Who is the server made for now?

[cyberTripping]

Yet 2021 Goonstation sure isn't 2019 goon station, and while I'd certainly never want a return to the poop covered hellscape of 2012 Goonstation I think the balance is shifting far too much towards a sort of "polished" game instead of the open ended fun it used to be.

For better or worse I think you hit the nail on the head with this, although I'd maybe use different words. It generally feels like, across the time I've been playing (about 6 years now) that the game has been toned down. You are generally less likely to be instantly gibbed or put into low crit or whatever than you used to be, RP servers take a much harsher stance on silent bombings than they once did, that sort of thing. As someone who has always played on rp (I think the rp server was relatively new when I first joined) I like these changes, but I can definitely understand how someone could be disappointed with it.

I would like to point out, however, that Goonstation is really at it's peak as far as community input goes. Due to events beyond the scope of this thread, Goonstation essentially went totally open source as of last year. A huge portion of the balance changes, sprite changes, etc that have happened since then were made by community members contributing to the community they are a part of, rather than dictated by developers in an opaque room like it used to be. These patches are open to community feedback on the github, and if you feel unheard, I can't encourage you enough to leave your thoughts on changes there.