As far as the community:
The absolute frothing frenzy of madness that took place in the lead up to the North American Animal Pack reveal - it was like a whole month before this this place was a madhouse of doomspeaking. Nearly 4 years ago we had people convinced the game was ending, too bad North America and Europe!
The near total community support of the Capybara being in the "next" pack right after Europe was revealed, because otherwise the forum was going to break in half if the game ended without the world's largest rodent in it.
The controversies of the Hot Take (Red River) Hog being unnecessary, the "Wolverines don't belong in the Temperate/Tundra/Taiga/theyjustdon'tbelong" discussions, the Nightmare/Dreams scenario threads, the oddball discussion threads...
The engaging and interest that came along with the community here on the forums. Great discussion and ideas that were almost always done in a welcoming way. The community has been great, like no other forum community I've been on, which were much more opinionated to the point it took away some enjoyment and the reason I was on those forums to begin with. That was never the case here - though my activity decreased a bit, there's non-game/non-forum related reasons for that....I never felt like the forum was driving me away.
Biggest shoutout to the Meta-Thread creators, including most notably
@random goat - I firmly believe the roster would not have looked like or met so many (mammalian) needs of the community that it did if not for these threads.
What I won't miss are the "We have too many bears/dogs/monkeys/mustelids/rodents, we need more cats/antelopes" discussion. Sorry ya'll, those two groups had MORE than enough representation though I'm thrilled we ended up with 3 Asian Antelopes, which feels just about right. The Klipspringer was a very late-added want for me, but otherwise I was honestly disappointed when I saw more African Antelopes added in (ya'll can boo at me if you want, I said what I said).
As far as the developers:
The livestreams where they had the hints were almost always such fun, the twilight one being the exception because most were convinced we were getting the Tassie and Maned Wolf when we got the skunk and Red Fox (but we got the Tassie and Maned Wolf anyways later). I think my favorites were the drawings one that took place before Wetlands, and of course the European storyline - though honestly Eurasia's nature trek was also really great.
The amazing turnaround to make the binturwrong the binturright.
The energy and enthusiasm that the developers had for this game, was so inspiring. This may have been a job to them but it never felt like it was "just" a job - it always came across they truly enjoyed what they did.
Up to a point in time the release trailers were always so fun to watch as well. When we could see all of the animals, in their interactions - if I had to pick one favorite it would definitely be the Wetlands release trailer, and I'm not sure what a second would be because that just stands out so much to me.
On my own personal reaction to developers and reveals - I think if I had to take ONE moment that was the highest point for me in the game's lifespan, it was that meerkat poking its head out of the hole it dug on the Africa reveal teaser trailer. Oh, my. gosh. . I was sooooo happy because that was the biggest single species glaring omission from the base game IMO and I was over the moon they were actually going to make them in (to which I credit forum input since they were heavily discussed).
I guess a sadder note but bittersweet, during the year of covid when the Australia pack came out. I was still taking care of my pet at the time and knew the end was coming (he had been sick for three years at that point). A bit of light when out of my life when he passed in that November, and enjoyment on things got muted for a long while (and to be honest still are at times). I was glad to be able to have that enjoyment and celebrate the much needed Aussie animals being added to the game.
but we don’t talk about that…)
