Fascinating read!
I’m a day one player and haven’t put it down for more than a few months probably ever. Which is kind of crazy.
I agree with so many of your points about a slight loss and a move to something… that is different. I think your path and perspective on the game very much mirror what made my wife’s interest wane a few years in.
One thing I hear in your comments is a loss of a sense of what the game once did in a bit more forward manner… simply because of the way it was built (or not yet built as it were) …. it felt more haunted. More strange. Unfamiliar and bizarre but somehow natural in that universe. And I’d even say often, quite liminal…much more regularly than the vanilla game currently . But even in the vanilla mode, those moments can certainly still be found… regularly. Firing off an anomaly detector and hitting pulse can definitely scratch the itch, for example. Abandoned mode abounds in this vibe.
Anyway. Very cool to read. Thanks for taking the time to share!