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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: The curious phenomenon of "reverse burnout"
by Weston Arrowsmith 
May 10th 2011 at 8:00AM
We all hear the stories about people who played World of Warcraft too much and as a result had to stop playing to make the game fun again. I've fallen victim to that myself back in the days of Trial of the Crusader. But lately, I've encountered something that at first makes little sense. The best thing I can call it is "reverse burnout," and it's not from playing too much -- it's from not playing at all.
I admit to being a raider at heart. I love making my gear a shiny shade of purple so that I can join nine or 24 other people as we down the big, bad monsters of WoW together. It was my reason for getting to level 70, and it kept me hooked all throughout Wrath of the Lich King. But since the launch of Cataclysm, my raiding days have just ... stopped. Each guild I've joined on the promise of being able to raid either hasn't raided at all, or they've gone raiding without me. And without raiding, it feels like my motivation to play is gone.
I've gotten all the gear I could get from heroic dungeons and reputation vendors (except bracers, which will never, ever drop), daily quests feel like a chore, and the friends that I have online are off in their own raiding guild that I'm on a waiting list to try out for (they're full on hunters). Pickup raids have proven to be too unreliable in terms of both time and talent as well. It's like one part of such a huge game was the glue that held everything else together for me.
So what do you do when one of your favorite parts of the game becomes off-limits? How do you deal with being bored with WoW -- when you're not even really playing at all?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 7)
Darthregis May 10th 2011 12:12PM
@Jestin
Yup, definitely happens in stages. I don't know about steps - my variances get a little erratic. :)
Point is, if the game starts feeling like anything other than a game (eg: a grind, a job, a kick to the junk, etc.) then change something. Play less if you must. Or play differently. Whatever tickles your fancy.
DarkWalker May 10th 2011 10:57AM
Up to a point, this is why I left.
My game time during weekdays is spread out in multiple 30-minutes chunks. Which was just fine for WotLK - I could hop in the queue and finish a Heroic in that time, even as a DPS (longest queue times).
For Cataclysm, 30 minutes gaming windows just don't pass muster. Even as a tank (insta-queues), there's just no way to be sure of finishing a random Heroic with a full PUG group in 30 minutes or less - and if I'm not fairly sure I will be able to take the group to the end of the run, I won't queue.
If I'm to keep playing the game, I need to have something fairly challenging to do that can be done in chunks of 30 minutes or less. One of the reasons I so love LotRO is Skirmishes - instanced content designed to be challenging from level 20 to max level, from solo to raids, with multiple difficulty settings, and that can be reliably done in 20-30 minutes.
DarkWalker May 10th 2011 12:48PM
BTW, just to complement it, for a game to be worthy a player's time, what he can get out of the game with his current skill and time availability needs to be worthy the time and money investment.
This is why, when evaluating if a MMO is worthy my time and money, I only consider the activities I am sure I can do with the time I can commit to the game. Given that I'm quite slow to find and enter a guild - and, even when on a guild, I have crazy play times that mostly prevent me from grouping with guild mates with any reliability - I tend to consider anything that can't be pugged as if it didn't exist in the first place.
If someone can't get to do enough fun activities to justify playing the game, there might be something wrong in how he approaches the game (which might be possible to correct, if the player is willing to diagnose the problem and change accordingly), something wrong with the game (it happens, games are not perfect, and besides I count community problems as game problems since the player has limited ways to tackle both), or the game is just not for him (in which case he should leave, simple as that).
So, if anyone finds himself in this position, and either don't find anything he can change in order to get more fun out of the game, or simply is not willing to diagnose his problem with the game or make the changes that would bring more fun out of the game, I think it's better just to move on. There are plenty more games out there, and some might be better aligned with one's ideas of what makes games fun.
Even for players that don't have any problem with the game they are currently playing, I do suggest to try other games from time to time. He might be in for a pleasant surprise.
Lweydd May 10th 2011 9:41AM
When I started playing my rogue, I had a lot of fun. I used to quest together with my boyfriend, and he being a tank, we could enter random dungeons with no waiting time. The good old times.
Then, while I was fishing/cooking/stumbling around in my raptor for achievements, he leveled up. A lot. Suddenly, I was 70 and he was hitting 80. In my mid 72s he got to 85. While I was going batshit crazy pokemon style (GOTTA CATCH ALL THE FISH IN AZEROTH BITCH!), he was getting xp showers somewhere in cata zone.
Now, I still have things to do (more achievements, more fishing, MORE FISHING), but it's just boring, knowing I can't pst him for dungeon. And even now that I got to 85, he's raiding with our guildies, while I have to sit back due to shitty gear.
