Since I have been thinking about it anyway, I want to do the flip side of this post.
EVE on the other hand starts out kind of rough and ugly. Confusing at times and seeming as if there is nothing to do.
I will cite the problem in the opposite direction: there is everything to do. Once you exit the tutorial, you can run missions, mine, hunt baby rats, start training for trade runs, jump into corp politics, explore the galaxy, learn the market… Many people, when faced with unlimited choice, lock up and cannot handle it. If no direction is inherently more meaningful than any other, they may not even see a reason to move.
In economic terms, people feel opportunity costs. The more choices you have, the more things you need to give up to do anything else right now. If you are playing a Warrior, you have given up the other seven WoW choices (for now). If you are training Learning 1, there are over 300 other skills that you are not training, there are people several years ahead of you, and it will never be possible to cap every skill. From the instant you log on, you can check the market and see the multi-million ISK items out there, with the tier II items directly next to the ones you can use. If you see a level 10 in the WoW newbie zone, he’s slumming. WoW even has an eventual “win” condition. It has rules, and borders, and an end zone.
Freedom, opportunity, and choices scare a lot of people. There are enough places in real life where they are faced with radical existentialism, and they do not want to deal with it in a game. My mother yet to come to grips with Mario, who can move sideways and jump, or do both at the same time!
: Zubon