Read the convo and I have to say, the more I read the more I like Anaris's idea of Health.
Active and engaging characters are the movers and drivers of the game, regardless of age. You have Rebellions and other ingame mechanics to get rid of dinosaur chars. I also think that actual inactive chars should be dealt with more effectively. There are chars who just do nothing at all. Limiting their hours won't affect them I reckon, Do I know what would affect them from a mechanics point of view? I do not.
Then again, I do know there are Ingame ways of dealing with them. My Oldest Char is 45 ish years old? I sometimes struggle with RPing him or portraying him. He's getting into the zone of being regarded like a sage and a living piece of history. Do I use this to my full advantage and tell stories of the old days and educate younger chars? Definitively, this opened up an entirely new arena and sphere of influence for me to use and employ!
I think the playerbase itself is increasingly becoming more and more unwilling or unable to roleplay. To instigate, to explore and to craft stories. The dinosaurs hold power because of their influence, sure they do. Creating new stories will give you the very same influence. I've done it with a slew of different types of chars, Even evil ones, good ones, chaotic ones, peaceful ones and weird ones.
Make a presence, a personality and you will gain the influence to affect real change within the game. Do I like the idea of positive rewards in regards to active players? Definitively. Because that's what makes the game fun, players.
Anyhow, Cheers Anaris for your work.
This is bull!@#$. I know because I've tried, over and over, to do the exact same thing. I've watched and tried to help other people who were trying to do the exact same thing. Please, get off your high horse of superiority. The issue is that making an active presence of yourself doesn't remove the influence of the old guard through some magical happenstance. They still have the ability to squash anything you want to do if they have both the dukeships and Ruler position in their hands. The Cagilan Empire for example actively refused to change. The Morek Empire needed for its own Ruler to step down and secede herself for something to happen. And I know the person who was the ruler, they did that because they were bored, not because of the pressure being put on their character. They could have just as easily banned the people who were protesting his character, rather than just exiling them.
So much responsibility and onus is on the ruler to take the actions necessary for fun to be had, that often I wish the game was more decentralized, with focus given to Duchies rather than realms.
