Topic: Have you ever experienced video game burnout/fatigue before?

@shadow-wolf I fully expect the next Zelda game to draw me back in. But I hope they take their time like they did with BOTW and make the game awesome. One thing I surprisingly enjoyed with BOTW was the Shrines. With so many of them and most of them being not too long, I could do a one or two and feel like I accomplished something each time I played the game. And there always seemed like there were more to do.
But I might give the Master Mode a shot. I have been exclusively play the regular mode. I have a feeling it will greatly change up the game.
Strangely enough, despite not really wanting to play games I still keep up on most Nintendo gaming news. I cannot quite figure out why I do that. It seems odd. As it does not typically take long to get back up to speed.
But there is no shame in taking time off. It is not like these games will not be there in a year or even 10 years. Although, with digital, I am kind of worried because some games I wanted to play but did not buy right away are already falling off the digital stores.
And it might save you some money because you will not feel tempted to buy games brand new. And I have learned that waiting just a little while helps filter out marketing hype for bad games, but also save a lot of money because most games go on sale.

I've had video game burn out a few times in my life, I think I'm sort of going thru one right now, especially with pc gaming. I sold my gaming pc because I just don't feel like playing games on pc any more. I like the switch and it's portability, I really like it's hybrid styles of play, I can't go back from it and I'm afraid if there's no successor of the switch, it will most likely be the death of my long gaming career

I've had a few times where I didn't find games as satisfying and largely went off and did other interests that appeal to me....which I then subsequently ran those into the ground and games seemed waaay more appealing again It happens. Sometimes it's a chain of a few unsatisfying games in a row that leaves one unable to have that kind of magnetic draw to them until one shows up and piques your interest. Sometimes it's because something else is drawing your interest more strongly at the moment.

But I've been gaming since the 80's and despite a handful of such lulls, it always comes back, always becomes fun again, and always becomes an obsession again

Sometimes a genre shift is all that's needed. I unexpectedly veered off from a host of RPGs to a simulator that hooked me and I keep not getting back to the other games....the sim has me addicted.

@shadow-wolf
Very rarely. I would reccomend just going back and playing an old favorite. I was rarely playing my 3DS or Wii at one point, but I picked up Mario 3 for the second time and felt the urge to game reignited after playing amazing game from my Wii childhood.

It really helps. Trust me on this. Go back and play something you haven't touched since childhood. It really works!

@shadow-wolf I've been gaming on and off since Space Invaders was a hot new thing sweeping the globe, and I've felt "burnout" a bunch of times. Gaming is just a hobby, and if you immerse yourself completely in any hobby you are likely to feel at some point that you've done it all, spent way too much time and money on things of little consequence, or just need to do something else for a while. It won't happen to everyone, but it happens a lot.

My recommendation, if you're feeling this way right now, is don't fight it. Step away from the Switch for as long as you have to. Maybe try some other flavor of gaming, like PC games or boardgames (if you go to www.boardgamegeek.com you can find thousands of tabletop games that scratch a similar itch as videogames). Or maybe just spend some time reading or watching movies or knitting. Maybe get outside and do some hiking or cycling.

Sooner or later you'll probably say "hey, you know what, those Final Fantasy games I was looking forward to are out now - I should check that out!" Or maybe you'll spend the next six years learning to knit Aran sweaters and playing obscure German boardgames about rural economies in the 19th century. Those are both worthwhile things.

In the meantime, don't worry about missing out on anything in video games. Because in 40 years of video games, I've learned two things:

1. Nobody ever died from NOT playing Super Ultra Turbo Street Vixen RPG (GOTY Edition).

2. Sooner or later, every single good game makes another appearance. There might be rare exceptions where games are lost to legal issues or source code gets lost, but generally speaking, if it was good enough to be a "must play", it WILL come back. It might take a while, but you'll see those games again. Night Trap, Ikaruga, R-TYPE and Out Run all hit the Switch last year, and Dragon's Lair Trilogy is coming in 2019.

