It's like sports, folks. People don't just want to watch sports they want to talk
about the sports they watched, discuss upcoming games, players, injuries, hires, etc.
Removing ESPN SportsCenter/friends who also like sports doesn't encourage people to watch more sports because there is no sports commentary to watch anymore... it actively decreases their interest in watching sports because they no longer have a community to talk to about those sports.
The very same with the forums.
I'll probably be pausing some characters in the next few days or weeks.
In the past month or so I've paused all my characters except for Kale. Reasons for that are combination of factors not least of which is the fact that I'm super busy this semester, but the lack community interaction has certainly played a role in my in-game interest/motivation to play.
