Game 'burn out'

[quickstix]

After a month and a half of non-stop AI War and right as I was starting an AAR, I've burned out. One morning I woke up and just couldn't play. I have to salute those of you who have been at it non-stop since the beginnings of AI War, you guys are truly dedicated. I love AI War to pieces, but the brain says 'no more!' (Plus I need to get through my list of games to finish in the holidays )

Anyways, I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts to share on 'burn out'. Like, how long they've played games for, getting over it, the moment you realise you can't play anymore, stuff like that.

As for me, I'm doing the method of 'absence makes the heart grow fonder'. I'm currently nearing the end of an excellent playthrough (my build is perfect!) of System Shock 2, I'm having another crack at Dwarf Fortress and getting ready for some Tatsunoko vs. Capcom on the Wii when I get it next week. There might be some DS in there too, it's all good.

[eRe4s3r]

The best thing against a burn-out is to play mass effect 2 ;P Easily the best game this year.. or whatever else you enjoy Yes certainly i am burnt out too... After having played Mass Effect 2 i remembered how much i enjoy a good gripping story.. so for a while (fairly long while) i probably won't play anything without one. Gameplay is all nice and stuff, but in the end gameplay needs to have a purpose, and only a good story gives purpose.

So yeah, Game burn-out syndrome for the win ;p

[x4000]

This happens to me with every game, to be honest.  I have huge stacks of games that I have not completed, but that I come back to.  Sometimes I only play a few days before I burn out, other times it is weeks or months.  In the case of those that I genuinely enjoy, I just set them aside and play other stuff until I fancy coming back to them.  If the game is short and I've done all that I can do, then most likely I won't come back for a long time until years or decades later I am looking for it for nostalgia purposes.  I still go back to Quake II every so often, even.  Or Silent Hill 2, or Chrono Trigger, etc.  But others that are less obvious long-term classics, too.  I keep trying to go back to PixelJunk Monsters, because I love that game, but I can't get back into that one after having done everything with it already.  So I guess it varies by game.

[vonduus]

There is something special about this game, that I haven't experienced in any other game: It is for some reaosn very hard on your brain. I mean, normally I can play any game for 12-18 hours without pause if I want to (yes, I know I probably should not) but after 6-8 hours of AI War, my brain kind of shuts down and forces me to do something else.

Like yesterday, I managed to get everything ready for the final assault on motherplanet one, but when it was time to go, I decided that I was too tired, and postponed the attack to tomorrow (which is today).

I guess it is a combination of the complexity of the game and my status as a relative newbie - there is so much to remember, and there is so much that can go wrong if I make the slightest mistake.

But I do not see this as a bad thing, on the contrary, it makes me believe that this game will last for a very long time. If I manage to avoid burn-out, that is.

[deMangler]

In my case, the problem is that I am getting old.....  
I used to do frequent 12-18 or more hours long gaming sessions. I can't do it now, I wish I could, but it seems I am tired after a few hours no matter what game I play.
I used to play Elite for literally days on end on the BBC/Commodore64/Amiga/Atari.. but you can do that when you are young.
Mind you, even in my 20's I was doing marathon Daggerfall sessions that lasted days, not to mention X-Wing, Frontier, Colonisation..... looking back I wonder how I managed it. Lots of coffee...
I am thinking of taking up jogging. I heard it improves your energy and alertness and my game of AI War would definitely improve.....
I bet X4000 didn't expect AI War to become an encouragement to a healthy lifestyle......

[x4000]

I am thinking of taking up jogging. I heard it improves your energy and alertness and my game of AI War would definitely improve.....
I bet X4000 didn't expect AI War to become an encouragement to a healthy lifestyle......

 

[I-KP]

I remember playing LAN games for three days solid (no sleep); six guys (+ machines) all crowded into two rooms joined by spaghettified coaxial cabling.  That was over ten years ago now.  These days I'm still prone to the occasional 10 hour stretch but my definition of a ‘marathon session’ has narrowed roughly inversely proportionate to my advancing years.  And now the girlfriend wants to create a new life.  These could be the best gaming days of my life… 
 

[I-KP]

...and on the subject of burnout: yeah, don’t we all.  It is dependant on the game, of course, and these days I’m not interested in any titles that don’t come with at least impressive replayability.  That being said, there is one game that I have been playing solidly for nearly two years now – and by solidly I mean anything from 5-20 hours per week every week – and that titanic accolade goes to the Left4Dead franchise.  It has become a regular meeting point for a group of guys I don’t often see face-to-face, and a damn fine romp to boot.  That is the sign of near perfect multi-player game design philosophy.  I expect that most people have their own ‘Left4Dead’. 

Paradoxically, Zombies burn-out rather swiftly as well.   

[Echo35]

I remember playing LAN games for three days solid (no sleep); six guys (+ machines) all crowded into two rooms joined by spaghettified coaxial cabling.

Six? We pack in 250

[deMangler]

I remember playing LAN games for three days solid (no sleep); six guys (+ machines) all crowded into two rooms joined by spaghettified coaxial cabling.  That was over ten years ago now...

