From the point of view of one of those 'new staff' (Q'yth-az, experienced at staffing, new on Kingsmouth), the issue was: god staff wanted a game run a specific way and she was AMAZINGLY popular at running it which pulled in more people, which caused more work, repeat, repeat....until it was overwhelming. Shava made allowances for new staff, one being an issue I specifically asked about before stepping into staff: allowing a Staff PC to gain and fight for their MORTAL influence spot (a rule which was approved and posted on the wiki). Later, Shav proposed a new influence system, set it in motion gameside (changing player stats), then disappeared for two weeks. Gone. Lyth, another new staffer with experience, stepped into a leadership role and began organizing what information we had (And, no, we did NOT have all the information...I made multiple job errors because partial information was available and players corrected me, which caused me to go back and ask to get relevant information not on any records). We had two new influence staffers that worked with us to get the new influences levels written out, using the 3 sentence descriptions Shava left as a guideline. This took approximately 1 week, 3 hours a day minimum. In the meantime, Lyth worked to get the jobs moving, the plots organized and staff morale boosted. All staff dug in to see what we could handle with the information we had. Shava returned. The new influence was implemented. The new influence change brought the issue of Staff PC holding and defending mortal influence to the forefront. There was 1 Level-5 slot which was being competed over because the shuffle had put my Staff PC into a conflicting situation with a PC. A reversal in the ruling which allowed me to play my PC as a PC was made, which caused me to decide to step aside (Staff PCs will step aside for any Player PC).

The breaking point mentioned by Shava in her post was a suggestion being implemented that those within the influence realms who lost or stepped down from their influence status due to this staff-implemented change (merging of some status realms caused 3 conflicts), would receive 1 XP. Shava refused this, Lyth insisted that it would assist with player morale (I would have waived it for myself because, meh, 1 XP), but there was no discussion. After the announcement of the game closing is when I returned to my computer (dratted work!) and stepped away from staffing, not aware at that point that the decision had already been made.