I once had a pretty influential family before I made the current one.
I can tell you the game can be boring for knights when there isn't much going on.
Heck even when you are in power things can be rather boring.
I'd say about 70% of the realms in the game are like that. People mostly being reactionary and going with the flow instead of actually doing something to make the game more interesting. But can you really fault people for being risk averse?
It takes awhile for people to become influential while they can lose that influence really quickly by making one wrong move.
I think the slow pace of BM works both in favor and in disfavor. It is good for those who can't log in often to keep up with the game since it is slow enough. However, since it is slow, it also takes time for people to gain power. Once they gain power, they don't want to lose it so they become passive and risk averse. There isn't much incentive to do much once you reach the top. Only a handful of people who are willing to risk everything to make the game fun usually do something about it then they get antagonized as enemies.
