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.
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.
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!
When the experiment started, which since I was playing there back then and was part of the Arcaea ruling council, back long before Velax rose to any sort of power, it was started in an atmosphere where the client states would, if united, be far more powerful then Arcaea. The experiement never made Arcaea stronger in an absolute sense, indeed like all of FEI is has weakened considerable in absolute terms. Due however to other factors, many outside of the control of anyone in power now, there remains now power base like was envisioned when we created the concept of the empire.
But again you miss the point. While people might not like our FEI has turned out, that is hardly a unique thing. Continents often evolve in a way that many dislike. The umbrage was purely due to previous comments from Velax that implied that his focus was improving FEI as a continent, when in peoples opinion his course of action was the single biggest hurdle to achieving that.
Personally it doesn't bother me about the Empire. I am happy to see that something I worked with Bedwyr and others so long ago has actually grown momentum of its own even when the majority of the principle players that initiated it left. I simply attempted to explain that you are viewing the complainant from a odd trajectory.
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.
Please, you show a complete lack of knowledge regarding the history here. There was a time when OW was the ONLY realm allied with Arcaea in bringing this about, Cathay was neutral, Kindara likewise and every other realm was united against Arcaea. Arcaea was fighting a war on two fronts and just managing to hold off loss of land. Plenty of people over the years attempted to fight against this.
