. That whole design was just stupid, I don't know how they thought that was going to end up being anything other than a dramafest.
I think it worked well in jp communities, but could just be the fact you barely saw it vs all of the drama on the non-jp side.
I played in an NA shell back then, but I had some friends in "rival" JP shells. They also had a ton of drama, but it wouldn't often make its way to forums. And they tended to handle internal drama differently than NA shells, so it didn't boil over into a public mess the way ours did. Frankly, I liked the public mess. It kept things entertaining, and there were plenty of great in-jokes and hilarious moments that ensued. Most of us were really petty and childish (I mean, come on, we were like 17-24 years old!), but I wouldn't change a thing about it. I also wouldn't go back and do it again!