The events on the South Island has reminded me of this rules issue... I don't play on the South Island (thank god), but it seems like, yet again, players who mean no harm, and do no harm, got smitted for using the wrong keywords in their arguments.
That the rules focus so much on intent is really a source of great injustice, because those who know the letter of the rules well, and some precedent, can weasel their way into bypassing most of them. No friendly merger? No problem, they'll sling a few insults around for pretense, and then make amends. Can't punish for activity? No problem, they'll make something else up, and cover it up. And so on. Meanwhile, players who aren't as rules-savvy try to do the same thing, and often think they are doing the exact same thing, but, "whoops", they used the wrong keyword. And thus get divine fury for what another would have quite easily gotten away with.
So there's this guy, who would get appointed to lordships, patch up the new regions, and then step down for the next challenge. And he got punished for it, basically called a bad player.
But who did he harm? Did anyone ask for a chance to build up a region, only to get told "oh no, only the designated fixer upper can get new regions"? If that's the case, an argument could be made, though I'd still disagree with it. Fixing up a region is not a fundamental right, after all. More to the point, most people don't like that kind of duty. You get forced to do maintenance work. You get no income. It screws with your unit. It takes you out of commission. Very few people like patching up regions, and since the "new" estate system, it's really a huge, huge burden.
And that's not even what the placeholder rule was about. Taking titles seriously is an SMA thing, the placeholder rule was about stopping players from circumventing things that temporarily denied a player X his title, back when the game was much different than it is now. Say ruler Bob got wounded, lost his title. BAM, instant election (remember, no referendum mechanics back then), George is now ruler. People are upset, the moment Bob is healed, they demand Bob gets reinstated. THIS was common, and THIS is what brought the rule. The other similar issue was "X needs a lord now, we want to give it to Y, but Y isn't available right now. So we'll give it to Z, but as soon as Y is available, we'll force Z to step down."
The placeholder problem was always a situation that benefited one person specifically, and usually revolving coercion to take out someone the game had placed there or buy time for admissibility to change (ex: ruler deleting his old character, creating a new one, letting a placeholder in place until the new character is eligible).
Someone shifting lordships to be a serial region fixer could certainly be an SMA violation, but that only applies to Dwilight. It certainly doesn't fit the type problem the rule was meant to prevent.
Now, I've got zero stakes in this issue, I don't even have a character on the island at all, not do I even remember who the player sanctioned was.
But I heard that the realm is once again plunged into drama, and it's gotta be asked "was it worth it? what was gained?" Are the rules beneficial to the game? Or harmful? And I don't mean the idea of rules in general, I mean the specific rules that the game currently has. Rules are supposed to help keep things fun for everyone. I'm not sure this guy was harming anyone's fun, I'd think it more likely he was doing everyone a favor.
