I feel like I'm the only one who thinks closing the local boards is a bad idea. They're the only place that I feel gives a sense of the continent evolving around your realm. Without that, realms might as well be singular islands to me that merge when there's a war and then quickly separate again afterward. It also give's a very, for lack of a better metaphor, "bar-top" feel where people discuss the events going on in a (sometimes) objective way...
This here is why guilds are so cool, they cross realm boundaries (even during war times)
