Burned out from MMOs... But I don't know why.

Yup

I started following this game day 1 of its official announcement (though to be fair it was the worst kept secret prior to announcement for over a year prior) and closed beta tested, open beta tested, and started at launch

And I took 2 breaks in that time

1 from the absolutely insane forum over moderation prior to launch (seriously it was the worst I have ever seen (over active moderation) and Im a old player from way back in BBC mud on my 3400 baud modem. I have never seen any product or game over moderate as badly as what was going on here prior to release and for first year after release.

Other break was 15 months for major surgery.

Came back in summer and think im closing in on last month or two (baring a huge ssurprise content update) in leaving for good.

When you burn out on any game (MMOs expecially) you have to step away and recoup.

Strange thing is as disappointed in game as I am, its not major reason ill cancel
I was in my mid 20s when this genre was created in 91 and what drew me in was community more then game play so interaction on forums has always been a huge part of my enjoyment

I come to these forums and see Bull@!#%#!@ and Bull@%#@!#% after bull!$!@$!@ (and its applauded, some of the stupidest posters ive ever seen are now called good posters here) and I just shake my head and get frustrated with how this whole thing is ending up.

Pretty simple for anyone with a mind to look back over the history of MMORPGs, see what worked, what didnt, when it peaked, when it dipped but for some reason II truly can not fathom on this one gaming forum evidence, knowledge, understanding is tossed out with the bath water in favor of spin, opinion, and outright lies.

I think its that crowd that's driving players away (who look for community setting in MMOs) more then anything any game can do. Just want to scream "We Dont have to agree but Jesus H and Murphy at least have a clue what your speaking about if your going to challenge my posts on the MMO genre". Drives me nuts.

Its like me walking into a Garage and lecturing the mechanics on how to fix a car (I have no mechanical ability at all) because I saw some post on a random internet forum say it once.

Anyways, Games not perfect (and I've addressed many fixes in many posts on that subject, no MMORPG ever was perfect but lately they all seem to be making the same mistakes over and over and over) but I do think one of the biggest negatives now a days in MMORPGs (which causes burn out) is the lack of community and social experience in them now. Just not there anymore. Even guilds have mostly became toss away and replaceable concepts. Where once you would hear players openly bragging about their guild and how careful they were to create the right mix, now its
"LFplayers to join my guild Arsemunchers (made up name, or least I hope it is), we have xp bonus and teamspeak and dont care how you behave long as we have numbers"

My take on it anyways.
MMORPGs use to be about community and social interaction and over last 10 years its moved completely away from that and all but lost that special appeal that was what separated it from a Single Player RPG.

I couldnt play Mass Effect (loved that game) or any single player RPG for the same amount of hours I put into any MMORPG
I would burn out on game
And I think thats whats happening here with people
The more it becomes a easy single player RPG, the quicker they burn out as they would on any single player title.

Break didn't work for me. My swtor history: subscribed 8 months, left swtor for 13 months, came back and subscribed 7 months, only played about 22 days out of those seven months. I haven't played since October 20 something when I tried 12xp for 3 hours and stopped playing video games again. (I've let the launcher download updates though) I have 2 days left of subscriber playtime, and I'm on the forums instead of seeing what Shadows of Revan added.

Too me, a subscription is like television; a full price videogame is like a dvd box set of a show.
binge on the episodes when I have time for it, vs. scheduling my life around a television show's airtime. This describes raiding perfectly but I'm trying to go beyond the obvious comparison. Maybe I should have said, MMO is like having 240 channels cable channels, there's always programming on tv but you end up watching only what you find at that particular time, near your preferred channel or what you're in the mood for.

I'd rather have 8+ full games installed on my hard drive and vary between what I play. Singleplayer vs multiplayer, RTS vs. FPS, RPG vs well rpg is everywhere can't seem to get away from it.

I also have a problem with subscriber's guilt. When I have a subscription running, should I decide to play another game, it's like I'm cheating on my MMO. I might be playing an FPS shooter online, and in the middle of scoring headshots, think to myself "yep and you're subscribed to swtor," I could be reading previews for upcoming games, "yep you're looking for new games, yet you're still subscribed to swtor," I'm driving to pizza hut to take up an offer I saw in an ad, and in the middle of that road, "yep, you're driving and still thinking about swtor, just end the sub man." It's a worse feeling than having a steam library full of hundreds of games I'll never play. At least in my steam library the game won't stop when the subscription ends. It will always be there for me, MMO won't.

Star Wars Galaxies died, (I bought some compilation pack about a year before it shutdown, never played past like 5 levels) Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning went kaput, many other mmos have shut down. Some mmo's have outright failed to launch, notably Company of Heroes Online, (F2P MMORTS) and End of Nations (originally scheduled to be a MMORTS, changed to MOBA in alpha) Yeah those were RTS MMOs, and RTS is a failing genre right now.

