I simply don't enjoy the server anymore, the atmosphere of a living sector has all but evaporated in my eyes.
My favourite thing to do in Disco was to fly about and meet characters, see how different things were in each of the Houses and the various unlawfuls. It's why most of my characters have been smugglers. These days I'm lucky to get a "Hello" in two hours of flying around on Jimmy.
I honestly believe the decline of the living world began when large ships were made available to the entire server, where before people had to join factions to be able to fly them. While it was no means a perfect system, it did a number of things that simply cannot be reproduced:
Firstly, it educated new players. As fresh faces joined the various factions, they learned from the veteran players. Not only the basics of the game but the conduct of the server, the little quirks that made the factions distinct and the mod richer as a whole.
Secondly, it encouraged self-policing. Since so much was expected of a faction people were actively making sure their members didn't do anything out of line, after all if you lost your status as official you lost all your big ships and say in your faction's direction. Your actions had consequence, not just for you but your entire faction. A farcry from the current arguing in a feedback thread we see these days.
Thirdly, there was only one faction. You weren't just someone with an ID and IFF, you embodied that particular faction and everything you did reflected upon it. That kind of responsibility made people act better, inspired others to act better and gave a sense of pride whenever you saw someone you trained become a valued member of the community.
These things were traded away so that players could access bigger ships without constraint or effort, aside from making the money to buy them. The poetic irony of it all is that this was done by the players requesting these ships be made easier to gain, not to the factions or their leaders to try and force a change, no this was made at the admins and devs who did their jobs and granted what the community asked.
Since that decision, complaints against the various teams have increased year after year. The community shot themselves in the foot once and have been blaming the gunsmiths ever since.
