(Of course, First Contact in turn depends on this one…)

Corralled Cosmos: Partially averted, since while the game is played, for the most part, within the wormhole nexus that defines, for the most part, the Associated Worlds, relativistic starships do let you go pretty much anywhere, albeit at tediously subluminal speeds and great expense.  And the ongoing installation of new stargates (at the same tediously subluminal speeds) does keep pushing the edges of the readily visitable cosmos outward – maybe not all that fast in absolute terms, but fast enough that the CEO of Ring Dynamics, ICC, bought his entire family new spaceyachts this year.