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After A Crash, How Do You Cope With MMORPG Burnout?
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Member UncommonPosts: 12,599
Post edited by lotrlore on
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I don't think I'm special in that I often focus more on a non-video game hobby when I get burnt out. They generally revolve around finishing house projects, focusing on my BJJ training or volunteering for auto charities.
Either that or I switch focus to a completely different type of game such as an ARPG like Diablo 2 Resurrected, an eSport shooter like Overwatch, a survival game like Valheim or Subnautica or a VR title like No Mans Sky or Zenith.
Truth be told, I've been on MMORPG burnout ever since the population of DAoC became too low to really have fun, which has been a few years now.
I also have a lot of non-gaming hobbies like fishing, hiking, geocaching, and general outdoors-ing.
It helps with the burnout a lot.
Right there is your problem. I combat that by doing productive and rewarding things with my time. A few examples are in addition to my day job I have two businesses my wife and I started. Also, I picked up playing my bass guitar again which was a passion of mine since middle school through college. Date nights with the wife. Spend time with my kids. Grab a bite with real life friends. I could go on.
Hours upon hours day in day out? Ain't nobody got time for that!
I'm sure you guys will all dog pile me for saying this, but hey someone has to speak some truth in your little echo chamber you have going here. This website reminds me of a group of alcoholics bragging about your latest bender and cheering each other on in the process. You're addicted. You have a problem. This burnout is just a symptom of your brain and body begging you to stop. You should listen to it.
Let me guess... You can quit anytime you just don't want to, you just don't want to, right?
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Oh I don't think you're necessarily wrong. As I've gotten older I do this less and less, personally. But I remember my younger days (I'm 35, I'm not _that_ old) where I could spend 12 hours a day wandering Skyrim or building in Minecraft with a friend. Now I do that less and less.
Other than playing long sessions for work, the longest I've played a game in one sitting lately is 3 hours of Jedi Fallen Order last week.
But when I did do this, the hours upon hours, day in and day out, I would find myself increasingly burnt out quickly. And honestly, and this isn't to complain about my gig - I love it - but cramming games for reviews, especially MMOs, take a toll on the enjoyment too. The all-mighty SEO gods have to be appeased and all. So that is really where this piece was coming from. My past, and the current present with the burnout I'm feeling again.
Thank Christ for a new TMNT game.
For us here, we're more lax with that. Many of our contributors have day jobs which is why you'll see delays in the big reviews we do (such as Diablo Immortal taking three weeks when many other sites had it out in one).
Playing games for review is such a different animal than anything else in this industry. It is definitely not the ideal way to play games for sure, and that does take a toll.
Thankfully, I love this stuff, so even with the burnout I can't imagine doing much else. And I think streamers are the same, at least the ones I talk to and work with. We love the gig, the people, and the games themselves. Creating that work-life balance in games is what's difficult.
Throw natural burnout on top of that with anything and it's a bad mix, though.
In all seriousness, when I get bored with specific game (MMO or not, it doesn't matter) - I just find something else to play. Or I just do stuff not related to playing games - like watching Twitch channels (there's always someone interesting to watch) or socializing with other people both online and offline. Unless any person is suffering through clinical depression (in which case that person should seek professional medical help) - there shouldn't be any issue for anyone to easily find other things that will let them keep enjoying their lives.
For the most part always only one at a time until I'm done with it, rarely to ever revisit them except for a few notable exceptions.
It's what happens when you are very careful to only play games you just know will well resonate for long periods of time, 6 months at a minimum.
Sure, there's been occasional mistakes, but not very many.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
These days I do have much more time to do as I please but MMO burnout is no more nor less than it used to be.
I play other things, read more, scrape the bottom of the Netflix and Prime barrels and then it often goes away and I'm back to the same MMO I've been playing for 8 years.
For some games it never goes away so in those cases it really wasn't so much burn out as it was just me being done with it. We really weren't "on a break" the relationship was just done like dinner
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
I can't speak for everyone, but I don't read the reviews from any site because experience has taught me that it takes a great deal of time to actually know a game in and out to give an objective review. The time it takes to know a game in that way varies by genre, obviously, but MMORPG's are the longest.
As for burnout, I've experienced it multiple times in the last 22 years with various games beginning with DAOC in 2004. I solved it by playing different kinds of games. Right now I'm playing through a backlog of games in my Steam library. I haven't touched a MMO since Shadowlands released. Even then, I played MMORPG's casually. The MMORPG communities and companies have changes for the worse, in my opinion, over the years. I'm in my 40's now with a family and a good career. It's hard for me to go from real life to a video game where grown adults treat each other with disrespect, everyone accepts that as normal; not to mention the companies who make the MMORPG's have design decisions that are transparent to anyone that they're meant to waste your time and spend money in their cash shops.
I remember grinding in random groups in DAOC, SWG, and CoH up to 8 hours a day from 2001 to 2006 (ish) and we all chatted and had fun leveling up and overcoming obstacles together. For at least a decade now, players are different, the companies focus is different, and I'm different. Even the single player game markes has changed. For the most part, you'd have a feature complete game released and that was that. KOTOR and Elder Scrolls games were among my favorites. Now you have Early Accesses, DLC's and content/cosmetic packs, and in-game shops. I don't buy games at release anymore (except for Elden Ring this year) because I know it's not the full game. I wait for all the content packs to come out and then the game to go on sale for < $20 on Steam. Then I buy it and add it to my backlog.
As many here have stated try some single player games or other hobbies for a while.
Almost certain you will return. It is in our blood.
Speaking of other hobbies. Gone fishing after I finish my coffee. Calm seas atm. Going for cod. Wish me luck.
Later today I will help some hobbits with pie and post deliveries.
Have not yet though. Maybe there is hope?
Nah there is really none for me or the human race.
Not that I have a whole lot of time to play games, 2 hours a day max, including weekends. My 2000+ game library is mocking me.
/Cheers,
Lahnmir
Kyleran on yours sincerely
'But there are many. You can play them entirely solo, and even offline. Also, you are wrong by default.'
Ikcin in response to yours sincerely debating whether or not single-player offline MMOs exist...
'This does not apply just to ED but SC or any other game. What they will get is Rebirth/X4, likely prettier but equally underwhelming and pointless.
It is incredibly difficult to design some meaningfull leg content that would fit a space ship game - simply because it is not a leg game.
It is just huge resource waste....'
Gdemami absolutely not being an armchair developer
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Got 5 cods , biggest one 2kg. Going to be bait for lobster season.
Time for me to lose myself in lotro for a few hrs. wish you all a good day!
Have not yet though. Maybe there is hope?
Nah there is really none for me or the human race.
I also volunteer at the local food bank, about 10 hours a week. So it almost feels like I'm working full time anyway.
My gaming time is limited to a few hours a day at most. Even so, I can get burned out on a game, so I rotate through different types of games.
I also consider LoTRO as a refuge, along with CoH. Also, the Civilization games, No Man's Sky, Skyrim, and survival crafting games. Even played some Fortnite with the grandson, but I'm mostly a hindrance. Too slow now
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2024: 47 years on the Net.
That's honestly how I have been feeling about most mmorpgs lately. It just feels like they are places for people to do things and experience stuff (like going to a themepark, so I guess that's pretty accurate) instead of existing in a world. The only ones that kind of seem to learn more towards world building usually have some kind of pvp focused element (like Albion, Archeage, etc) which unfortunately isn't for me. There are some private servers of mmorpgs that I hear try but honestly I'm not a private server person.