Oh, we don't know that.   I mean, honestly.  Stardock 'claims' it won't be fun until Beta 3,  But people can find fun in anything.  Give them an environment to do something, and they will find something fun to do with it.  Once Beta 2 gets to a point where you can have a stable online game (which should be a lot easier than it is with a real-time game like Sins or Demigod) then there will be fun to be had.    I personally am hopeful it will be fun right away. 

Well, the beta will just not be a complete game. Dwarf Fortress isn't either. The start is fun, but the later game stages get boring. As for Elemental, it's called "War of Magic" but Beta 1 won't even have magic.

So yeah, you're playing an (majorly) incomplete, buggy game with simple graphics. It might just be that some people don't find that fun.

However if you do, more power to you

I remember the 1st beta for SOASE. They said it wouldn't be fun, but I had more fun playing the betas then the finished product.

It's funny to look back at beta 1 stuff

I expect Elemental to change just as much