I like this take. There's a book called "Games people play" by E. Berne that changed how I think about things like this. It talks about how people on a biological level need to interact with others and how they'll unconsciously repeat a script (game) with predictable roles and results to accomplish that. The main insight is that these games don't necessarily need to have a positive outcome - people still get something out of it. So it gets repeated, to the puzzlement of any observers and sometimes even the participants.
I was just going to comment, the real game seems to be the development of the game, (pre)ordering and outfitting your ship and gear, etc. It will no longer be a game, once the game is finished.
“After a time, you may find that ‘having’ is not so pleasing a thing after all as ‘wanting.’ It is not logical, but it is often true.”
So the real Star Citizen is indeed the friends we made along the way!
For sure. I feel like I've gotten my $25 worth of entertainment just from following all the drama for over a decade. If you have a few hours to kill, Sunk Cost Galaxy is a great rundown of how SC got to where it is today. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7SIP0NDfM2yyHKfRmCAociCc...
This is really true for Elite though, join an active squadron and the universe get a _lot_ more interesting! But a lot of the stuff is outside the game then.