This is exactly what happens! I was an active player on SRP mostly from 2015-2018, taking a six year leave from the server. In that time, almost literally EVERYTHING changed.
I’d say that the amount of players online haven’t changed much (ranging from 100-350) but just about the whole player base changed in 2019-2020! I feel like most active players nowadays joined anywhere from 2020-current time, but it’s rare to come by old players, let alone old friends.
Anyways, when I came back I was surprised to see that almost all of staff had left the server, as well as the majority of active players back then. What’s also funny to think about is that when I was mostly active, I was 10-13 years old and I’d say the majority of the player base were kids who were a lot younger; around my age at the time.
As SRP gets older, it seems like the player base grew with it! Now the majority of players are adults or older teenagers (also around my age), which is kind of funny to think about!
To sum it up, it’s definitely prominent that there are different gens of SRP, and some who play today will no longer be active in just a couple of years. All of my old friends are no longer active, meaning it’s like I’m playing for the first time all over again.