Commitment is certainly an issue. And that shits me, ya know?! I remember back in the days of Invisionfree boards and the like and there'd be real plots that you wanted to get involved in, and you wouldn't mind waiting a day or two for a tag because it was so exciting to be moving things forward and creating something.
Sad how much has changed.
I do agree with the idea that burnout in a thing though. Even with how desperate I am to find a good community game, if I have to sit through another 4 to 5 'get to know you' character introduction threads, I'm going to flip. It's those, mixed with no event pushes from the mods, that kills things for me.
Way back in the day (let me get my walking stick out...) I used to co-mod a zombie game, and part of the introduction process was Mod controlled. People could make their character however they wanted, but part of the approval process was assigning them a location, a weapon and a random pocket object. It meant that we could nurture that start-up process and guide people straight into threads with characters that they might get along with, or might clash with. People's opening posts were often rocking up into an already ongoing thread with half a can of hairspray and a garbage picker and just seeing how things went.
I wonder if something like that would help get people started?