FPV began as a different shape: a mobile-first, account-based storytelling service. The rewrite that became FPV 2.0 was a decision to stop renting the story back to the person writing it.
The turning point
Three assumptions stopped making sense at once: that a story needs an account, that narration needs a cloud meter, and that preset worlds are the product. None of them survived contact with the real reason people stay with a long story — the world they have built.
What was cut
Accounts, subscription tiers, story credits and a catalog of preset worlds moved out of the center. They are not gone because they were wrong for everyone; they are gone because they were the wrong frame. The protagonist is the user, not the platform.
What was kept
The core loop — you act, a narrator responds, the world changes — was already right. The rewrite preserved it and rebuilt everything around it: local narration, persistent Story State, Codex, and a project file you can actually pick up and carry.
The lesson
A rewrite is worth it when the new shape removes a dependency, not when it adds a feature. Going local-first removed the biggest one: the assumption that the story lives anywhere except with you.