Here is my perspective of a player who quit (hopefully, for good) a few days ago having given away all the stuff I had:
The nature of modern gaming in life. When one comes home after work and has some time to spare for gaming in between family and home chores, one usually wants action here and now because of the limited time slot available. Hence popularity of session-based games where you auto-queue, get the teammates, fight for half an hour, repeat it 2-3 times and call it a day. This is also one of the reasons MMORPG as a genre are losing interest of the playerbase. naturally, logging Disco with 20-30 players online dispersed over all the game everyone minding their own business cannot offer instantaneous dopamine gratification. You either have to pre-arrange meeting friends on Discord (and because of already mentioned busy life it is easier said than done) or be looking for action for half an hour or longer which you could be playing something else.
Boredom. Despite objectively improving gameplay, there is nothing new the game can offer me. I was never a PvP fan on disco yet I had my share of PvP. I traded too and enough to be hating trading/mining to the point I have earned all my last assets of over 4 billion by PvE missions only. Logically, missions are also boring after so many of them. POBs as well (may they be cursed). RP can be a good fun yet most of the RP one sees after a few years of being here is familiar tropes, quite predictable and following patterns (if not some lesbian fanfiction called character development). I don't judge here the RP of others - whatever grinds the gears of the fellow players and keeps them happy/engaged. Just saying most of the stuff has been seen/done in some forms and is taken as more mundane than interesting. Basically, there isn't much the game can offer.
Buddies have left. When I joined disco I quickly formed a circle of people I enjoyed interacting and playing with either on discord or in game. With time, more and more of them left, leaving a bitter crippling feeling of "survivor" disco-addicted syndrome. Groshyr's leaving probably marked the end of an era for me with most of my old team gone. Surely, with the right attitude and activity it is a no biggie to form new bonds. But not with the emotional burnout which is the next point. (P.S. Kudos to all my buddies if you ever see it - you made my gaming here a memorable experience).
Burnout. The game simply is wearing on you. I cannot speak for the rest of you, but the longer I stayed, the more tedious the game became for me. Despite the growing skills in PvP or RP engagement, regardless of how popular or niche the faction I was playing was - it was getting more of a chore rather than entertainment to log in on this forum or in game. Each faction I made/joined required more and more efforts from me with decreasing fun output. I wouldn't say the quality was decreasing, at least from the feedback available. Yet, it just got tiresome. I tried playing alone with no faction, just a random nobody in the void of space - was equally boring, tbh, especially with no faction buddies to interact with in conditions of generally empty server. So I guess I burned out which had an impact on all activities in the game. Surely, staying away for some time and then returning can partially mend the burnout but every time this feeling will eventually return, each cycle taking less time for it to grow on you than the past.
Drama/Hate/Hostility, whatever you call it. I guess, everyone here has encountered judgements like "X faction sucks! / Y player is a lolwut! / Z circlejerk is elitist/consists of noobs" (continue ad infinitum). I am also guilty as charged of that. Having reflected of my own standing on this, I regret being overly critical of people/factions, especially the ones that I did not even interact with. I guess, Disco has the feature of bringing up the worst in you at times. I did not particularly enjoy being on the other side as well (karma is just in this case) - my recent attempt to RP a separate local character with focus on specific RP interesting to me for some reasons faced ooRP hate. I do not judge the people who did not like it - it is within their right, still ridiculing the person behind the RP is a bit counter-productive, I guess. Regardless, it leaves you with a bit sour feeling which might not be as impactful as the other reasons above yet contributing to the whole ordeal.
(This one is specific). Time zone. Located in East Asia, the prime time for me coincides with dead server. Logging in at 3-4 AM for more or less active server/event is obviously not the answer.
This will conclude my small rant. I hope it will be insightful to some of you. I also wish you all best of luck on disco or in other activities! Cheers for the fun time here!