Gaaaaaa! <slaps forehead> 
It's all coming back to me now... Doom....ipxsetup....days without sleep....coax everywhere....wad compilers...days on end without sleep....coffee....  I made a nest out of T pieces and terminators....or did I dream it.... days without sleep......
So that is what happened to the early '90's
Hmmmmmm... 
dM

[Spikey00]

I definitely experience this phenomena for all games--however, they all have a certain dead time; as long as I still find something new to enjoy or be competitive in, then the game lives on.

ie.  CS:Source:  284.4 hrs lifetime [for ~two years] as logged by Steam (feels I should have more).  Most of it pub/private play, perhaps 10% to competitive.  I lost my competitive edge (mouse/etc.) so I ceased playing it.  Of course, I have my "play for leisure" mode, but generally I develop a sharp competitive edge over others whilst doing so if necessary.

Games like AI War I find are best played with other people; I have yet to find a good partner in doing so frequently--therefore I spend most of my time now playing with myself via cheats/etc.

Of course, some rare occasions where I find sudden extreme interest in a [series of] games--such as now, with TOUHOU, so I delve into it a bit further.  Past example would be for Mirror's Edge, when they had the pirandellokruger site still online; a sloppy but intriguing element while waiting for the next Mirror's Edge.

[quickstix]

OKAMI SPOILER ALERT!!!

One funny burn out I still have is with Okami on the Wii. I defeated the first major boss, Orochi and pushed on a little bit, before deciding to play some other games for a bit. A while later, I had inspiration and decided to do a big push in Okami to finish the game. I thought that after defeating the next major boss, unveiled after defeating Orochi, I would finish the game. So I pushed on as hard as I could and eventually defeated the major boss (can't remember the name, but it's a wolf with multiple flaming tails and can use the celestial brush). I was pretty proud and thought I'd finally won (considering I'd put 30+ hours into the game now). Nope, the game said I still had two more major bosses to go.

My reaction: Nope. Not doing it. (This is the nice version) Haven't touched the game since. Perhaps one day I will get that manic inspiration that will make me play nothing but Okami and finish it.

My new years resolution for this year: Sit down with each game I'm into one by one and finish them. My main problem last year was that I had money for the first time, so I would keep buying new games even though I didn't play a lot of them. So now I only buy games I absolutely want, which has helped quite a lot. Apart from new games from Arcen Games and 2 Wii games (Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and No More Heroes 2) and not counting awesome DS games which come unannounced from Japan (like Knights in the Nightmare or SRT:OG Saga), I think I'll be able to achieve my resolution.

[deMangler]

...ie.  CS:Source:  284.4 hrs lifetime [for ~two years] as logged by Steam (feels I should have more).  Most of it pub/private play, perhaps 10% to competitive.  I lost my competitive edge (mouse/etc.) so I ceased playing it.  Of course, I have my "play for leisure" mode, but generally I develop a sharp competitive edge over others whilst doing so if necessary....

I find burn out is more of an issue with me in on-line team type games.
I got very much into EVE-Online back in 2005, helped start a corp that got pretty successful, yadda yadda, the thing is I get stressed with feeling I have to do a schedule. Gameplaying is my down time.
So anyway, I burned out on EVE, left it for 4 years, got back into it again on a casual basis but not making that mistake again.
I like to play games at my own pace, that is one of the reasons I like AI War.
dM

[HellishFiend]

...ie.  CS:Source:  284.4 hrs lifetime [for ~two years] as logged by Steam (feels I should have more).  Most of it pub/private play, perhaps 10% to competitive.  I lost my competitive edge (mouse/etc.) so I ceased playing it.  Of course, I have my "play for leisure" mode, but generally I develop a sharp competitive edge over others whilst doing so if necessary....

I find burn out is more of an issue with me in on-line team type games.
I got very much into EVE-Online back in 2005, helped start a corp that got pretty successful, yadda yadda, the thing is I get stressed with feeling I have to do a schedule. Gameplaying is my down time.
So anyway, I burned out on EVE, left it for 4 years, got back into it again on a casual basis but not making that mistake again.
I like to play games at my own pace, that is one of the reasons I like AI War.
dM

Yeah, one of the great things about Eve is that it is like a self-contained second life in the form of a video game - complete with all the parallels and consequences. I think the key to enjoying yourself in Eve is to allow yourself to play it in a manner that is different from how you conduct your normal life.

[eRe4s3r]

I dropped eve the second i noticed how you have to play it to get anywhere, it isn't a game, its a job. Corporations and Mining, alone the fact that skill learning is time based means this isn't something you can play casually. And its easy to make money if you know how, but the problem is unless you are being tutored by a elite player you will pass so many ways to make money without ever learning about them, and if you aren't into the game 6+ Months you won't learn them either. Eve is the prime example of how NEVER to do a Tutorial.

I knew many people who didn't know what blueprints they find are good for, or how much they are worth to the right people. And of course, those people weren't going to say. The only way you ever learn the true worth of stuff is if you run your own corporation. And this is not how an game economy should function.