The point is, I'm sick of WoW-clone MMOs, every MMO designer under the rug thinks an MMO's endgame has to be restricted to RAIDing, arena pvp and gear grind. Or sticks to it, because it's the only formula that's worked.
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Oh yeah, Massively.joystiq.com gave the Best MMO of 2014 award to... NOTHING.
No MMO released in 2014 was worthy of the publication's GOTY.
This publication set a new precedent for GOTY awards, by not giving it out.
*laughs* 2014 truly was a year of disappointment. Wildstar, ElderScrollsOnline, ArchAge, Firefall, Destiny, etc.
I applaud Massively for standing up and asking for better games.

btw, SWTOR got mentioned 4 times in 3 categories, Massively's Best of 2014 Awards: Most Improved MMO, Best MMO Trend of the Year (player housing), and Best Update or Expansion of the Year. (see below)


Massively's Best of 2014 Awards: Most Improved MMO
Massively's Best of 2014 Awards: Best MMO Trend of the Year
Massively's Best of 2014 Awards: Best Update or Expansion of the Year

1. swtor is playable as preffered. if you feel guilty about not playing while subscribed? I'd suggest going preffered.
2. if you come back and not having fun, its not your burnout that's the proble, its the fact that this MMO is not for you. there's nothing wrong with that and you really don't have to keep trying to like it, I promise.
3. that said.. every time SWTOR is called WoW clone, or anything really is called WoW clone, I want to reach though the screen and slap some sense into them. WoW is the biggest clone of all. Blizzard take what other companies create, take risks on and then integrate it into WoW and their other games. and then people with apparently goldfish memory start claiming that everyone is copying WoW, even if those other games have done something first. I swear its like those youtube comments on original 80ties music videos accusing them of copying Justin Bieber...

aaanyways.

point is. if you take a break and something still doesn't work? stop forcing it and move on to something that does.

I have this happen from time to time, usually i decide to go play something else (a personal favorite thing to do is check out what companion mods peoole have made for Baldurs Gate 2 and do a playthrough with a whole new batch of companions and see what is different (although i always end up bringing Minsc, just isnt the same with him not telling for Boo to go for their eyes...)

Same with Dragon Age.

Have Netflix/Amazon Instant Video? Find a show that looks interesting and watch a few seasons.

If you like to read, start a series from start to finish, the David Eddings Belgariad/Mallorean series is a good one. Also the Xanth Series by Piers Anthony.

Be careful. Be VERY careful. Because this could be the siogn that you are already addicted to it.

Now, the best thing you could do is leave that PC completely alone, or at least unplug all of the network cables, and do things offline.

Or, even better, do things without any PC at all. Go more out for a walk in the sun (if there is any in your area, I don' know where you live). Go cooking yourself a meal. Go visit your friends again. Invite them for an afternoon with board games.

ANYTHING different than your MMOs might help to create some space between you and what keeps you playing what you already don't seem to like anymore.

You might not be burnt out on MMOs in general, but theme-park MMOs.

Yeah, I can sympathise, this is coming for me, too.

Solution:

Give sandboxes like EVE-Online(<----there's a reason I can never entirely go away from that one even after almost seven years), Elite: Dangerous, SW: Gemu, and when it hits live, The Repopulation a try.

Most of the time, you only have to Kill Ten Rats(TM) completely when/because you choose to.

Vertical-progression based, linear games are just so...shallow, no matter how many different types/levels of rats there are to kill or how pretty the zones are.

YOu may want to limit your days in playing so you are not playing everything. I know there are things like dailies, etc that you could do everyday but remember this is a game and you should treat it like it.

I don't play everyday and neither does my boyfriend.

I have college and other things and some days I just read or listen to music or go for a walk. Maybe finding something else to do where you are not constantly logging on would be a good idea.

Have a good day.

Netflix and TV sports work for me, YMMV.

You're getting burned out because all these MMO's are the same these days. They are of course all different MMO's but when you play them they don't feel much different from the next. Since everything is about grinding for gear in some form or other it gets old real fast. I don't have this problem because I can't afford to put much time to games anymore; my issue is I don't know what I should play next lol. There are things I want to do in SWTOR (level 60s, republic story, etc), Star Trek Online (get to new max level, get some good gear, etc), and the many console games I've yet to beat.

Best thing I found to remedy MMO burnouts is an xbox or playstation. There you can play the game, beat it to a satisfactory degree, and move on to the next game without obligation to go back to it.

If in games where I can't skip the tutorial I do not stick around for more than a few months. In this game grinding Korriban for the nth time gets really old. Being able to just start on fleet at level 10 or whatever would be amazing, if you have a 55 or 60. Not sure you want everyone doing that though.

I will say that SWTOR has added enough new timesinks (Strongholds, GSF, Flashpoints) that I'll be staying here a while now instead of just a month or two.

Oh yeah I totally endorse EVE. It's a huge learning curve at first but there is so much you can do. When I logged out a while back I had a beginner stealth ship built and was going around ambushing people haha so fun.