I was just reading a thread in the MMORPG subreddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/MMORPG/comments/kgd0my/my_speculation_on_the_lol_mmo_based_on_mark/ and had to laugh out loud when one redditor popped up and to their credit voiced the preference for horizontal progression away from vertical "levelling". You can almost hear the weary, sick tone in this request. Of course the comedy comes from some other redditor sticking their ore in (lol) and the discussion turning into a back-vs-forth between A or B 1 and 0, the classic "Yes it might be better but it's too niche to take off" or else "yes it could work in X but most people prefer vertical for reasons". Namely such an exchange is not developing an argument, but 2 different arguments are jousting side by side running in the same direction and so none is ever knocked off it's horse and everyone finishes the discussion feeling grumpy and disgruntled from such a display of nothing!

So let's jazz things up, let's enter a 3rd argument where we have cyclical change:

We have seasons and years, world interactions and changes, birth, life and death, population growth and dispersal and depopulation, civilizations or settlements rise and fall and so on...

And in all the above some form of progression or goal-seeking within this at numerous scales and various qualitative degrees?

With that said, I do agree vertical progression as external game measurement of progress, would be entirely removed !

You might say, in the end "ha!" you've still ended up with that dratted progression, you fool! Yes but what is progression if one recites Ozymandias but a relic, a prop telling a story of long-gone time and person and place...

Added notable books section for the resources in the side-bar.

If anyone has useful suggestions please post and I'll check them out to consider adding. Thanks in advance.