I've been thinking about how MMOs are addictive and how people are strongly motivated by these goal structures. It is true that the skills for success that people develop are transferable to the real-world. However, their successes are not. I believe that people are not addicted to MMOs because of the easy access to achievement, but that after you've achieved something in a game, that achievement only continues to have value within the game. Therefore, continuing to invest more time and energy in that venue is the only way to legitimize the achievement.

In real life, our achievements rarely mean anything, even in their original contexts. When you succeed at a job you rarely gain any permanent reward or badge, and often it isn't impressive or build your skills or abilities in any way.

To find true internal intrinsic motivation is the only way out of this dilemma. I suggest you read FLOW by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.