MMOries of a Gamer: Burnout

Hello everyone and welcome once more to MMOries of a Gamer.

We gamers use to play so many hours through the week, so when you think back at the end of the year, you realize you’ve been playing for months. That’s a lot of time focused in playing you favorite MMOs, or just the one you like so much. Some fortunate players can play for years, enjoying every moment of their playing sessions; but some, as the years go by and sometimes before, start to feel the infamous pang of “burnout”. That’s the day when you feel you have nothing to do with the game you play, when everything you could do in-game is painfully boring. When that happens, we use to move on and try another MMO but eventually, we end up tired of playing MMOs.

I’ve suffered burnout several times. Let me tell you what I do to fight it, after the jump.

My first burnout was some years ago, after playing the same MMO for long. It was a strongly social game, designed for groups, not for single players. I didn’t have enough friends or a stable guild to support me, so it was impossible for me to achieve what I was used to: high-end raids, awesome loot, etc. I was so bored and disappointed that quit the game to try another one.

After some time (but for different reasons) the annoying burnout came again, destroying my fun completely and moving me on to another new MMO. I did this several times, trying to escape from boredom and seeking fun, but sooner or later I had the same problem. So, what was wrong? What could I do? I loved MMOs so much, why was that happening to me?

In my case, reconsidering my playing style and trying some news things solved the problem. I was not playing MMOs fully, but simply maximizing part of what they offer, ignoring so many features and activities. The key to endless fun (the nemesis of burnout) is playing and enjoying every single feature MMOs offer.

Trade-skills:
Lots of players simply ignore this feature. “I’m not a crafting guy,” they say. Well, I was like that as well, many years ago, but now I love everything related to trade-skills, crafting, professions, occupations (or whatever it’s called in the MMO you play.) Depending on the game, crafting can be a very challenging feature, bringing your character to explore dangerous places, face monsters, gather resources in forgotten places, etc. Some games even make crafting fun, pushing you to use skills and giving you the chance to get special items when you score a critical during the process.

You can also spend time trading. Browsing the market (if the MMO you play has an auction house) can be fun as well. If it’s not, remember that buying that expensive item you’re after when you have enough money, is like a quest reward or loot. It’s a goal and achieving can be is fun and pleasing. So spend some time taking care of your sales, learning how the market goes and earning some money.

PvP:
I know many of you hate PvP, ( I love it, though it’s not my main activity) but at least you should try and join some battles. If you don’t try, you don’t really know you don’t like it. If you’ve tried on another MMO, try again in the one you play now, because PvP features vary a lot, depending on the game. Maybe you’ll be surprised at how much fun PvP can be.

If you don’t enjoy it, just go and spend some time facing off with other players and then go back to your usual playing style. You’ll probably break that burnout state of mind, at least for a while. If you persist, maybe you’d start liking it; and if you get burnt out of PvP, coming back to normal PvE will be fun again.

Facing other players in combat is very challenging. Defeating players is fun as well.

Housing:
If the MMO you play has this feature, I strongly recommend you use it. Get a house, a guild-house if you’re a guild leader, and devote yourself to making it the best house you can. Furniture, paints, flowers, candles… so many things to make your virtual home a comfortable one. Face it as a goal to achieve, it’s fun.

Once you have your house ready, invite your friends. Sit together and talk about the game, your adventures or whatever you want to and you’ll probably end up rushing out of the house, looking for adventures and having fun. Celebrate your birthdays there, invite your friends to try the last sweet pie you’ve just cooked (now that you take care of crafting) and socialize for a while.

If you play solo, then take housing as another goal to achieve. The more goals you have, the later boredom will set in.

Collecting:
Some MMOs have a collections feature. If you play one of those, spend some time seeking collectable things and complete your collections. You’ll get rewards for it, some cool items and that’s always fun. If you miss a lot of collection items, you can go and check the market, as usually those items are tradable, so you’ll be using two MMO features you didn’t use: trading and collecting.

Some collections offer housing items as a reward, giving you the chance to improve your house decoration, adding another feature to the playing formula we’re trying and making the game complex and entertaining.

Festivals:
In the past, there were no festivals at all. Now that all MMOs have at least one, it’s about time you go and fully enjoy one of them. You’ll find quests, contests and special rewards and content in every festival. Usually, a fun touch of humor is added, so you’ll probably laugh and have fun and that’s the point of playing, right?

Some festivals quests are really complicated and give very nice rewards, so go for it and get the maximum from any in-game festival.

Alt-oholic:
If you didn’t try other classes, once you feel burnout it’s time to try them. The gaming experience changes a lot depending on the class you play. If you are burnt of your current playing experience, simply start a new one with another class. Make several characters and play them all. Establish a priority for them (or not) and enjoy as much as you can from every class you play. In addition, you’ll get to know several classes well, and that will turn you into a much better player in group.

Choose different trading-skills for your characters and work them as a team, helping your trade a lot and giving you a profound knowledge about the game classes and their possibilities.

Then maybe you won’t feel like this:

Conclusion
When you are tired and bored with playing an MMO, it’s time to change. But you don’t need to change the game you play, simply change HOW you play. You won’t have to leave friends behind, or a guild you like. MMOs offer such a tremendous amount of content for you to enjoy, are you sure you have enjoyed and tried everything the game you like offers?

Just in the case you want to fight burnout, don’t leave before you’re sure you’ve taken everything from the game. If you have, try other MMOs and, if your burnout has gone further… well, like certain dwarf said in a certain MMO, “There’s a whole world out there for you to explore, a much better world.”

I hope this article helped you in some way. See you next week, avid gamers.

Thanks Delinor and Malgor, with love.

MMOries of a Gamer updates every Sunday.