More than anything, my biggest problem with the SC remains that it is literally the only part of the game you cannot opt out of.
It has always been a part of NS lore that you do not have to participate. Players have never been compelled to be members of the site forums. Every nation comes fitted with IGNORE cannons. No one has to take part in General debate, Factbook posting, Sports roleplaying, or anything else. You don't have to join the WA; if you do join the WA, you don't have to vote or use the forums; even if you join the WA and get a proposal to vote, you don't have to defend it in the official topic.
Even gameplay is opt-in. Yes, sometimes harmless user regions got invaded without really knowing what was going on, or innocent bystanders got caught in the adolescent swirl of big region gameplay, but in theory any region with a founder can isolate itself from the threat of invasion.
But there is no way of insulating yourself from the in-text and in-game aspects of SC proposals. Unlike the WA, where anyone who is not a member is by definition not affected and anyone who is a member still cannot be explicitly called out by the proposal's text or effects, the SC cannot be ignored.
So, Quintessence of Dust is no longer a member of Wysteria, which in the grand theme of things is not so big a change. What really concerns me is that, unlike the WA, unlike General, unlike II roleplay or Sports roleplay or F&NI roleplay, unlike even the threat of invasion and counterinvasion, the SC can only truly be avoided by leaving the game entirely.