TL;DR: if you're not into it right now, step away and come back when and if you feel the passion again. It's not the end of the world.

If I get bored of games, I start reading comics. If I get bored of comics I start watching TV. if I get bored of TV I go back to games. Not necessarily in that order but I'm sure you get the idea. If I get bored of all of that then I, dare I say it.... go outside

@JasmineDragon "1. Nobody ever died from NOT playing Super Ultra Turbo Street Vixen RPG (GOTY Edition)."

Yeah, that's true it wasn't until the "XT-Reme Edition" remaster that it reached the point of a basic requirement of life. Duh, everyone knows that.

sneer you're obviously not a TRUE Street Vixen fan.... 😎

The only time I'll think to myself "You know what, this feels awful" is if I've just finished a game. And I mean just finished it. I need to go and do something else productive for awhile. Otherwise, I don't really get burned out or fatigued. I balance my life

@GyroZeppeli Haha, it's pretty long but I wanted to show my appreciation for anyone who posted on this thread since it can be a quite personal discussion at times.

@CurryPowderKeg79 Oh wow, that's ... not healthy at all (although of course you were too young to realize that). You must have stopped playing for at least a few weeks after that I'd imagine!

@Anti-Matter So what would you choose instead of those games? Do you avoid the entire genre and play other genres (like action games or platformers) instead?

@Zuljaras Nice. I think the key, as others have said on the thread, is keeping busy with other responsibilities as well. If you have limited time to game then you're unlikely to get burnt out. Normally I have limited time to play due to other responsibilities, but I have had more free time than usual for the last few months so I have been playing more often than usual.

@MrGawain Makes sense. I have the same feeling too regarding Nintendo games, they just feel more welcoming to play compared to PS/Xbox games when you have a lot of other responsibilities to do. Maybe it's cause they're more pick up and play instead of intense story driven experiences?

@SuperWeird Waste of time might be a tad too harsh (since if anyone gets pleasure from something then it has some worth and therefore isn't a waste of time) but I get the gist of what you're saying — it's nothing productive and necessary for work so if you don't like it, simply find something else. I agree with what you said too — fatigue is how my mind is telling me to try new experiences. Breaks are good for becoming well-rounded and learning more about oneself and what one's preferences and interests are. Looking forward to watching new TV shows and maybe getting back into reading books again!

@Hikingguy Yeah you're right. Waiting is helpful for saving money. And same case for me too — I often find looking at the latest gaming news (especially speculation about future games and hardware releases) more interesting than playing games. Even if I drastically reduce how much I play video games (or even eliminate it altogether) I'll probably occasionally keep up with gaming news cause it's so exciting to see developments on that front (same goes with mobile hardware/software). In regard to BotW though:
I recommend you reconsider playing BotW on Master Mode. I thought the same as you initially and replayed BotW in Master Mode on Switch. There's a lot of changes I just don't like about it compared to regular mode. It's honestly a very lazily done hard mode, where the biggest changes to difficulty are making enemies spongier and have enemies regenerating health. Both changes are bad because all they do is make battles more tedious, not more challenging. In BotW's case, they are also terrible for other big reason: you have limited resources and weapon breaking mechanics, so it's often pointless to approach enemies. In addition regenerating health eliminates the fun of using the environment to fight enemies, since oftentimes enemies simply regenerate back what damage you give them before you can hurt them. While the floating platforms are a nice touch, altogether I cannot recommend Master Mode for those reasons. I'm still salty that Trial of the Sword is basically unplayable since it's incredibly unfair thanks to the spongier enemies and health regeneration. And if you're not busy feeling annoyed by the unfairness of Master Mode, then it feels so similar to regular mode that you might as well play regular mode. You're better off artificially implementing difficulty on your own (like using weaker armor) than playing Master Mode.

@SonOfVon I see where you're coming from, Nintendo games often have that charm that make them easier to pick up and play compared to other games. Don't worry though — a Switch successor is all but guaranteed thanks to its current success.

