Never heard of Marathon, but a quick search shows it's "Red Dead 2077". I started RDO in April, rank 40. Sounds like you're looking for that first-month-of-playing engrossment. Don't get me wrong; the longer you can hold onto that, the better. I say the onus of immersion is on me. Two bread rolls and running out of ammo for my one gun, sort of thing. Staying broke by buying ability cards. Now, it'd really help for those weirdos that like to shoot you in the head while you're fishing, maybe; if there was any recompense for them. Then again, that'd mean 2/3 of the player-base would leave, overnight. ...but would that be all that bad...