The action usually sucks, there's no decent story, and you're doing quests a few thousand others have already done, giving no sense of accomplishment.
Some good ideas in this thread...
The problem is catering to the casual players as well as those powergamers who play 24/7. The powergamers will be the ones advancing the plot and affecting the world while the casual players sit on the sidelines and try to keep up with the story. There has to be a balance between a single-player game where the plot revolves around what you do, and multiplayer games where nothing ever changes.
Hell, if people get paid to sweat their balls off walking around DisneyPlanet in a rodent costume, why not pay people to be 'actors' and play NPC's in your MMORPG storyline? PvP in a sense, only you get to defeat the villain and change the world. Until next week's story. One server, one game world, one DM (director) and multiple human NPC's (supporting actors) that may control computer AI mobs. Players can be the forces of good or evil. Set everything in motion, and let the story write itself... the possibilities are enormous. (A method is needed to deal with asshats of course...)
If any game designers are writing this down, please send royalty checks to Tom, P.O. Box 23456...
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"There's so much comedy on television. Does that cause comedy in the streets?" -- Dick Cavett
mocking the TV-violence debate