So glad that I am not the only one who hates the 'end game' although those that played the early servers will recall the frustration of having no end game whatsoever. I really struggle to get excited about spending 10 weeks just sending resources and it turns the game into a trading game instead of a war game and all those troops you spent months building are almost worthless as very little is done to attack other alliances wonders as they are normally so deep in enemy territory that a break is not really possible. They certainly need to do something to make it more competitive and being a war game - more aggressive.
I really can't think of a good way to end things the best I can think of is that each alliance has to nominate a alliance capital city when founding. If the city is captured during the end game era, the entire alliance ghosts and the capturing alliance is awarded a 'Conquest crown' if the conquested alliance was within the top 10 when the end game era started. This could continue until only 3 of the top 10 alliances are left and the alliance with most Conquest crowns wins the world. This would obviously require some form of 'end game' lock down to prevent players from switching alliances during the end game era (Before I get absolutely slated for this, I know that the idea is flawed and probably unworkable but it is the best I can come up with). It would provide some political and tactical intrigue but I guess it might be very hard to capture a powerful alliances capital buried deep within enemy territory.
I guess Inno make most of their money on new servers during the first 3 months when people are spending gold so I guess wrapping up a world quickly makes most business sense. Once you have multiple cities, I guess the temptation to spend gold goes down as you should have plenty of resources and troops to farm with.
Congrats to the 'Quad' alliances on your win and I understand your frustration that someone disbanded you prior to all sharing your crown. It is something that is repeated in almost every world.
See you all in the next world
Richie