What is fun to you in an MMO?

[Shurrikhan]

• Meeting new people and hanging out?
• Living out your the story you create for your character?
• Overcoming obstacles with minimal outside resources?
• Learning more about the world you adventure in, exploring and lore?
• Character progression outside of gear (leveling up, merit points/alternative advancement)
• Finding new ways to play the game?

These, especially the last two. I like to learn new things, theory-craft, only to throw out spreadsheets if they tell me to do something I find less fun, and often still top output (per input) despite that. But even more than that, I like to find entirely new ways not only to fulfill a part of the game in my own way, but to play the game as a whole. These of course are heavily dependent on programming and developer broad-sightedness... I don't actually have any examples of MMOs that would make as much fun out of this as I'd like...

Both people kicking ass and kick-ass people (personalities, knowledge, etc) are also very fun. Kicking ass in a way most MMO players would say can't be done -- incredibly satisfying.

I really do feel like FFXIV has the potential in its world to really master those categories too, eventually. That's just not quite the case at present.

Edit: Oh, and one other thing: Game Synergy - when the feel, emotions, theory, motifs, etc of the game is permeable through the combat system, the music, the UI, the characters, the settings, the dialogue, all perfectly connected, and always shooting to base that connection on the highest point of gameplay (rather than lowest, as seems commonly done) or the original artistry / encapsulating idea itself.