I once tried to convince a few bygone members to return for a forum game. Would be fun to get folks back for a bout of mafia.
Yeah. Legacy players are always great to have around. A lot of great game memories.
It seems to me though like people don't want to come back and play though for a couple reasons. Either they left because they didn't like the attitude of the forums. In which case, coming back to play may make it seem like they take back why they left even if they still feel that or don't. Then there are others that keep posting but don't play Mafia because they see Mafia as a bigger time-intensive activity. And it can be but I've found over the years that there's no guarantee that a player who spends more time active in the game than someone else will automatically win. It might help their odds a bit but plenty of games have featured both types of winners and losers in the various amounts of time put into the game.
On the flip side, there are those who faded away and now feel if they come back, they may feel people will expect them to do more or post more here and they just don't have the time. We've got a few members now that will sign up to play a Mafia game but they don't really do much else on these forums. Stevey and thatguy come to mind. There's nothing wrong with that. As you get older, you get busier so you've got to make more choices with your time. If they want to limit their time on the forums to just playing Mafia than posting, I see nothing wrong with that and I don't think that's a bad trade off.
Just like those that may have left after being soured on these forums. If they just want to come to play Mafia because its something they find fun, I don't see why they can't. They don't need to post everywhere or get into forum debates with other users again. If this is the only function of the site they want to use and enjoy, that's great. Use it and enjoy it. I may not like most McDonald's food but I still like the Bacon and Egg Bagel or Egg McMuffin. Just because I may not want most of the other stuff on the menu doesn't mean I can't go and get one of the few things I do like every now and then.
Or maybe most people just aren't as into Mafia like us few diehards.