The good news is that with the benefit of sleep and food and time to think, it's very obvious why 04:30 in the morning was spent obsessing over this one ARTPG and thinking about joining it despite the many reasons not to (starting with "where the fuck would I get the time? I am already in more ARTPGs than I can play at once")
The bad news is that now that I can identify why, it actually sounds like a good idea. Dangit... kinda figured I'd lose interest or talk myself out of it, not come up with supporting arguments.
The short version is I've been in braindrain heck for a week to the tune of "I'm bored and fun things aren't fun enough to bother with so I will continue being bored." Not the most severe version of it, but very persistent and very distinctly dogging my steps. I have had sorta-success with throwing myself at creative endeavors, but the sheer drain makes it really hard to start or persist on that front.
Plus you know it's bad when I don't feel like playing Paleo Pines and no other video game will do.
But. Joining another ARTPG would give me something to go full hyperfixation-mode on. There's the D&D-sized rulebook to read, there's apparently an external website to sign up for, there's muppets and colors and patterns to not just learn about and contemplate but then figure out how to acquire. There's interplayer commerce, maybe a Newbie Adoption Center.
(Ostensibly at some point this might result in the playing part of an art rolePLAYING game, but the hyperfixation does not require this.)
(I can hoard blimbles and rotate them in my head with intense adoration. That's what I do in all those other games I don't have enough hours in a day to play!)
Anyways after more than a week of weirdbad brain chemistry, finding something that sparks feels like I shouldn't just ignore the impulse. And while I delight in living out "what do you have there?" "A NEW ARTPG!" "NO!!" memes with my pals, knowingly joining one with the intent to play casually, purely to farm the good brain chemicals, is... actually pretty responsible as far as managing myself goes!
Also the one I was staring at has dinosaurs. They are the aesthetic opposite Paleo Pines (take Jurassic Park but make it EVEN MORE post-apocalyptic) but yeah no I need dinos because of Paleo Pines. At least that's a niche of ARTPG I hadn't joined before!