NearlyVeilan wrote:...I was treated to a feast instead (even if it nearly was of my character's brain)...

I never wanted to be a campaign DM, but it is very hard to run involved plots in a PW setting. Also, as a PW DM (remember when we had 15 people on BG every night?) I often found myself logging in to deal with things I'd no interest in, such as CvC with OOC hostilities, crafting, or tech rezes. These activities typically only deal with 1-2 PCs and so are an inefficient use of a DM's time, except where they help facilitate play for larger parties.
The dichotomy between campaign and PW play within the same PW is real, IMO. There are a number of incompatibilities I can think of:
- PW DMing requires coordination of canon and rules (both in-game and out) across all DMs. This is a lot of work, especially when modules or ALFA policies need updating.
- Campaign play requires either very little character death, lesser death penalties or fast progression up to the average level. ALFA currently takes the approach of having very little to no character death in prepared (campaign) parties, while I argue lessening death penalties, more frequent deaths and faster progression (i.e. EfU) would have been better.
- PW play requires a centralized vault, and is aided by a central database. These two things help make ALFA's technical content an order of magnitude more complex than other worlds, and they are largely useless in campaign play (though now that the systems are in place, maintaining them is not overly difficult).
ALFA consistently chose complex, complete solutions over simpler, less rigorous ones, (e.g., the pricing and wealth standards) and with an aging NWN2 the result is a PW no one wants to run (except for the B-game...). Its too much work for too little reward. I suppose this shouldn't come as a surprise, since the people making the decisions (admin, and the largely-inactive people who vote them in) aren't the same people paying for them in-game. I'm not trying to call out current admin here, most of these decisions were made long ago.
Simply put campaign play is easier. You also don't have the same sort of coordination problem hoping a critical mass of players and DMs will randomly encounter each other.