Tav - I said "one of." I certainly agree that stale politics also takes plenty of blame. I also think the stale politics argument plays into the "why didn't anyone fight it" debate.

Politics are the players doing though - land trading is a poor game function.

Outside of the strength of suiciding (the ability for one country to easily ruin many who have done nothing to it has always baffled me), I can't think of another *game* mechanic that is as disliked as trading. It killed a lot of competition and caused boredom, and when people get bored, they leave.

Just my 2 cents

Edit: To clarify, the game mechanic is ghost acres (I said land trading, but land trading is only possible because of the ghost acres)