Burnout is a real issue in anything in life, but it seems to strike many of us as we play through our favorite games. MMORPGs can make this feel even more real, especially as we spend hours upon hours in our favorite virtual worlds day in and day out.
Personally, I find it hard to play just a single game at a time, something that confuses some of my closest gaming friends. The exception here are MMORPGs. I can get sucked into MMOs like no other genre, even the most compelling open-world RPGs on the market.
However, as a result, I find I get myself burnt out faster on MMOs than anything else I play. I can hang in titles like EVE Online and The Elder Scrolls Online for weeks, trolling lowsec or romping through Vvardenfell. However, when the burnout hits, I'll often turn to other games for help.
Oftentimes I'll go to other MMORPGs I might be playing, like World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XIV. But even then I find myself quickly getting burnt out on the games. Final Fantasy XIV got me so burnt out at one point that I didn't log in for over a year - a hard thing to do when the MMORPG is among the best ever made.
For my part, burnout is hard to manage due to my gig. And I'm not complaining about my work - I am incredibly lucky to have the gig that I do, especially considering the alternative is roofing in the Las Vegas summer. But oftentimes because of the nature of my job, escaping burnout is not possible.
When these moments happen, I find myself going to my comfort games. The Lord of the Rings Online is my ultimate comfort game. When I'm burnt out on EVE or ESO, I escape to Helm's Deep, or Minas Tirith. I'll run around Arkenstone with friends, playing this in my spare time so when I hop into other MMOs for work or what have you, I'm not feeling the mental burnout like I once did.
The times when I'm burnt out of LotRO are some of the toughest. This is where indie titles come into play for me. Currently, as I'm running through this Elder Scrolls Online review, I'm taking breaks and finding comfort not in LotRO, but in the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge title that just launched. The arcade brawler reminds me of my times at the Base Exchange as a kid, playing Turtles In Time or Gauntlet Legends with my brothers. It's different and such a change of pace that it reinvigorates me.
So how do you deal with burnout, either with your favorite game, or the genre as a whole? Do you have that comfort game that your turn to, or do you abandon gaming altogether, opting for another hobby till you feel the draw of your favorite world again?
