that story had a lot of truth to it, but there's one thing that bugs me.
"the moment it stops being fun, you shouldn't be doing it"
now, there are a lot of things that aren't exactly fun but which are still worth doing for the end result. In the case of the little taru -> hume, it wasn't the case. It's absurd to expect someone to do something "unfun" for over a year just on a promise of an obscure "fun" thing to do.
But, for instance, when I camped the NMs for my brown belt, it wasn't always fun, but was well worth it; I was extemely thrilled when I finally got it and it made me worth my while. (Unfortunately, that is pretty much my only example, as I haven't found much stuff thrilling in this game for the whole time I've played it.)
One should never become a robot, or do something unfun when he doesn't know for a fact that he'll get rewarded in some way for it (not necessarily in items, you loot whores! ;) )... But while human instinct is to pursue uninterupted pleasure, it will often leave him bored and empty.
The key here is balance; if you aren't faced with a little challenge and hardship, you will never value what you have... MMOs are about fun, that is for sure, but they are also a bit about achievement (be it the obtention of items, levels, exploration of new places...), to most people. If it wasn't... wouldn't we all be playing The Sims Online, instead of FFXI ?
...in any case... this story represent exactly why I never was able to love this game (aside from all the poor design decisions and racism from the GMs and players). No one is willing to explore, break away from the mold... or even make logical calculations (battalia versus overcrowded known place) !
Edited, Thu Feb 2 00:16:32 2006 by Niji