I don't really see any big ideas of theory crafting anymore. I don't really see people espousing dream-like aspirations for SC, like in the old days. Instead I see a lot of ambitions of damage, destruction, bedlam, and chaos. I wondered if those things had moved to another part of the forums. Though, all I see there is huge gaps between concurrent post. It makes me wonder about the nature of expectations for this game. Here is what I mean..... It use to be, that you would see a strong amount of wishes and hopes for nuanced features that would make SC more immersive as a world in general. People would dream about little bits of things to do for the career paths they wanted to play. Examples: It would be great if we could go to planets with viral outbreaks and render medical aid to NPC's. I would love to play a story arc where we needed to find a long lost ship from the past. I would love to be an Archaeologist in the game. I wonder if CIG is planning to make science interesting. I wonder if we will have to examine space phenomena? Now-a-days. Things seem less grand, and more about having permission to kill other players without consequences. The driving motivations seem less about a big freeform universe and more about the how, where, and what of killing everyone else. It seems that there is only the expectation of replicating concepts in high fidelity. What has happened to the imagination for SC? Much about SC just feels kinda glib to me these days. Things feel kinda linear and caged. For me, for a long time now, it seems SC is barreling toward things I have already done in many other games. I feel like things hit a hard wall somewhere and the expectation of adventure became the semantics of interpretation. I don't feel like it is just the Alpha state. The universe just feels smaller to me. Thoughts? Edit: Thank You to everyone who participated in this thread. I want you all to know I diligently read every response. I value and appreciate every contribution. This was a great discussion.