I dont really see discussions about the game as “drama”. I just see them as discussions about the game. I’m talking about the stim posts mainly. Simple debate over opinions on silly game mechanics that have been in the game for 200 years may be overdramatic and excessive at times, but it’s just reasonable communication about meaningless stuff and fun and, respectfully, is there a point in hating on it? The actual discussion on the topic ended 5 days ago naturally, so it didn’t need to be locked.
I think it’s a meme to call this genre of forum post drama, since if you actually think about it and participate long enough, it’s just people who care about something talking about the thing they care about. And really, the forums is the place for that sort of discussion, since you can take your time and make a better picture of the situation and make your input legible. Unlike a lot of bad drama, it does not chase specific people, nor stick, nor really involve interpersonal relationships.
This is just how discussions of cm go and more or less people should just be allowed to talk about their opinions on the game if they want to. Because they want to, and opinions about meaningless game mechanics don’t mean anything without considering multiple viewpoints, and further the game loses meaning if you can’t discuss your experiences and views with others. Just hopping in and playing the game for fun isn’t for everyone, just like opening the forums and making a post about their new fav forum topic isn’t for everyone. I’d argue, posts like the stim post are amazing topics for creating discussion, because they clearly succeeded in making a lot of people want to talk.
When it involves complaining about people (such as devs), or making stuff up, being excessively rude, etc, it becomes bad drama. But most people do not post that way, nor should post that way. CM is an escape from reality rly and bringing stuff like this into discussions of the game is jarring and unnecessarily hurtful.
The only reason post topics “cycle” is because new people come in, discuss something, and leave. That’s fine, that’s normal and you shouldn’t expect someone to read a long thread. Further, the amount of new topics created is so small on this forum compared to the amount of posters that its just inevitable that the one interesting post of the week might get 100 replies. (or 0, depending on how quickly the first few ppl reply). The stuff people usually want to talk about when they first go on the forums is a pretty small list of things that they actually care about.