Flickr is still an MMORPG -- the social features are still pretty great and the primary focus of the site, but Facebook is taking that market. Flickr made a number of huge mistakes too (like the NIPSA bullshit).
It's absolutely awful for actually looking at the photos though -- to look at photos at a decent resolution you have to click through to the photo page, then click through to 'all sizes' without knowing whether there will be a larger size on the other side, and then maybe click a larger size again from there. Now you're at a dead end, and have to start the process all over again!
Flickr started as a chat room, made as a quick side project using technologies developed for a MMORPG. It just took over the company's energy, in much the same way Twitter took over Obvious Corp.
[edit before someone gets as pedantic on me as I got on the parent: Flickr was a series of chat rooms. Not sure what the term really is... in the MUD/MOO world they used to just be called "chatters" I suppose? Because the few other features they had were intended as social toys, the same way Flickr was intending people to use photos.]
