Hi, to preface, I have witnessed wars via livestreams and screenshares on YouTube and Discord, so take what I am about to say with a grain of salt; my opinion bears little weight here. At the end of the day, I am sitting down on my laptop at work and adding side comments, rather than looking to kickstart an argument. I just want to drop what I think somewhere c:
I find this part in particular rather interesting. LOTC is, at the end of the day, a fantasy roleplay server, but has ultimately shifted to a geopol server. I believe this has something to do with the time scaling of the server, with the time ratio being 1:7 (or, 7:1?) and the culture the player base has built over the years. This puts heavy emphasis on players wanting their characters to make their mark because, in tandem with real-life duties, time flies by much quicker than usual. A mundane human can live upwards of ~2 OOC years, but the time played depends on who is playing them, and is ultimately closer to ~1 OOC year
Why I bring this up is because the time scaling is much more suited for the rise and fall of empires, settlements, nations, etc. War definitely panders toward a very small number of LOTCers who PvP quite often. That is to say, yes, there is a hint of false advertisement here and there, but I feel as though it also depends on where you roleplay
This, I wholeheartedly agree with. I've seen a few times where ambitious, new players are able to weasel their way up into very high positions due to both roleplay skill and ability to easily converse with others, ICly and OOCly .. and that's kind of it. I barely witness any new player come in with the goal of starting their own settlement or creating a clan, however that happens. I hold very ambitious goals myself, but that is something I will seek ICly
Very little do I see them able to stick their foot in the door
Granted, this could be something to do with one's social ability, but many players have already settled down in a place they believe fits their character. Many settlements, vassals, nations, etc. already cover a majority of grounds and roleplay genres, resulting in a new player actively seeking something that doesn't copy a preexisting place. In fact, when I returned, I was shocked at the sheer number of vassals that existed under kingdoms, particularly the Empire of Man (which, in part, is due to war). Which brings me to my next point,
Maybe my take here is a little doggy, but I do not think that these numbers are inherently crazy. I stated this prior, however, a large majority of places that exist on Azuras right now pander to a large majority of different genres of roleplay. It may be a bad example due to the dark elves not quite having a place to settle per se, but the mina count, and charter signatures were completed rather quickly (please correct me if I'm wrong, though)
Either way, for the tail-end of the message, I quite like the idea of little guys vs. little guys. It strays away from the cut-and-dry big guy vs. little guy that I've witnessed time and time again, and puts more focus on those settlements that aren't just SoL roleplay or the ever-so-often darkspawn attack. People may find fun in that, and I do myself! There's nothing wrong with it, but the more paths the merrier
Closing this out, finding a middle ground that supports both casual and competitive roleplayers may be difficult, but I don't think it's impossible. This discussion is definitely a step in the right direction