There was something... unique about being able to follow the stories of people in other realms, and because of that, the goings on of other realms. It was the RP list that largely made that happen. I fully recognize that not every player jumped onboard with that, but the ones that did- even if only out of vague interest- seemed to be hooked. It was like being a part of a novel that was being written, but you only had control over your own individual aspect and so the outcome was always unknown and kept you on the edge of your seat.
Greg is absolutely right about sometimes waiting up to see just who might jump in next or waking up in a cold sweat because that speech you wanted to make on the Senate floor finally came to you. And there was an entertainment value to it. You wanted to keep the other players entertained. And so there was thought put into everything that was put out there because you didn't want to disappoint.
You ask how we went away from it? And that's where I point back to the simulationist parts of us taking over. Instead of describing the journey from Ipsosez to Haul and perhaps even having conversations on the way with a traveling companion, eventually we had mechanics to show- without description or narrative- that we were indeed moving from Ipsosez to Haul. And if we weren't in the same region literally in mechanics-terms, interaction with a non-realm member was extremely difficult. To the point of it ceasing altogether. Once the mechanics were in full swing, the roleplaying on the mailing list quickly became (mostly) banter between the rulers that people wanted to make sure remained public. And even that, after awhile, went away. Aside from that, the rare posts were typically done when attempting to describe or initiate something intra-realm and it was the best and only way to make that happen. Narrative was replaced by Simulation.
As the simulation began to shape the way we narrated the story, we also had a second (or third) influx of characters. Ones that were more eager to get into the number-crunching side of things and to find out how they could best improve their standing/stats/titles/etc. And, while there's nothing wrong with that- we all, to some degree, play games to win them. But even more by this point, Narrative was being replaced by Game. No longer was everyone attempting to
describe what happened. And they weren't even just letting the simulation describe the events for them. Now we had those who were looking to specifically make the game mechanics do something for them that is anathema to the "Story First" crowd- win.
And because we had all largely abandoned the thing that had once kept the story going (the unifying mailing list), the ones who wanted to focus on "story" felt detached and cut off. I remember big arguments coming about around this time that the "strategy players are taking over and can't we do something to make them actually roleplay?" The reaction, obviously, was "We
are roleplaying. We're playing our roles as if we were the character. This is what I would do!"
The big divide of "RPers" and "Strat players" squared off, like they usually do. "It's pointless to have to try to read through someone's 4 pages of drivel about how their mommies were mean to them and their brother took all the good candy. Just play the damn game!" came from one side, while "They're ruining my story because all they care about is the numbers. That's not what real roleplaying is!" was shouted back.
The problem is, and has always been, that this game at its core is a simulation. It at least used to say that flat out somewhere in the early descriptions, and probably still does. Everything about the mechanics is to simulate actual events and put it in text format for people to read and interpret. And coming at this from two opposite ends of the spectrum are crowds who want to "beat the game and get the highest score" or "I want to develop an incredibly original character idea about a pirate captain who has personality quirks, hates to lose his hat, and can't seem to keep track of his ship- and no it's not been done before!" Both are playing the "roleplaying game". Both are playing it the way they know how. But both don't always see eye to eye on how to go about that.
Gamists had an outlet with the South Islands and now with the War Islands mini game. FEI originated as a haven for the Narrativist, but I just gave you the evolution of the island and hopefully nobody disagrees that it hasn't been that in a long time.
Hopefully I did a better job of explaining myself. I'm not looking for massive overhauls to the game in order to make things "interesting and fun to me". I like the game (always have) for what it is. I'm just pointing out that there was a number of longtime players- many who had been around since 2004 or some even the full duration of BM's existence- who found the startup of FEI to be the single greatest thing to happen to the game. And we'd like a chance to try that again in some capacity.
As for a new drawing pad taking up way too much time for Tom and the devs... well, for one, a number of those interested in such a project
are devs. They can decide for themselves what they can handle. And two, did you miss the part about SM and FEI both starting off as nothing but a freeform mailing list?
