This is some high-class roleplaying. I can already feel the immersion...
I know. I tried to keep in character during the entire thing, but he just didn't give a shit. :p
I think most of the "big players" play it like most people play any other browser game, instead of actually trying to roleplay. They just put on a facade of roleplaying in order to appease the GMs etc.
EDIT: Oh, and I'd love to help create "Fedualism In Space". That requires actually studying fedualism though...
Well, I know quite a bit about Feudalism. :p I've been working on game design for it. There're just a few things I'm stuck on, though. Like how to decide where to place players in the galaxy.
Hmm, that's correct, but I was thinking of each house being a feudal system of its own like countries. If we put it that way, then we can presume that each house has an untold number of other smaller houses beneath it working for it instead, and that the one house that rules most of the galaxy simply has that many supporters as well.
I wouldn't mind if it worked that way but, again, it doesn't. If a house had a bunch of planets under their jurisdiction and was able to build on those planets only, then that'd be fine. Instead houses can build willy nilly on other people's home planets etc.
Imagine you're a feudal lord. You have a "home city". You only have jurisdiction in that home city. You can build whatever the hell you like in that home city. If you go to another city, then you cannot build there because you do not have the legal right to (maybe players could do it all below board? As a subversive tactic, maybe?). You can also boss around your subordinates in other cities and tell them what to build.
Now you're a company. You have a home city. You can build in that city and ANY OTHER CITY YOU LIKE. You are not restricted by your legal right to a piece of land.
There's the difference.
I don't think that's the most important aspect of feudalism. I think the most important aspect is the relationship between a working class without freedom and a landowning class. It's possible for a feudal society to render the freedom of the nobility all but meaningless like in the France of Louis XIV or it's possible for the various nobles to be de-facto independent like in the later Holy Roman Empire.
What's really important is the cementing of the working class in place through legal restrictions tying them to their employers. I would suggest that Higgin's Moon from the Jaynestown episode of Firefly is an excellent example of realistic space feudalism. The mudders are legally obliged to labor for Boss Higgins and their relationship is very feudal as a result. Higgens is much like a feudal noble, the mudders are like serfs, the foremen, manager and his prods are like a nobles staff and private army. Even the independent barkeeper is much like the free men of a feudal society, who having a little independence and a little money perform an important role for all parties.
From a purely economic, political, social and... Pretty much every other -al, -ic and -ial factor you can think of, I have no doubt that this is true.
However, in the minds of the vast majority of people, if you say "Feudal" they think "Landed lords and ladies HELL YEAH!" and "HOLY SHIT MEDIEVAL ENGLAND IS SOOOOO COOL". I'm more leaning towards a close-to-HRE but more restrictive Feudal society, like most GALACTIC FEUDAL EMPIREZ are.