I was watching season 2 episode 2 and just felt like I was watching a video game. Someone already posted this on another subreddit two days ago but here is my take.

1. Tree Spawn Point: Everyone just pops into the show by this tree, right? Classic video game spawn point vibes.
2. Weather Control: The weather changes like someone's flipping switches, just like in games.
3. Player Cap: Feels like there's a max number of people allowed in at once. Server limit?
4. Leveling Up (But Don't Cheat): Characters get better the more they go through, but skip ahead and the show slaps them down.
5. Glitchy Jumps: People bouncing around with no explanation? Smells like glitching to me.
6. Tougher Baddies on New Levels: we keep hearing that there are worse things than the monsters that come out at night
7. Magic Electronics: Stuff works, but wires go to nowhere land. Because game logic
8. Spawned Outta Nowhere: Animals and resources just poof into existence.

If that's not game spawning, I don’t know what is.

The last and most compelling clue is that the monsters want to "play" with the characters. I just can't figure out who are the gamers and who are the NPCs.

PS. Why are there 3 subs for this show.