I've only recently subbed into this game for Caelum, but it appears to me this game is currently taking a path that a lot of games end up going through. Namely a big percentage of the original players needing to drop-out or going AWOL
This is the current players list I believe. (although it may well be wrong)
Caelum - Calahan (subbed in 2 turns ago)
Ermor - Graeme Dice (subbed in 1 turn ago)
Kailasa - Blackguard (original player. Currently looking for a sub)
Pangaea - SciencePro (original player. Currently looking for a sub)
Sauromatia - earcaraxe (original player)
T'ien Ch'i - Silence0 (original player)
Yomi - Dark Kitty (original player)
If SciencePro and Blackguard find their subs, then that means less than 50% of the players left in the game will be the original ones.
Where all this is leading is that do the original players want to decide if this game is worth continuing given all the subbing that has gone on/is going on. The two options seem to be either declare Sauro the winners, or just call the game off as undecided.
For my own part I will continue fighting Caelum's cause for a while. Although I warn that I myself might need a sub in a few turns, as I originally only subbed in to put up a few last forts defences for a dying nation, which wasn't likely to consume much of my time. But once in the Caelum seat I discover that wasn't to be the case at all, as the nation was far from being at the 'last defence' stage yet, as it appears Caelum by all accounts was a strong and fully functioning force until all the consecutive stales (while at war(s)) lost Caelum the bulk of its forces. The result for me is that a lot more time and effort is going to be required for this nation than I first anticipated. And while I'm more than happy to give my time and effort to the Caelum cause, other events dictate that the 'time' part of this last sentence will soon become a lot harder for me to find than it is now.
I've also played enough MP games to know that when you lose a big bulk of the original players like this, then the game is never the same again. It will feel different and play different for all the original players compared to how the previous 50+ turns have played. As even if all the subs can be found, there's often a case of all the subbing in players needing to say "what's going on?", and when this turns into the collective majority of the remaining players all saying "what's going on?" at the same time, then a lot of shine starts getting taken off the game, and it becomes nothing like it originally was.
I have no real say in the 'shall we continue' debate, as this is not really my game. But just thought I'd share my experience of cases like this that I've gone through in the past to say that the mass subbing will lead to a different game, and just because a game can continue (by finding the subs), doesn't mean to say it should.
As an analogy.. Imagine a TV show that suddenly changes over half the main cast of the show while off-air in-between series, and did so because they lost the original actors and actresses for whatever reasons.
Now could they re-cast the main roles of the show with new actors and actresses and return for a new series? Yes probably they could. Would the show be the same then? Absolutely not as most of the original cast have gone. So should they have even tried to re-cast? That's the question isn't it