Ok, I'll stop whining now, gotta lvl up a healer alt.
Chaver May 10th 2011 9:42AM
In a 10-man raiding guild with no room for the alternates in the lineup. PUG raiding is pretty half-hearted on my server. Your story sounds very familiar. The friendly, supportive guilds that many of the regular columnists on this site seem to experience have no parallel on H-Thunderlord. Even in vanilla it was easier to pick up an occasional spot.
Trisnic May 10th 2011 9:42AM
There are A LOT of guilds looking for people especially now with actual burnout taking place. My guild is 3/13H but we are willing to give new people a shot. Sometimes it works out and they become part of our core, others they find that they don't really want to raid and they end up disappearing.
There are stable guilds that raid 1 or 2 nights a week, even for their alt runs or whatever. If you are a pure DPS class look for a 25 man guild, they often have a place for DPS players. We've been looking for a rogue for months.
More specifically, if you are willing to server transfer and are willing to do the work to look for a good guild, you can find a guild that will fit you and you can experience raiding.
Shinae May 10th 2011 9:57AM
Trisnic, I was about to say the same thing. It really is a "buyers market" out there, as Vidyala says in here blog: http://manalicious.wordpress.com/2011/05/06/cataclysm-recruitment/
There's an abundance of raiding guilds who are LFM, even pure dps classes, because quite a few players are taking breaks until 4.2.
anjeney May 10th 2011 9:44AM
From running daily heroics to raiding in Lich... to leveling alts and farming. I'm on the tail end of the cycle... I'm intimidated by all the reviews of those who have gone before, unsure of skills, tried pugs for a week and just reveled in the abuse that was pitched out.
LOL I'm leveling a druid by farming alone.. almost to 83 so it does work and the farmer needs no rep etc.
New content.. big whoop. Can't get into it and yeah pugs and dps que times, well it makes it not a viable option. And for heavens sake don't mention Archeology. PLEASE don't mention it. My 85 alch can't get a digsite in Uldum for her soul... and my alts ignore arch.
Small guild.. which suits those of us in it.. a few friends moving to the server because their guild just died off from boredom or burnout. Our high point this week was making level 3.. Please don't laugh, one of our regulars is in college and focusing on that (and I heartily approve since he's my son lol) Real life and grandkids and well, summer is almost here. Same goes for our other regular.. not the grandkids but real life for sure.
Gave a thought to Rift, and dismissed it.
From heroics and raiding down to casual, boredom seeping in.. but this too will pass as the seasons change and life cycles on.
Slugslinger May 10th 2011 9:57AM
I have been in this boat for a while now myself. I haven't been able to find a raid guild that doesn't have a required raid time on Monday or Sunday (the only 2 days I can't raid) Its been really frustrating lately.
Eirik May 10th 2011 2:21PM
I feel for you, man. My raid availability is three days a week, and has been for years, and that doesn't include weekends.
Shinae May 10th 2011 9:51AM
"...and the friends that I have online are off in their own raiding guild that I'm on a waiting list to try out for (they're full on hunters)."
Before I got to the end of the sentence, I thought, sounds like a hunter. I don't know why I thought that because it's usually melee dps of which there's an overabundance.
HappyTreeDance May 10th 2011 1:06PM
I'm guessing it's because your guild has lots and lots and lots of hunters. ;)
torn May 10th 2011 9:56AM
I also fall into this category! I feel torn at the moment with wow. Basically I got burn out from raiding in Lk, so I moved on to a more 'social guild' from a raiding guild in hopes for some R & R when cata came out, but it turns out after a few months I am desperate to raid again! I have opportunities to go raid with my old guild but eventually they will want me to rejoin the guild so its a full guild raid, and the other 3 or 4 in my 'social guild' that do want to raid are feeling left out when I go pug it. I do not want to have a million alts because I personally do not like questing, so that isnt going to work, and doing the same dungeons over and over is really getting more annoying than fun because I do not get anything out of them anymore except a repair bill, more mats spent and a headache which makes the game not much fun anymore. I really am enjoying cata and do not want to quit wow all together, I just want to progress without hurting the feelings of others. Besides, if I do leave my current guild for a raiding guild again, there goes all the rep I worked hard for and have to start all over again. So, torn is the best expression I have for it right now and would love a win win situation here!
