I've been playing Minecraft for a very long time, and developped a fairly intricate 'Messy Medieval' building style, taught it to a bunch of people and they're now continuing that legacy. ^-^'
I felt it was time to try something new and stumbled upon Starmade through youtube. First through Jamziboy'n then the Yogscast vids.
It was minecraft, but in space, I felt. Which gave me more of an opportunity to test out contemporary and sci-fi elements to build with.
And ships. The ships are so awesome. The ability to custom build them completely and fit them with whatever you so damn well please and have 'em actually function!
Beats building medieval cogs on Minecraft and tossing warp commands on 'em..
The fact I happened to stumble upon CR just before it started growing into a very succesful faction, helped with keeping me interested in the game.
Still, it is factions, the ability to play with others and create for others that drives me to continue to play the game. Even with resets and game updates in the near future.