Why do players tolerate grinding in MMOs like World of Warcraft ? Koster suggests that the grind is not "fun" in the pure sense; it is a social contract. Players endure the boring pattern (killing 100 boars) to access the novel pattern (raiding with friends). The meta-game (social pattern) overrides the boring micro-game.

This leads to Koster’s most crucial and counter-intuitive point: Once a pattern is fully learned, once the brain’s model is perfect and prediction is automatic, the activity ceases to be fun. The challenge evaporates. This is why children abandon a board game after ten consecutive wins, why you stop feeling thrilled by the jump-scares in a horror game, and why expert players in Chess or Go can play entire matches on autopilot. Boredom is not the enemy of fun; it is the natural, healthy signal that learning is complete and it is time to seek a new, more complex pattern.

No theory is perfect, and Koster is the first to admit his framework has edges.

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