Ten Ton Hammer - The Casualization of a Classic - An Opinion on Age Of Empires Online.
Even the objectives are downright silly. “Defend your Ally” amounts to just building a few towers and walls and going for a walk while the enemy fruitlessly throws units at them, until you’re well into your teens and start using/coming up against siege units. Hell, you can even tower rush your opponent to death before they can pose a threat to you or your ally. A lot of the economic missions are seemingly random maps with numeric goals. There’s no incentive to go out of your way to find treasure camps either, since you can do it after the mission is completed at your leisure before you exit to the world map.

Kotaku - LEGO Universe Developer- I Will Never Make an MMO Again.
I have a sense this is part of a broader movement in the industry, at least for those of us who have poured our souls into multi-year AAA development. As game makers, we're here to have as much fun making games as we want our communities to have playing them. We want to toy around with lots of ideas and go down weird thought avenues. Variety is the spice of life. Kind of like cilantro is the spice of burritos. Or like how spice is the spice of Dune.

Are you a developer out there, working hard on some corner of a "AAA" title, on the edge of burnout? Why not get together with a buddy or two in whatever off time you can squeeze, and make something for fun. It's invigorating and can get you through that next crunch cycle. As an industry, we've got to remember to keep having fun.