Getting Burned Out on Games
From videogame2play.com
Burn out in video games is something you learn to expect because most games require a greater time investment than the average book or film. As Jason Rohrer pointed out in his talk “Game and Other Four Letter Words,” many people actually consider a game’s lasting appeal to be founded on how many hours of your life you can dump into it. Yet if someone handed you a DVD and told you that it would take 20 hours to finish, to some it could be considered a threat. People who play games professionally, as a hobby, or for work, all have to balance their love of the medium with the fact that sometimes it can be too much. An essay on how to overcome burn-out breaks the process down in several steps. First, figure out what’s making you upset. Then, get some sleep, take time to reflect on the issue, and maximize your free time by relaxing. Eat healthy foods and listen to soothing music. The article makes a point of saying that video games or surfing the net are NOT relaxing because you’re still mentally working and stressing yourself out. Which leads to an interesting problem for people who rely on games as a form of relaxation: when does the game stop being fun and start to feel like work?
From Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2
I bounced an e-mail off several people from various parts of the industry concerning this issue. Chris Dahlen is a freelance journalist who does a lot of work outside of video games. For him, burn-out only comes when he has to work with a game that he doesn’t really care for. He comments, “I’ve never spent so much time with games that I got truly, gutwrenchingly sick of ‘em. Family stuff and other hassles get in the way first. But when I’m reviewing a game I can’t stand, it definitely feels like work. I get impatient. I stop hanging around and checking out the nuances. I keep jumping online to figure out how much longer I have left, how many missions I went through, how many hours it takes to finish.” That’s a sentiment that Michael Abbott echoes, who is a full time professor at Wabash College in addition to writing for PopMatters and running a video game blog. He writes, “Burnout rarely occurs because I usually play games as a respite from other hard, time-consuming things like teaching, parenting, and making theater. When I pick up a game to play, I’m nearly always looking forward to that activity well in advance of doing it, and carving out dedicated time to play probably makes me treasure that time even more. The only exceptions are the few times I’ve had to review games I don’t enjoy.” The mark of burnout in two people who don’t work with video games fulltime is when they’re forced to work with a game they don’t like. Whereas a bad movie is over in an hour or two, a game requires a real investment. When that falls apart, everything else goes with it for the player.
From Lumines
Yet for some people it’s going to be games, games, and again games so that playing things that are appealing is not always an option. Kieron Gillen is a game journalist and comic book author who has worked with numerous publications for years. The tedium of games comes from an entirely different source for him. He explains, “I went well out of my way to avoid getting stuck as a specialist in any bloody genre as a reviewer. So for the job, stuff gets mixed up and I’m not stuck playing virtually identical RTS for weeks of my life. When I don’t want to play, it’s because of the culture around it. Nothing takes the fun out of a game than a thousand people calling you corrupt for liking it. That’s the danger in being a games journalist.” Leigh Alexander is the news director for Gamasutra and also runs her own private blog on video games. For her, it’s the sheer volume of material that’s constantly outside her own preferences that she’s obliged to work with. A game critic has to stay informed in every genre and that includes titles that are often long epics. She writes, “How I cure burnout is I allow myself to do only what I want to for a bit. I might have this huge stack of brand new this and that, but I let it sit and play Lumines every night until the urge to do something else comes back. I have to take personal ownership of video games back away from my job before I can enjoy them again.”
From Cliffy B.
Yet another totally different take on burning out comes from Steve Gaynor who is a video game designer and is working on Bioshock 2 at the moment. As someone who plays, works on, and constantly reads about video games, the issue is one of quality instead of quantity. He writes, “As far as burnout goes, I honestly more often run into the opposite problem, wherein I wish I had an awesome game to be jamming on and there’s just nothing exciting that’s come out lately…I avoid burnout by having other compelling things going on most of the time, while also keeping up with plenty of game stuff in the background so I always have something to play when there’s nothing else happening. I think it also helps that I don’t have any kind of formal obligations compelling me to play anything, except my own desire to do so.” Such a comment brings the discussion back to that curious desire to not feel like one is being forced to play a video game. Tom Endo, an editor at The Escapist, makes himself read a book every night. He comments, “The thing that helps me is that I’m a videogame tourist. I’m really interested in all genres—for at least an hour or two. Burnout is when I have to play some JRPG for 20+ hours.” Iroquis Pliskin also suggests engaging with a different form of media or finding a game that is critically praised by everyone. If you’re not working with a game that entices you to keep playing, try one that a lot of people did find engaging.
From Bejeweled 2
It’s interesting that in each of those explanations is the fear that when a game starts to feel like work it will cease to be fun. You could almost say that that is the difference between any person’s feelings towards a game, the perception of the activity defines what we get out of the experience. For those who get burned out playing games with a lot of grinding and development, the activity might be a little bit too close to what their day jobs are like. Having played games all my life, I think that most of the titles that I stuck with were a counter-point to my routine. When I worked in a hectic kitchen as a line cook, I mostly played slower games that were low on adrenaline and hand-eye coordination. When I was in college it was more cartoony and engaging games that were exciting escapes from the academic routine. Now with the dull monotony of school back I find myself drawn to action, competition, and the other things that I find myself missing in life. Perhaps the real key to preventing burning out on video games is to avoid the ones that you feel like you should be playing and try to stick with the ones that you need.
Comments
Excellent topic. I fight the burnout a lot. A couple times a year, I’ll hit a skid where nothing seems worthwhile, and playing anything, even old favorites, feels like pulling teeth. But it seems like something always comes along to shake me awake. I’ve been feeling that way about Red Faction, actually. I’ve been playing all these gloomy, uber-serious games lately, and this one has a mode where you can just run around smashing buildings with a sledgehammer. It’s like they read my mind.
