You realise that there is a difference between the fun of establishing a situation (arguably forming an empire was fun for many people) and the fun of then maintaining the system?
Of course? But I believe it is incredibly short-sighted to think that the fun of establishing the system wouldn't lead to the crippling effect of maintaining it, if not by intent, then by the nature of the beast.
The empire model also an aside of the actual conversation, which is relative power of realms. Even without the empire Arcaea would still be in a dominate position that arguably lessen the fun for the rest of the continent.
They're quite related. Other realms embracing the empire has allowed Arcaea to stay powerful. It's big because too few took the opportunity to oppose it when there was a window to do so. Now Arcaea is supposed to break up because no one tried to take a bite out it? And is being told this by the people who didn't take a bite out of it? If you don't want overbearing realms in this game you have to start wars, join wars, take regions, not hope somebody is going to hit a balancing button for you once you help them win. That is an incredibly unhealthy expectation that goes beyond the FEI.
So it is a matter of priorities, Velax is certainly entitled to focus on the fun of Arcaea first and foremost, but when it comes at the cost of fun continent wide, you will understand people will then take issue with him also claiming to be working to increase fun continent wide.
I think there is no merit in complaining about the guy running things or the way he runs things when you put him there knowing that this is exactly how it would be because it's what he advertised from the beginning as his style of fun. It irks me to no end, that while I thought there were simply more people in favor of the Arcaean experiment than not, and that it was a system people were going to have fun trying to play, that apparently folks were just doing what was easy at the time while hoping someone was going to fix it for them later. To me this is the opposite of the way BM was intended to be played.
Anger!
