Genghis
Level 54
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Let's just analyze 4 major maps :
Big World Map - Defined Roleplaying as we know it today.
World 2012 - Modern-day evolution.
Issander's World - About as complex and diverse as it gets.
Europe 1600 - A Dark Horse in the swarm of cruddy Europe maps.
Why no Westeros?
Westeros is an evolution of old Monarchy Diplomacies, and older Colony Diplomacy Variants.
In Monarchy / Colony Variants, you had the Monarch of a Country and you had its colonies, all played by different players.
The goal was for the Colonies to interact with Natives for their personal benefits to start a Revolution or Garner Independence some other way from Monarchies, then going on to play as Normal when they are Independent. Empires couldn't hit their Colonies because that's just oppression/ethically incorrect (their own people!) without provocation, so they had to interact with the Natives to prepare for any Revolution.
Now, this doesn't sound an awful lot like Westeros, even so , Westeros is more popular than that ever was! Explain how this is supposed to be an argument!
Well, Westeros diplomacies take this and instead allow for only one central Monarch, with everyone else his "Colonies". Colonies "revolt" by ignoring King's laws, or declaring their independence from them ,or usurping. It's likely only more popular because of 2 key reasons : 1) Game of Thrones (and A Song of Ice and Fire ) are very popular series, well-known, giving a large drawing pool of people to join. 2) Everybody knows the basic narrative, and Westeros tend to be very laid back and easy to understand because of understanding the basic narrative, compared to having to read the rule set for Monarch/Colony variants.
But what about the maps? Westeros is, after all, another map for a new experience!
Well, notice how the King is in the centre of it all no matter what, Essos or not. Well, let's just gather some perspective : Imagine an overlay of the WOrld Map over Westeros and Essos Map. Essos is the Eastern world (Asia, Oceania, Middle East), Westeros is the Western World (Europe, America's). Pacific and Atlantic are fill in the blanks. Really, you're playing with a slight setting and perspective change, with instead of straight lines that make it easy to figure out which is what, Europe and the America's are basically merged together.
But what does this lead back to?
That Westeros Diplomacies, and the many maps that spawn from this habit, are, well, redundant. The Rules are the same in essence, somewhat simplified even. The Map is basically the same focus and pattern. The only difference in experience is strictly setting, Medieval Lords and Ladies. But again, another point must be made : you can't capture hectic Westeros diplomacy, but you CAN capture the somewhat recessive Victorian - era Diplomacy , with WarLight.
So what are you getting when you play Westeros Diplomacy? A glorified Colony-game Variant on an upside-down map of Ireland without the experience of true Westeros that is just really a normal World map.
RETCON's : Westeros maps are interesting and should be maintained as they are really just nice maps that offer change in perspective, being top-down rather left-right. But the amount is excessive, their ratings are obnoxiously high and they are overplayed.
Westeros diplomacies will sometimes feature a "No Need To Declare War" rule, which can actually help simulate Westeros better, but a Colony variant could easily implement that to a more distorting effect.
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