if not it's something players could take the initiative on. For example someone who wants to be mayor of a town could buy a stone and then have a city council and mayorship. It would have to be seen as legitimate with the player base though or else it wouldn't mean anything.
when players lay claim to certain cities it adds something extra to the feel of the shard. I played on a shard where britain graveyard and the surrounding areas was overrun with PK's. Britain had really become a hive of wretched scum and villany. An order guild started up and they had a king as the guild master . The King and the other members were always in character and considered themselves the government of britain with the King as the defacto ruler of britain. The members were called the golden army and they always wore golden armor . When there was a chaos threat in the area the golden army responded with heavy force. There were no ego's and the guild wasn't about pvp glory. Individually they were not great pvp'rs although there were a few of them in the higher ranks of the army that were some of the best pvp'rs on the server. But they succeeded because they put behind personal glory in favor of something bigger.
The guild started off as just being the government of Britain but they created a narrative in their roleplay where the King decided he wanted to conquer more land. Threats were hyped which the King used as a power grab and an excuse to conquer more land. Soon Minoc and Vesper were under the rule of the King and the golden army had expanded it's forces. When the golden army was the government of Britain they were seen as legitimate but as they started to expand their empire there was a backlash and smaller guilds started to unite against them. There came a point where the golden army was no longer seen as the legitimate government. The King was seen as a ruthless dictator. The king was not a great pvper but he was respected as a great roleplayer and he was a great tactition. In the end the King was taken down by a general in his own army and the whole empire fell. A chaos revival ensued.
I think this kind of narrative can be fun when players take the initiative . It does not take any hardcore roleplayers to keep this kind of narrative going. Once it is birthed it's reactionary....I've seen players who had never RP'd before and judgeing by their behavior and handle had no inclination to do so but they still got caught up in the storyline.
moriarti...you crazy bastard...this can't happen here...this isn't a roleplay shard! have you seen some of peoples names at britain bank!you fool morarti!!!
calm down my friends...that above scenario i described did not happen on a roleplay shard. The golden army was born out of reaction towards the indecent behavior that the citizens of britain. So if you ask me we already have the scum and villany...we just need the clean up crew
