Boredom is a disease

And it's a catchy one when it comes to forums or guilds in WoW.

On the forums, there'll be a small bit of action, a few interesting posts, then everyone (and every thread) loses energy. It's often blamed on folks being busy with "real lives" but what I've seen happening is folks growing bored with the topics at hand rather than getting distracted away from them. And when they're bored they wander away to read the latest gossip about some hollywood starlette and don't return.

In guilds, the boredom is shown in short tempers, impatience, and whining. And in trying to stir things up by scheduling events. And when that person's boredom isn't fixed by an event or a discussion that gets folks fired up, they vanish just like the forum posters. They don't log in, or log out early, and over time are seen less and less.

The worst part about boredom is that it's catchy. When one person gets it, another soon follows. And before you know it you have a dead forum or guild.

New blood (server transfers, new members) helps for a while, but doesn't fix the actual problem -- a lack of something interesting to do or talk about. Having someone try to stir things up will also help for a while, but often that person gets tired of carrying so much weight around and abdicates.

But the bottom-line problem here is that the only complete cure for boredom in WoW is external to the players -- the game or events in the world of warcraft themselves have to be *interesting* enough to generate postings and activity without anyone stirring things up. A person (no matter how determined) can only make small ripples in the Warcraft pond, but it's up to Blizzard to create an entire tide.