Will be reducing the time I spend on PL by a lot for the forseeaable future

[WhoIsThis]

Not much, to your final question.

Once Royce, then later Phys, Yanis and Elly left either suddenly or slowly and asking each why offline, the main reason was there was nothing really left to learn and the game, and community to some extent, had gotten a little stale. A lot of players, like those guys, thrived on figuring out mechanics, tactics, strategies....with the exception of a couple of newer bosses in the last two campaigns, there's been no new skills, very few new strategies, recycled mobs abd map textures, etc. The thrill of discovery is a lot less as a result for those past players and for partially active players like Whoisthis or myself.

Well, there is PvP and that has a steep learning curve. But otherwise yes, there is increasingly little. For me personally, I have indicated that this was not the main reason why I left. I left because of the direction that STS is taking. This isn't the first game I have left because it got over-monetized and I will not be surprised if it is the last.

MMOs are by the far most expensive type of game. A single RTS, RPG, FPS, or 4X game costs at most, $100 if you buy the special edition on launch day (and a fraction of that if you wait a couple of months). Many of these games have lots of mods and can easily get years of entertainment through their depth. It's important to keep all of this in perspective. It's also an interesting exercise to look at opportunity cost - you spent $x in a game; what else could you have bought? Was buying virtual goods or a subscription in an MMO a "worth it"? What about the time spent? Only you can answer that one.

Of course, money is not the only issue. It's the game itself - is it worth paying? There are some games that are so well made that I would be willing to fork out several hundred if the developer asked. Others ... I would not touch if they were in the bargain basement.