At the risk of sounding like an That Person - back in the old days there were basicaly no, or very, very few DM events. We very much had to make our own fun and y'know what? It basically worked. Now we have lots and lots of fun DM plots and a lot more freedom as a DM. And y'know what? That's AWSOME, and I love it. It's a great improvement. But suggesting that the entire server needs a massive over arching plot is not a good move.
Why is it a bad idea?
1) Dm's get sick, get called away, or just get bored. If that happens then the plot running crawls to a hault. I've been guilty of this myself, and it's not uncommon even now. Yes, if the Mega Plot was shared between a few DMS, it might last longer. But that ultimatly can lead to discrepencies in story and, even so - we're gonna get bored of running said plot after a bit, and players will want some form of resolution. The problem with major DM plots is eventually they /end/. Asking for one that last RL years will just result in burnout I think, or an ending that's less a 'bang' and more a 'trickle'
2) Favoritism: People already complain that DM plots get hogged by certain players. Imagine if there was one mega plot, by neccesity it would end up being centred around a group of players I think, for cohesions sake. And if it's a months and months long plot, that'd get dull quick, both for the players involved, and those not involved.
3) More Favouritsm: If we had mega plots that changed the server (e.g. the utter destruction of Cordor) then we'd get people being very upset with us.
4) Dev Burnout: Ultimatly the Devs tend to work on projects they like. Asking them to constantly change areas to fit our plots would be exhausing for them and would result in burnout if done regularly
5) Area Balence: Sure it sounds good to have a Dm plot where Cordor gets smooshed, but then where will the starting area be? These sort of things can't be done lightly, or on any sort of regular basis. In fact such decisions are best lead by the Dev team, who can work on a project when they feel like it, and have the energy, rather than being tugged around by the Dms.
I think the problem here is that, in as much as we espource that Arelith is similar to PnP, in some ways it rally isn't. And whilst you are right, the above are excellent points for good Pen and Paper Dming, they are not for Arelith or as I call it 'Mass DMing' wherin changes have to be significantly slower.Railroaded, repetitive, or events that aren't player-centric is bad DMing, and has nothing to do with my point. Assume I'm talking about competent GMcraft. A good narrative (and who says they have to be apocalyptic) is irreplaceable for driving character development in a way that the usual election bickering and bulletin-board shitposting never will.
The Tl;DR of my theory is this:
In Pen and Paper the game is based around changing the setting and following a flowing, mass 'story'.
In Mass Gaming (Arelith, Ravenloft, also some large LARPS ect) the game is often based as much in character-to-character interaction, and filing in the story that develops there. The world is much more static, but the characters are, ironicaly, much more fluid. And the best and easiest stories are obtained not so much by seeking to change the world, but seeking to change yourself/the characters around you. Personal storylines basically.