Saz May 10th 2011 10:02AM
I did the over the top raiding grind in Wrath. I was running ICC 2-4 times a week on 10 man and 1-3 times a week on 25, plus we had some "fun" raids such as old BC raids and Ulduar drake runs going on as well. I was so far beyond burnt out I didn't even know it. Things irl came a-knockin' and I found myself without a steady internet connection for nearly 8 months, then it was another 1-2 months before I could get back into WoW. The whole time I basically tried to hear any whispers of Cataclysm (my friends were great at giving me the spoilers) and once I was back online I found myself getting wrapped up in both the blogging world and the world of forums, two things I had never touched when I was busy with running a guild and doing 10 million raids a week (the blogosphere is awesome, I recommend getting into it if you like reading excellent writing about WoW).
I've been back into WoW now for little over a month and I'm so very much in love with Cataclysm. I detest the dungeons, but I love this expansion. I've always hated questing, but now I find myself working on Loremaster because the revamped/new quests are engaging and full of pleasant surprises. I can't even stomach the thought of raiding currently, so my drive for PvE oriented end game stuff is a bit dead, but I'm finding myself falling in love with PvP all over again.
My advice is to find something in the game that interests you outside of raiding and get into it. Whether it's farming to reach some gold cap, exploring the world of Azeroth for the numerous amounts of amazing Easter eggs, doing up quests, knocking out achievements, or collecting the greatest pimp set ever to be found in the game of WoW, just find something that catches your fancy and dig in. If all else fails, temporarily suspend your account until you feel that Azeroth itch (my, that sounds bad...) start up again.
ToyChristopher May 10th 2011 10:04AM
I grew bored with raiding and then realized that the game isn't really fun unless you are spending copious amounts of time playing it.
Then I played some other games and realized that they were actually fun! It wasn't the delayed gratification of wow, of planning and wrangling together a raid or doing the same thing for 20 days to have enough tokens to buy something. It was just the fun of playing.
Strangely I still log in and do my jewel crafting quest. I guess it's just hard to let go.
Andar May 10th 2011 10:12AM
This is actually what I am going through myself, but could never find the proper term for it. I have personal and professional commitments that are keeping me from playing the game I want to (I love to raid). I can barely find the time to run Heroics on my paladin let alone commit an entire evening to raiding. I still love to play WoW, however, and I have found another outlet to get my gaming fix: alts. Currently, I am trying out three classes I never thought I would play: a mage, a druid, and a hunter. So far, I am enjoying it. My only fear is that once I hit max level on all of them, what do I do next? As such, I am trying to slow down the rate that I play by turning to other outlets such as reading or playing my PS3 (pre-PSN outage). I am hoping that once summer hits, I can start raiding in full swing again.
SpaceGoatPriest May 10th 2011 10:12AM
I raided all in Wrath except for when Ulduar was current (which really saddens me now). I am not a big pvp'er in WoW (I love StarCraft though). I have done just about everything you can do alone or in a 5 man group. I am sitting on just about 9500 achievement points. I have recently started a new job, which required me to be in a hotel for about a month.
I think this time of no WoW cold turkey made me really realize that there is not much for me to do right now. I have played for almost 4 years straight, but I think I am going to cancel my sub for at least a while. My guild raids way too late for me, and my WoW buddy has pretty much stopped playing (we would do silly things like old dungeons and such).
It's not that I hate WoW or 'OMG Game X is soo much better', it's just I am bored. I log in, realize well, there are no quests for me to do, I have basically every archy item, I have almost every non-Raid non-PVP achievement, I don't want to PVP, there are never any PUG raids, no one is on in the guild, and all my friends are offline. I then *shrug*, and log out.
gunstrak May 10th 2011 10:24AM
"So what do you do when one of your favorite parts of the game becomes off-limits?"
Might I suggest starting your own raid? 10man Raids are increasingly simple to manage and coordinate. I regularly see multiple individuals with this same complaint... the answer is quite simple really, and much more productive than waiting around for an opening in an existing raid.
There really is no reason for anyone to sit around complaining that they do not have a raid and miss out on content. Take some initiative.
Parknet May 10th 2011 3:49PM
yes. i did this. i went as far to level a tank to 85. I can spend over 2 hours in trade channel and not pick up another tank. Unless i can get a raid that requires one tank.. pug raids, from my point of view are not feasible.
gunstrak May 10th 2011 10:59AM
One does not necessarily have to create PuG raids. In fact I personally hate that idea, and think that it's just a nightmare. What I am suggesting isn’t necessarily forming a PuG raid.
Actually start your own full fledged raid. Ask around on your server forums, speak with friendly guilds... break out of the guild box or LFD nightmare and I guarantee you'll find 9 other individuals complaining about not having a regular raid on your server within a week tops.
The real question is... why are players just standing around complaining instead of actually taking ownership of their own game play. Today’s Breakfast Topic just fuels the laziness I’m observing from others. There are options available for players, you just might not be able to sit back and get carried through the content. If you’re not raiding right now it is your own choice.