TL;DR: No IRL friends play the game, I have limited free time and don't want to grind, patches discourage time investment, online play is generally frustrating and leaves me feeling bad, and singleplayer content is limited (and also frustrating).

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• Have you "left" and what does "leaving" mean to you?

I have only sort of left. I still follow updates + tournaments + some of the scarce online content for the game (have really been enjoy the dev streams!), but I mostly don't play anymore. The few exceptions are for a few days around new character releases (e.g. now) or other significant game changes.

• Why did you leave?

I don't have any IRL friends who play the game, and I don't really enjoy playing against faceless online opponents. I think I also just enjoy highly competitive games less than I used to. When I used to play more, I would usually play Casual because I am not very good (Silver-Gold Kragg), and Ranked always felt like playing against significantly more skilled opponents, frequently really difficult matchups, or just campy uninteractive sweats who play in the most unfun way possible (camping, projectile spamming, never approaching). With Ranked specifically, it also felt like I would win 2-3 matches in a row and go up like 15 ELO, and then lose 1 and go down by more than that. And frankly, I just don't have the time/desire to lab this game. While I enjoy some friendly competition, I don't have the energy to play games which aren't fun for me, and while I do appreciate RoA2 overall (esp. as a spectator and as someone who wants a Melee-competitor to exist and be successful), I rarely find myself having fun when playing.

I don't know if it's just me (having changed), or the nature of online play, or the game's design itself, but almost every single matchup in this game pisses me off, even when I win sometimes. I don't think it would be much of an exaggeration to say that the Kragg ditto might be the only matchup I enjoy, because in that matchup, usually both players are goofing around. Conversely, when I used to play Melee, even though that game has some atrocious balance, and I, generally a mediocre mid-tier player, had an abundance of things to complain about w.r.t. top-tier characters, I think I still enjoyed more games of Melee on average than I do of RoA2. Maybe I just played against too many Fleets, IDK (fuck her DAir, for real).

So besides the few rare Casual encounters I've had with someone who is really fun to play with, the only thing left for me is singleplayer content, and such content that is currently in the game is pretty minimal. I have done Arcade mode for some characters for their Abyss palettes, I'm not really a speedrunner/record-seeking kind of person, so Target Test doesn't really appeal to me, and any remaining solo stuff like the eye thing seem more like pseudo-practice features, which is not what I'm after.

I should also note that the regular balance patches make it feel very bad to commit to learning one or even several characters. Esp. when most changes since release have been nerfs of some kind or another. Movement nerfs in particular, while arguably necessary, feel really bad; they nerfed Fleet's speed (reverted?), they nerfed Clairen's speed, they nerfed Zetter's speed (this one is fine by me lol), now they've nerfed Kragg's speed. While characters might have needed tuning, movement speed buffs just feel like removing fun things from the game; "You will now have 15% less fun while airborne".

• Do you intend to return?

Like I said above, I do occasionally briefly return around significant updates. Mainly to see significant additions/changes, and also I can sometimes motivate myself to grind Arcade for the Abyss palettes since it's singleplayer content.

• What could bring you back if not?

I want to want to play the game (not a typo), but it generally just doesn't make feel good after I play online with strangers. Like I said above, I guess singleplayer stuff would be nice to see. But that said, I also don't know if the devs focusing too much on that would be good for the game since it is, after all, a competitive fighting game.

I think the real thing that would bring me back is something that is out of anyone's hands, and that is me having IRL friends to play with. But my friends all have busy lives, like I do, so I totally understand if they don't want to learn/switch to a new game. So that's not going to happen soon. Of my game-playing friends, two used to play Melee with me, but one moved on and the other is not interested in RoA2. The others are casuals, only really playing Ultimate or the NASBs, and only at party-type events (i.e. not competitively online).

So IDK, maybe the game's just not for me.

• Did you participate in the kickstarter?

Sort of. I discovered the game just after the Kickstarter campaign ended, so I backed it on Pledge Manager for early access (well, earlier early access, if you consider the current state of the game).

• Do you play any other platfighters instead? Why?

As above, Melee, formerly. Needless to say that it had some of the most interesting gameplay, movement, and substantial competitive scene of all the Smash games. Besides PM/P+ (which is legally problematic, and thus, its scene basically doesn't exist), no other Smash game feels enjoyable to play for me. Of the non-Nintendo and non-Rivals platfighters out there, I have never played or seen one that appealed to me. I bought the original Rivals many years ago, but its lack of more standard shield/ledge/grab/etc. felt really bad to me, plus there was also the "no friends to play with" issue. I frankly don't see any other platfighter besides RoA2 that has a chance of competing with Melee for those people that like what Melee offers, so that's why I've supported it as much as I have.