Original Comment by: Chris
http://www.cedarstreet.net
I'd say that most (if not all) MMOs have 3 phases: The Dating Phase, where everything is new and the possibilities are endless, The Honeymoon Is Over Phase, where the grind sets in, and The Twilight Years, where you've progressed far enough to enjoy the fuits of your labors and/or actually USE the contents of the latest expansion pack.
After quitting WoW for the 9th time, I claimed boredom, to which a friend of mine said that the day to day operations WERE as boring as hell, but that he keeps playing because he sets his own goals. How quickly can he obtain X cash, or get to Y level, and so on.
I think the claim that "the point of MMOs is the social experience" is, in part, BS. I can't stand PuGs, and deplore twinking, and don't trust anyone I don't know, yet I still love MMOs because of they don't end. You log in, and things have changed since you were last there. The potential of "something new" each time you log in -- assuming you don't reduce the game to "a spreadsheet" by referencing website databases or guidebooks for stats and locations -- or by simply exploring the hell out of a zone before you consider moving to the next one is rewarding in itself to me.
MMOs aren't strictly about the social experience; they are what you make of them. Games like WoW, however, opted to reduce the importance of almost everything except combat and loot collection. Titles like A Tale in the Desert have gone the opposite route byt dropping combat. Boredom in MMOs merely indicates that the player hasn't yet found a title that suits him or her.
