Thing about the internet is the spaces are not set. You can’t conquer a country like you can in real life, because none of the space actually exists. It’s all numbers of users, because there is a finite number of them, and they can only hang out and contribute in so many spaces.

They move into one, another shrinks. People come here, this one grows. That’s all. Think of it less as some kind of strategy game and more of fluids flowing and interacting in a complex system.

Noooo, it has not returned to normal at all. When the protestors left, a flood of other people came in to take their place. It was enough to create a noticeable shift in tone. I would now describe reddit as a whole as barely left-leaning. Almost every sub moved a couple notches noticeably rightward.

It has cancer. Prognosis not good, when monetization was the root cause.

An old browser strategy game called Archmage, run by a company called Mari, if I remember right. You accumulated turns over time, and then you spent your turns casting spells, summoning armies and attacking other players for land. All text based, but with a fair bit of complexity.

MUDs too. I played on one called Elsweyr, that was a good time.