MMORPG Burnout and… Anti-Burnout?

June 13, 2008 – 1:41 pm

Tobold has a post I think many people will be able to relate to - about MMORPG burnout. Basically, he’s been on a work trip all week and hasn’t had any sort of craving to log into WoW or AoC. He’s now questioning whether or not he has the same appetite for the genre as he did back in 2004.

We get MMORPG burnout when we’ve spent too much time playing a game without sufficient rest periods. There’s weight to the old saying “Too much of a good thing…” Doing something to excess is usually a good way to burn yourself out, even if it’s a fun task.

However, this article is not about burnout… it’s about anti-burnout in MMORPGs!

Anti-burnout occurs when you get sick of an MMORPG because you can’t play it enough. It happens when you look at the paltry amount of time you can log into a game like WoW or WAR and then say to yourself, “Damn, I’m getting nowhere! What’s the point of even playing?”

I think many in the casual MMO group are with me on this one. We’ve spent longer than most grinding our character to the top level of the game just to find out we can’t compete. To hold our own, we need to grind even more to get the necessary equipment or renown rank. A game like WoW is an anti-burnout playground because the outlook at 70 is so bleak for casuals. We’re always several steps behind.

When I hit 70 in WoW I had two options: 1) grind factions and dungeons to key myself for a never-ending career on the raid treadmill or 2) spend weeks or months getting my ass handed to me in PvP because I didn’t have good enough gear - JUST TO GET GOOD ENOUGH GEAR. It all seemed bass ackwards to me.

Clearly, if I was a true casual player with casual ambitions, this wouldn’t bother me. Unfortunately, I have a personality flaw. A kink in my mental armour.

I am what people call a hardcore casual. I have hardcore ambitions (to be da bestest) but I can’t put in enough time to do it. To be honest, MMORPGs weren’t made for me. Most are made for hardcores and casuals exclusively. Mixed-breeds need not apply! Out you mangy mutt! *kick*

I hope WAR will be my salvation - I really do. WAR has the potential to make the journey as pleasurable as the reward. Scenarios and tiered, open-world RvR will keep my inner psycho happy as I bash and smash Dwarf and Elven skulls alike (Human too, but a greenskin has his preferences). Public quests and a good mix of traditional grinding and questing will fill up the time I spend in the scenario queue. The living guild system will give me a better opportunity for social immersion - and yes, I have decided to join and participate in a guild this time around. Finally, the city siege seems quite casual-friendly in that you don’t even need to participate in the capture. If your realm can capture it, you can join in the pillaging and endgame content afterwards!

I really hope the 10-15 hours per week I can spend playing WAR this fall will be more pleasurable than other MMOs from my past. Do you think WAR will cure your Anti-Burnout Blahs?

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Post tags: MMORPGs, opinions, Warhammer Online

13 Responses to “MMORPG Burnout and… Anti-Burnout?”
Love the new term. I hope it catches on. I experienced the same thing in wow.

By Thallian on Jun 13, 2008
How did my article get on your site? Didn’t I write this? Oh, wait…no I didn’t write it, but these were my EXACT thoughts about the subject not long ago when I officially declared myself a WAR fanboy. We must have been separated at birth. LOL, great article. Couldn’t have said it better myself.

By br3ntbr0 on Jun 13, 2008
I had the exact same experience as you in WoW. We even went through the same thought process. Being farmed for months in PvP until I could get good enough gear to compete held no appeal for me. I didn’t have the spare-time in big hunks that I needed to raid, and farming one raid to get geared up well enough to start farming the next one isn’t something that really appeals to me anyway. So that left what…rep grinds? Daily quests? Farming up gold for a faster flying mount? No thanks. . . .

So far LoTRO and DAoC are the only MMOs in which I’ve gotten to the level cap and still had things to do that I thought were fun. Since Mythic made %50 of those games I have high hopes for WAR.

By Yeebo on Jun 13, 2008
Hehe, just stop playing WoW until the next expansion and you’ll catch up to everyone in a day.

