Correct. So if everyone agrees that it sucks, why does nobody change it? I'm serious. Everybody complains, but there is nothing in the game that forces this situation. Either enough people LIKE the current state, or even after 12 years, people have still not realized that history in this game happens because players make it happen. Neither sounds very believable.
Bloody hell. Are you serious, Tom? Do you really not see?
People not realizing that "history in this game happens because players make it happen"—or, perhaps more accurately, people being a bunch of sheep who by and large just follow a very few leaders, and those leaders focusing
solely on what will maintain their own power—sounds like Human Nature 101.
It is not even a tiny bit surprising to me that out of a thousand or so people, there are only a few dozen who have the interest and gumption to make real change. Nor that those dozen or so have a tendency to flock together, so that they're not spread out and able to make change in every part of the game.
Look at the way people act in the real world. Then look at the way people act in BattleMaster.
Your game is a brilliant microcosm of society.Let me put it this way: If you did, in fact, decide that Atamara was to be sunk with the players having an opportunity to do something to stop it, but did not make a general, public, and very obvious announcement, the subtle signs that to some would be clear indicators of an invasion (or the island sinking, or whatever) would be utterly ignored by many in power, because the action required to stop it would be detrimental to their power.
Y'know, just like in the real world with the slow, subtle, but inexorable force that's going to be sinking islands and reducing coastlines over the next century or three.
