I believe the reason York was so insane was because of the close proximity of the Native villages, compared to the other outsider towns, which encouraged pking. At least, that was the reason to start with. Over time, wars with native villages dwindled, but York's xenophobia ramped up to comedic levels [and not so comedic levels], and each of us who came in, from Serious Sam, to FAD's alts [i don't remember their names, and I think they actually predated SS], to The Hanged Man, To Aphetto, to the Last Laugh, to The Hierophant, to Surcouf, and so on, each of us brought our own style of insanity to it. There's more I could say with regard to the insanity of York, but since we are now in a position to write the history of each settlement, we can do some judicious editing. There's no one around to complain, the slate is clean.
Durham was mob owned, yes, and they also had an ambivalent relationship with the pirates, since it was the closest outsider village to the shipwreck. They only had problems with Dalpok, the other native villages were too far away. Before the mob, there was ah...Ron Burgundy? The guy who made the memorial freeway? Jack Bauer? Someone like that, and he started the tradition of Durham being a corrupt political town. I never met him, but that was the style I was emulating when I tried to take over the town as an outpost of shari'a law as Dani al-Ghazali. After the mob, there was a brief time [and even now I wish it had been briefer] when a pk clan from another game came in and tried to impose order. They would have been better suited to York, and I think they did go there at some point when Durham emptied out. And now, as Neil mentioned, there's the current establishment, which brings us, in a way, to the last town.
Derby, hmm. This must be what writing history from the pov of the winners feels like. Derby had many enviable advantages as far as land, the sword swamp, and the only native village they had persistent problems with was Rakmogak, and even then, only the toughest cannibals made their way through the tunnel or across the water. I don't believe I was ever there when there was someone different running things, but I'm aware that prior to the period Neil refers to, there was a number of clans vying for attention, and it made it a melting pot in an affable sort of way. There was a heavy french influence, and I think this must also be the site of many battles between the French and the spanish clan 'ph'.
For a long time, Derby was an enjoyable place to go to while walking the roads, the end of the rainbow. It should not have been surprising, then, that its advantages would create a similar situation as York, where ease of access made it a place for many unfriendly types to go, and many of its residents found themselves in a siege mentality state, which ramped up their insanity accordingly.
To be fair, I didn't help things much. Running Durham as Dani al-Ghazali was very dull [I can see now why the mob didn't bother with politics], and thought it would be amusing to start a war with Derby using pirate pkers as privateers. To put this into perspective, it was like starting a conflict with another nation in order to 1) generate interest away from domestic doldrums 2) get rid of some pkers 3) prank a few notables, only to discover much later that the other side considered it an existential threat and planned to retaliate by killing everyone involved, and their family, and their dog, for the next several years to come.
There is much that could be covered here, but as with York, I think some judicious editing is in order. To sum up, Derby was originally a very chill place, which because of its natural advantages became a target for various pkers and bored drama queens. The organization that dominated this place became hostile to nearly everyone but itself by the end, until one day it left and the island breathed in relief. The one complimentary thing I will say about this group is that they initially had some very good roleplays - among the best on the old site - which they stopped posting on the forum around the time they stopped being chill and became chilly.
