This is a tough one because there are often a wide variety of other factors going on beyond JUST "staff" or "player" things that can contribute to a loss of fun, less activity, and onset of boredom. I've been going through some of those things myself.
The first thing I should note is I've been doing this stuff for a long, long, LONG time, much longer than I ever thought I would. If we all stopped for a moment to look at ourselves, I think the majority of us would say something like that.
In fact, I've done so much RP over the years that, to be honest, I've let it take up too much of my time when I could have and should have been doing more productive things with my life. That's not a knock on the RP itself or any of the people I've played with, but the word "addiction" would be a fitting one.
On numerous places, most of them superhero-based, I've gone through the pattern of being very active, to seeing that activity wane, to me twiddling my thumbs feeling like I'm just spinning the tires fruitlessly, to finally giving up and moving on.
Some of that is on me. I love to brainstorm with others and find fun things to do, but outside those idea sessions I'm not very proactive. I've hit a point where I have little interest hanging out in an OOC room or on a Public channel, because both of those tend to be overwhelmed by people in need of attention to the point one or the other (sometimes both) often turns into a place full of endless spam I have to escape from. It's easier for me to stay in a quiet place and try to figure out things with others on a more one-on-one basis. The downside of this is, yeah, I might miss out on some things.
Another problem is my ability (or inability) to focus on things sometimes. I used to be able to handle three or four RPs at once, though I'm pretty sure the quality of my poses suffered for it. These days, I try never to do more than two at once and usually one is my limit. Part of this is because I put more into my poses than I used to. Another reason is sometimes I have other things going on and if I'm stretching myself too thin...well, let's just say I don't want to be that person who only poses once every 30 minutes and it ends up being two lines.
On top of that, it can be tougher for me to keep up with everything in a large group RP like a fight scene where a ton of stuff is happening. I end up having to focus mainly on the stuff that's only directly related to me, and if the rest isn't moving too quickly I can at least skim it to have a general idea of what else is going on. This is why most of what I've done these days is social, slice-of-life stuff, or minor action with no more than two or three other people. It's usually the limit of what I can handle.
Enter the problem: a hierarchy that breaks down. There's only so much staff can do, and there's only so much one player can do. Ideally, I think people benefit most from a setup that goes something like this:
- RP Staff takes care of the big picture and pitches in for teams/players when needed or able. This is on the macro level.
- A team/faction/group head (or 2+ depending on size and scope) needs to be there and active to keep things running more on the mid to micro level.
- The average player benefits from both of the above, but there is still a responsibility to pitch in with things from time to time along with participating in what's offered by those above. Players can't expect everything to be handed to them. If they want to focus on something related to them as part of character building, they have to say so. They do need to have their own ideas and seek out RP on their own whether it's with a teammate or a "stranger."
Take that and add the following problems to the mix:
- If RP Staff doesn't provide over-arching plots or a general direction, the rest eventually breaks down.
- If group heads don't communicate with RP Staff and they don't give their groups things to focus on, the rest eventually breaks down.
- If players don't communicate with anyone, don't offer any input/ideas, and don't take part in what RP Staff or group heads offer them, the rest eventually breaks down.
This inevitably leads to one thing no matter the path it all takes to get there: multiple people growing frustrated, doing less, and eventually leaving the place.
This is what's happened to me and the characters I have on the last place I was remotely active on. I did a slow build to get them involved with groups after bringing them into play in more of an "on their own" state, and while some things went on that helped them settle in, various things started happening that caused RP to grow stagnant.
In one case, it's time zones not working out well with the RP Staff and/or players who run things. By the time some RP could be set up with someone I enjoy RPing and discussing ideas with, usually it's getting to be bedtime for me. I don't mind starting something, having to pause, and pick it up a couple times over the course of the week so we can finish it, but it's really hard to start something when I'm going to bed in half an hour and there's no guarantee we can keep it moving over the next few days. After all, I'm not the only one this person RPs with, but for various reasons he started to be almost the only one I RPed with. Part of that is my fault.
In another case, a group was set up without clearly defined leadership, at least on an OOC level, and the IC leader didn't do a whole lot so there was never really any progress made on doing team things. Now the majority of the players in the group either left or don't do anything, so that's a dead project. I tried to work myself into more of an active status with some of them, but when those who are left are only around intermittently, nothing really happens.
There's been another player on the place (I think he finally left to set up and run his own game, so more power to him) who tends to cycle through various characters, but the problem with that is he's often started to set things up and form groups to run RP with, only to leave them in the lurch when he inevitably bails for another "project." If it became an activity thing in any way, I don't know how much of that was him vs. the players. Then, if nobody else is proactive, the team essentially dies on the spot as far as activity goes. That's a difficult place to leave anyone in. I wasn't directly involved with that player or his groups, but some people I did RP with were and I've seen them around less and less afterward.
So, add ALL of that up, and it's left me in an empty place when it comes to RP that "matters." My motivation is gone, my effort is at an all-time low, and my urge to take a chance on doing something new is minimal, whether it's on that place or a different one. Like I said above, some of that is on me as a passive player who struggles to break out of an RP "comfort zone" and approach more people, but some of that is also due to circumstances that feel beyond my control. I hit the point of just doing a log a month to meet minimum activity levels, and once that starts repeating it's time to go.
All of this, to me, sums up the ebb and flow of one place after another, one player/character after another.