When we asked for submissions from people on why they joined the country they did and an inside perspective on what they felt the strengths and weaknesses of their group was, we didn’t provide much additional guidance on what we were looking for. We set no length requirements. We didn’t specify if we intended them to write from their perspective as a player or their perspective as a character. We didn’t ask specific questions such as size, average event attendance of their members, if they were composed primarily of fighters/casters or a mix, if they prided themselves on combat prowess, questing skill, or out of character contributions to the game.
What we received does not follow any formula. In my opinion, not all of them met the letter of what we asked. Multiple don’t mention any weaknesses, perhaps because when writing in character, they wouldn’t have been appropriate to note. I trust we all understand that there are few things without flaws and the opinions presented here are of individuals. In my opinion, many of the countries that I personally consider strongest bravely shared weaknesses, while some that I think have significant weaknesses opted not to do so. As these articles are published over the course of the next two weeks, I encourage you to read with an open mind, realizing that even if something doesn’t match your perception it likely contains grains of truth. At the same time read critically and seek to learn about groups in game from multiple sources.