I also see this difference between Ren's old content (Survival, Dishonored, Terraria etc.) and his new content (Hermitcraft, Hermitpack, UHC etc.). However, whilst I enjoy Ren's older content more, I do not feel him and his attitude towards the Cyberdog community and his content has changed.
I think, first, we must recognize what the difference is and why it exists:
1. SINGLEPLAYER CONTENT VS MULTIPLAYER CONTENT
Nowadays Ren's content mainly consists of playing on multiplayer servers (Hermitcraft). This means that he receives a whole new audience looking for a certain type of content. Consequently, he has to satisfy both the Cyberdog community and the Hermitcraft community. To do so, he has made the choice to make his content a little less story filled, and more gameplay focused. The earliest occurrence of this was in his FTB series, where he made it his goal to guide his viewers through the game as well. Similarly, he does the same in his Hermitcraft series. Occasionally we get the good ol' story time with Rendog, but it does not always appeal to the Hermitcraft community side of his audience. On top of this, Ren has to partake in certain activities and projects when he is playing Multiplayer (such as setting up shops or playing through certain storylines). Back when he played singleplayer games, he relied more on us to guide him, and had complete freedom in what to do each episode. This allowed him to spend more time telling us stories rather than constantly having to explain what he was doing.
2. TIMING AND FOCUS
As stated above, Ren had to take part in certain activities and projects, leaving him with less freedom/time. On top of this, on joining Hermitcraft, Ren was given more opportunities as a content creator, such as the many UHC series and, of course, modded series (hermitpack, project ozone, sky factory etc.). This meant that Ren could not spend all his time focusing on one series. To further deter his focus, Ren begun making videos Full Time. Consequently, Ren began to start more series/make episodes and stream more often. This left him with less time to carry on old series/spend more time on planning and telling stories. Before going Full Time, Ren was restricted to making less videos and had to really focus on making his content consistent in themes and quality.
- Nebs