but there's no reason to believe it would, in any way, reverse the decline. The only solution to that problem is to make the game more fun. So the main objects of discussion should not be how many islands we shut down and which, but how do we reverse the trend of player decline? Because if that is not addressed, it doesn't matter which continent we shut down first, in the end we'll be shutting them all down.
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