SS13 players that are still playing are either autistic or addicted in a weird parasocial way. The only parallels I can draw it to are with AI chatbots. They feel as if their character is a part of them so much so that the idea of them being "dead", or not having access to that hit, is genuinely upsetting to them. Just go look at the forums for any popular server and you have people groveling to be let back in after being banned for a single day.
I quit SS13 because I felt like it was just chasing dopamine of a "good round" and anything less than that was frustrating or boring. Everything else is doing a tedious, boring, job to kill time or wandering while looking for something to do. It's just gambling that anything will happen to make your endorphins go brrr, whether that's an antag round or something memorable happening, or just having any kind of gameplay that isn't a mobile game tier minigame likely ripped off from something else. It's like it was specifically designed to have the same mental ups and downs as playing casino games. You put up with monotony, and sometimes even take losses, on that slight chance that its worth it in the end.
The bad thing is, that kind of shit can't happen every round because 95% of the time you're a background character, and eventually you get diminishing returns, so it just feels like chasing the dragon. Between autistic trannies not wanting to abandon their collaborative RP writing project with their catigirl self insert, or they are just genuinely in it for the dopamine gamba like a digital skinner box, its kinda wild how addicted some people are in some way or another. When the game shuts down for good, the 41% may jump up a couple points.
