I would like to give my thoughts on NMS from a meta perspective

Firstly...

"16"

If you do not know the significance of this number I would very strongly encourage you not to read any further as what I will be giving my thoughts on pertains directly to story elements within the game and this number.

!No Man's Sky had a rough start. We all know this, but over the years I would say that the developers have redeemed themselves in the eyes of both players of the game and even non-players of the game. Going through the story and lore of this universe, while extremely... I believe the right words to use here would be 'goddamn cryptic', you do eventually learn why a lot of the strange happenings and vagueness actually happens. They like their many layers of mystery that's for sure. It takes a lot of time to adjust to this kind of storytelling especially if you're not used to it and I'm sure quite a lot of people don't really fully grasp the whole of it and just play going from encounter to encounter without digging too much into things, which is fine.!<

!Given the community on this sub from what I have seen I don't exactly expect my thoughts to be received too well as I am a 'mechanics oriented' player. I do enjoy a good story and I'm actually quite intrigued by the story itself and unravelling the mystery of why everything is so fuckin WEIRD. It all makes sense and it fits together fairly well. However, the game has mechanical issues- I don't think there's any argument or discussion here to say otherwise, we all know this, but here's my thoughts on this and I wanted to hear other people's opinion. !<

!"What if its intentional?"!<

!Now first off, I want you to hear that question spoken through an oxygen mask as I huff straight from a tank of copium, okay?... Okay. BUT!! ... What if?!<

!16. Atlas, in all its glory and sophistication and power is finally falling apart after eons, its creators most likely no longer even around- I have not yet gotten to the center so I'm only guessing here. It resets over and over and over in an attempt to save itself but cannot- all a simulation, nothing is real- its a great concept, one that I've found myself interested in far more than I originally intended. Once I understood what was going on, pieces started clicking together and I found myself surprisingly invested.!<

!So... what if the fact that settlements are buggy, what if the feeling of lack of polish as the devs consistently add more content after content after content is part of an overarching meta narrative just like how atlas keeps iterating for Travelers? At one point the Atlas outright asks you if you've enjoyed what its created, I can't help but feel like that's the devs directly asking you that question and there's certainly a parallel that one could draw between burnout and Atlas' inevitable destruction. One can also draw a line from '16' being 'who the hell knows how long we have' and the game servers eventually shutting down at some nondescript time in the future. (Maybe they found an angel investor? Hm. Who knows?) !<

!Anyway, the thought was very interesting to me, the idea that some bugs, errors, and polish aren't added in favor of new content- the next big thing to please the Travelers as was Atlas' intended purpose. It iterates, adds all the time... but errors mount as it marches to its eventual- whenever that may be- end. !<

I've been around long enough to know that this PROBABLY isn't the case, but I just wanted to put my thoughts on it down and share them with the rest of you and I hope you've enjoyed the read.