I think Warhammer deviates on this because leveling really isn’t so much the focus of the game. I mean they said themselves that you’ll get to 40th rather quickly. Therefore, leveling only serves to ensure you understand the game dynamics, so that you can be a viable participant in the more complex RVR battles at the highest tier.

Even more so, Warhammer allows you to participate within RVR pretty much immediately at lower tiers. Thus there is none of this leveling before you actually participate in what you want to do. Even more so, as you said, you can even participate outside of the primary objectives (i.e. others capture city and you can help sack it).

By Malavar on Jun 13, 2008
I think variety is a good anti-burnout. WoW is indicative of a large genre of MMO’s where there is a lot of grind. WAR seems like a nice variety, as the open world RvR really has nothing to do with grind. Switching between the two types should be a good anti-grind.

By Werit on Jun 13, 2008
Nice article, man. I’m so not looking back at WoW at this point.

By Syp on Jun 13, 2008
I’ve definately had this problem. I quit WoW because of it; was in #1 guild on server and just didn’t have the time to raid 5 days a week. In AoC, similar thing, got in a huge guild, finally got tired of the grind and didn’t have time to anyway.

Sooo, I’m taking a drastic turn with WAR. My goal is to attempt to hit the level cap…UNGUILDED! mwahahaha, lol. Yep, in WoW i usually jumped from guild to guild until cap, then would get in a major guild and raid, way too much. In AoC I prelaunch guilded and played too much. This time, I’m not going to guild at all. In fact I will turn down any guild invites. This way I have no ties, no pressure to level, no team waiting on me to log in and lv with them, will just totally level on my own, join random pugs (yuck), try different characters, and attempt to take 6 months to reach cap. lol ok that won’t happen, but I will try to spread myself around with chars to keep from getting the burnout and frustration with being #1 on a server when I don’t have to time to play.

This is my goal, I’ll let you know if I reach it lol.

By Popcorn on Jun 13, 2008
Tbh, i got sick of WoW coz i was playing way too much of it, and lost a big part of RL that i regret.

By Greek on Jun 14, 2008
Exactly. MMO’s are fun when you have a lot of time to play it. I find when I go on vacation or just don’t play for awhile I feel no desire to play. Its only when I play a lot that I want to play more, get better gear, and experience new instances.

I guess it is really like a drug.

By Travis on Jun 14, 2008
Anti-burnout.. so right, I have it now, not enough time to play wow.. and I’m thinking whats the point in even playing.

By Adam on Jun 14, 2008
I totaly agree if an mmo isnt a 2nd life its not worth dooing.
i was a hardcore player without a guild at 60 for a while and it bites.. and this was when if you didnt pvp 100 hours a week you couldnt get decent gear.

i think WAR will be much more casual friendly as even casual players will get there shot to kill kings in city ceiges as well as public quests and so forth
IMO its the Ultimate Casual + hardcore balence (note i cant actualy play the game till open beta so my opinyons are only so valid).

By logicalmayhem on Jun 16, 2008
I like to call it the content wall. It’s when you really can’t do something without investing far too much time into just getting ready for that something.

Or doing something distasteful, like joining a guild filled with some of the jerkoffs your current guild kicked out, because their guild is progressing and yours isn’t…

Which is the situation I find myself in right now. Competing in PvP is out of the question, I hate the arena system and I’m not a patient enough person to sit there and grind 4 maps for PvP Fun Bux for Arena2 sets, all the while being free food for anyone wearing a full arena set because I’m wearing PvE gear. My current guild has stalled out. My previous guild finally picked back up and is progressing but I can’t really rejoin because once summer is over I would no longer be able to make raids. So I am left with little to do besides twink.

But really, why twink when you have TF2 on your computer?

By Neri on Jul 1, 2008
TF2 has been one of the few games that have tided me over my 1.25 year break from MMOs.

By Snafzg on Jul 1, 2008