I think demotivation of the leaders that produce the goods of the nation and drives processes being rewarded by insults, harangues, sarcasms and mockeries, leads to said arrogance and condescending attitude that works as a red cloth to some citizens. There was actually a research project on the value and the size of all the multiplayer online communities total economies, and these exacted about the GDP of some African nations combined.
Even running a ficticious civilization like Japanatica is hard, very hard, when there is no other incentive to lead than some token respect, entertaining posts and interesting strategic dilemmas and proposals. I am the first to admit that I may have turned darker and gloomier in Term V than term IV. I found Term IV to work pretty well after some more tumultuous terms. We can just compare terms by objective criteria such as insults, proposals, number of active posters and so on. I admit I did some mistakes, but at least I managed to entertain and motivate some people as well as inform on the status of the military. The problem was that the criticism from the outset was personal, and not conducive to constructive criticism. I tried to keep my attacks as much as possible at the idea level, but after the controversy with Epimethius, his entire bandwaggon set out to take me down, and they actually managed to do that, but in the process all interested in some military planning has left.
Some of us actually had fun discussing hypothetical plans in the game, and argue around these back and forth, what should be done in various scenarios and so on.
However, some did not like the concept, and decided to destroy it without offering a substitute, and well, they succeded. They would rather undo someone elses fun and have no fun, than to present their own alternative. I may admit I use terms and wording that did not fall favorably to many, conditional polls and so on. But what do you do when all attempts on adapting to a non-existant foreign policy is shot down.
I am not taking all the blame here, but I am willing to share some of it. I am probably the only one willing to admit that, with a lot of principal holy rollers who consider themselves morally elevated waiting for their political opponents to throw in their towel, put their head into the scaffold and await the analytical firing squad.
Honestly, I did well in Term 1 and 4, and less well in Term 2 due to IRL concerns (just passed mandate quietly to Civanator). I always ran a clean campaign until Term V, where I was tired by the groundless personal persecution so I decided to strike back. I could have behaved "statesman-like", but decided striking back was the best choice, for personal reasons. However, group psychology works in curious ways when someone raises the finger at someone, and likeminded individuals go collectively in for targeting that unnatural and inappropriate presence for removal, which is indeed a clean and Darwinistically understandable response. If you do not fit into a tribe, you leave.
So, I got mostly positive feedback for Term IV, but some group psychology mechanic, massive DG depopulation and a general polarization of sides added to a standard for accepted "political correctness" strangulated the diversity of the game.
Everyone will claim they are right and for the sake of convenience, project the negative focus on me or someone else they find as designated clay pigeons for their verbal frustrations and real world politics.
Well, congratulations, Japanatica may have become a very civilized place, but so so deserted. And to be a hero, you need to villainize someone, right?
I think the technology ideology competition of Term 1 was interesting and not as divisive. This game had some interesting conflicts and dilemmas, which kept that many people interested. So I found Term 1 and and four as the top stages, whereas Term 3 did not look too bad. I found Term 5 at an all time low.
And of course, I expect no mercy or understanding here this time, just verbal obliteration and one-sided "See, I was right all the way" preaching.
I think I will place culture-specific explanations for that in Off Topic, not here.
