Since this thread has turned into a discussion of playing styles, I might share mine:
I’ve been playing for more than five years now. I have no Cider, no Overgoat (let alone Übergoat) to show for it. I’m no Poet Laureate. Why? Well, for one, I’m not interested. And I have never, ever calculated the "EPA worth" of anything. I wouldn’t dream of it. That’s simply not the way my brain works.
Another reason is that I’m still, mostly, a very casual player. I log on most days, once or twice, but not all days (interestingly, I log onto this forum several times every day. I cannot quite explain that). I usually make sure to collect my weekly payments, but some weeks that’s all I do. After all, the world is full of interesting things, and I do need to work to pay the bills besides. I cannot even imagine the life of someone who plays every single FL action every single day. I’m not sure I want to. (I don’t mean to insult anyone, only to illustrate how foreign this concept of playing seems to me.)
I have never played FL on a smartphone. I consider that blasphemy, like reading ebooks. ;) Logging in to FL (one account after the other) is often the last thing I do in the evening before going to bed. A few minutes of escapism in a by now thoroughly familiar alternate history universe. When I play a new ES, I usually sit down for it on weekends, taking an hour or two (or three) to thoroughly read and record everything (I have recorded every ES and most Fate stories in separate text files, alongside full-text archives of SMEN, all Ambitions, Elections, Hallowmases etc and large text dumps of snippets from every which where. All those Guides and archives don’t come from nothing ;)), plus dithering over decisions over which path to take. Some of the lore-heavier ES have literally taken me several days to finish since I often stop playing to puzzle about greater lore implications, then get lost searching for some half-remembered snippet of another story. I consider that time well spent. I love well-crafted worlds, I’m a sucker for never-ending world-building (nods to J.R.R. Tolkien and Steven Erikson). I guess in a nutshell that’s what brought me here and made me stay: the quality of the writing plus the depth of the universe.
I’ve accumulated nine accounts now and still have to restrain myself sometimes from making more. Every one of these is a separate "character" with their own back story and head canon. Almost all of these have been my "main account" at some point, almost all have experienced large breaks where I didn’t play them at all. In some cases, I started out with a pretty good idea of who they were. In others, I decided to just start playing and see where things would go. I don’t roleplay everything (e. g. all characters grind Renown of all Factions. It’d be silly not to imo) but all the "important" decisions are down to "what would [character] do?", not "what would I do?" And, for example, I’ve just put one character on a year-long zee-voyage because that one refuses to live in a city with a Devil Mayor.
When the Connected/Renown changeovers were implemented, I made a point of cashing in all my (often substantial) Connected beforehand. I was already an end-game player by then and I realized that grinding Renown for all Factions from scratch would make certain I wouldn’t run out of things to do anytime soon (I’m still at it).
On one account I’ve played SMEN up to the point where one needs to go to Winking Isle to continue. I even have Mr Eaten’s Calling Card, but I don’t think I’ll ever go there. Up to this point it was fun, because there was story with the grind (and I really wanted to get rid of my early-game lodgings). From now on it’s only masochism, which isn’t my kinda thing. Still, I do fancy that stupid Knock… I guess if I ever should run out of things to do, I might give it a go.
That same account has a "Changed by the Iron Republic" level of 111 which shows I can do a completely pointless grind if it fits my character’s narrative. :) In all seriousness I’d rather go back there and bump that quality all the way up to 666 instead of gunning for Cider or what-have-ya. That’s just a prop to put on your mantelpiece.
Over the years, a few puzzled people have complained on these forums that there’s no way to "win" this game. I think that’s why I like it so much. After all, if I won, it’d be over. And I don’t want that. :)