Comment by Mitch Krpata — June 16, 2009 @ 7:22 am
I too face burnout, though mostly during the holiday season where I have so many games to play (often for review) that I don’t have time to play the games I want.
This seems common in every job, however, especially when you turn your hobby into your profession. While I tend to think most games go on too long, it’s important to keep in mind that your average consumer may only pick up a handful of games a year and may be looking for the 50+ hour adventure, RPG, and/or strategy game that can keep them busy for months on end.
I do like your theory on most enjoying games that fill in what we’re lacking on a day to day basis. For example, I don’t get to slay demons much in real life, and I imagine if I did, it would not end well. Thank god Bayonetta is coming out soon.
Side note: Is it ironic that the game I play most often these days to cure burnout is in fact called “Burnout [Paradise]?”
Comment by Jeffrey Matulef from Portland, OR — June 16, 2009 @ 9:43 am
Great article. I’ve been thinking about this topic a lot lately too, mostly because I just don’t have the time to play longer games anymore. In particular, I wish RPGs were more streamlined - say, 20 hours long with 10 hours for story and exploration and 10 hours for strategy and character building. That’s more than enough for most people.
And thanks for your kind words re: my article on Final Fantasy VIII. I was actually surprised that so many people agreed with me in the comments. Considering the game’s reputation, I was expecting way more “you’re an idiot” responses.
Comment by Jack Rodgers from Philadelphia — June 16, 2009 @ 10:54 am
Interesting that there at the end, you kind of brought this back around to your Video Games as Dreams thing: (forgiving any errors in gross generalization/rounding) that what we play directly reflects on ourselves in terms of what we’re lacking elsewhere in life.
Comment by Geoffrey — June 16, 2009 @ 12:37 pm
@ Krpata
Thanks man, it was a relief to find out that almost all gamers feel the same way. Seems like everyone has that special game that just taps into something primal that they sink into.
@ Matulef
Ha, I love to play Burnout for like 20 minute bursts. Just for a race or two. I’m pretty sure if everyone could start their drive to work by having a race to the wind farm, world peace would only be a matter of time.
@ Rodgers
Well, don’t be too shocked, it was a great article. It’s when you want to say something bad about a game that you have to really get ready for the little bastards. :)
Comment by L.B. Jeffries from South Carolina — June 16, 2009 @ 12:40 pm
Ironically, I have been playing Dragon Quest V every night for the past week or so.
I guess 20+ hour on a JRPG ain’t so bad after all.
Comment by Tom Endo from New York, NY — June 16, 2009 @ 3:03 pm
@ Geoffrey
Heh, you’re catching on.
Comment by L.B. Jeffries from South Carolina — June 16, 2009 @ 3:05 pm
Ironically, I’ve been playing Dragon Quest V every night for the past week or so.
I guess 20+ hours of JRPGs isn’t a surefire recipe for burnout after all.
Comment by Tom Endo — June 16, 2009 @ 3:08 pm
— PopMatters sponsor —
now all i can do is peggle DS. it’s getting worse :(
Comment by Leigh — June 16, 2009 @ 9:16 pm
Nice piece and I totally agree with your last point - the games I enjoy the most are the ones that are most opposite to what I’m doing all day. I can’t play games where I’m responsible for a dozen different things that could all go wrong at any time - it’s too much like real life. And sometimes I go back to the new Prince of Persia, because the fact that you can’t fail and aren’t on the clock is incredibly soothing.
Nice thing about games is that as people are saying, there’s such a wide variety - if you can just remember to stop playing the 20-hour JRPG and try a 5-minute indie, it helps you break out of the rut.
Comment by Chris Dahlen from Portsmouth, NH — June 17, 2009 @ 7:26 am
The thing is with burnout that if you really like the medium all you really need to do is take a step back. But for me personally its not so much about finishing, but starting that I have the problem with. When I am between games it is the most difficult thing in the world for me to put one in and start playing. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten burned out on a game while in the middle of it.
Comment by TheGameCritique from New Jersey — June 17, 2009 @ 12:47 pm
I think part of this stems from the fact that games, more than any other medium, require the highest level of investment to get into. I wrote a rather long blog entry about it a couple months ago, here http://jumpingmoustache.blogspot.com/2009/04/videogames-greatest-obstacle-hint-its.html
Here’s an excerpt:
“If you want to watch a movie, all you need to do is not be blind nor deaf, and own a DVD player, VCR, or go to the theatre. If you want to read a book, you need only be literate. A videogame, however, requires a much greater level of entry. Aside from the logistic of the situation (i.e. not everyone owns a console. Let alone the fact that there are so many different systems out there, whereas only a couple forms of movie distribution), there’s the fact that every game you play requires you to learn how to play it. What the buttons do, where to save, what the power-ups do, etc, etc… It can at times feel like the first hour of any game is like taking a class on how to play that particular game.”
It’s basically like getting burnt out on studying for an exam. Even if you’re interested in the topic, there’s still so many intricacies that you must learn that it’s only natural to need a break.
Comment by Jeffrey Matulef from Portland, OR — June 17, 2009 @ 2:47 pm
Nice piece. I agree a lot with Jeffrey’s comment, in that it’s the actual time investment + level of commitment that many games demand that chafes on me the most. It’s a rare game that lasts more than ten hours that I actually *don’t* get burned out on, and the low level of bad action movie ripoff story that most triple aaa games aspire to sure doesn’t help. My level of engagement with a property seems to drop steadily after that ten hour mark with nearly every story level game I’ve played in the last six months. After that point, I really just stop caring 90% of the time.
Comment by Christopher Hyde — June 18, 2009 @ 6:17 am