@NEStalgia I hear ya. I think I'm currently going through one of those phases you're describing; it'll probably take me running some currently untouched hobbies into the ground before I become interested in games again, but I doubt I'll lose interest in it altogether (as you said).

@MysticGengar I see what you're saying. I've been playing Ocarina of Time, a game which I haven't played since 2009 but loved it so much I consider it my favorite game of all time. Replaying it now I'm rediscovering all the things that made me fall in love with it all those years ago. As you said it's a great way to shrug off any fatigue or boredom!

@JasmineDragon Thanks for the advice — Especially what you said about gaming being just like any other hobby and how I shouldn't fight it. That's probably what I'll do — go pursue other hobbies and see where that takes me. It's always a great way to diversify my interests and make me a well-rounded individual with multiple interests. And as you said, most good games reappear at some point so not playing them the first time around isn't the end of the world.

@Link-Hero It could also be due to other responsibilities you may have, like work. Like you I'm starting to find myself preferring short bursts more than longer one to two hour sessions ... which is actually really great since once I get busy again I can still game occasionally and feel satisfied without using much time. And as you said tastes change, which is normal and allows you to better find what makes you happy and excited.

@gimmi_c True — as you said, switching hobbies around helps eliminate fatigue. That's definitely what I'll continue doing.

@JackEatsSparrows Perhaps it's cause you might have spent a lot of time in one session to beat the game? But yeah as you said, balance is key. Too much of anything causes fatigue, whether it's food, video games, or anything else that causes pleasure. And yeah, doing something productive often helps relieve the fatigue.

I skipped the N64/PS1 and Wii U generations entirely. It’s not that I get fatigued by gaming, I just jump from one obsession to another, usually music.

No, never. The only times I've been put off by the industry is when they just didn't make the kinds of games I wanted to play (2011-2017 was pretty awful with tons of linear and safe games seemingly aimed at mobile and multiplayer audiences, but things have been turning around with the Switch getting a lot of good single player experiences with tons of depth, open endedness and content). Beyond that, I've never really lost interest in gaming.

@shadow-wolf
Well...
I played different other games when i started to feel bored with current games i played.
I stop playing games when i start to feel sleepy.

Yes. Other than occasionally playing CSS, Halo 2, Double Dash, or GE/PD, I pretty much quit playing games from 2006-2017.

It happens. Games are supposed to be fun. Of they aren't, then do something else.

@subpopz Yep, that’s pretty much the feeling 😂

Like any other activity, physical or mental, it can leave you feeling exhausted. You just have to push through it.

Everything is a waste of time, we're corpses no matter what.

@shaneoh This guy gets it ^^

As long as I'm not burnt out on gaming in general, I have enough of a backlog to find something to play. If I am, I'll do something else.

Before I owned my Switch: Is gaming for me anymore? My PS4 was gathering dust in a corner unplayed (and still is). I was definitely burned out.
After my Switch: I love gaming again ^-^
That was over a year ago, now I'm entering a burn-out phase again, but it'll take the right game to knock me out of it.

I've had burnout. People are different, so some might not experience it at all, while others may experience it more acutely. Keep in mind, playing video games requires a level of participation compared to watching shows or listening to music which are mostly passive aside from whatever thoughts they evoke. I've played games and have experienced general fatigue, with a desire to keep playing despite playing very badly. And I've reached points of larger burnout where I just was not having fun. When I reach that point, it's time to focus my attention somewhere else. I have taken days and even weeks off from playing games. I even had the same issues when I was a kid. For me, it's a great opportunity to focus on favorite shows and movies or music I haven't enjoyed in a while. Also, it's worth mentioning that I find some genres more fatiguing than others. Large, open-world games drain me very quickly because I don't like the lack of focus and exploration. And I often don't like games that are stretched out to dozens and dozens of hours just because. Shmups require a lot of concentration, but I do love them. I can play arcade beat-em-ups and some run-n-guns without much risk of burnout, though, and can play them repeatedly in short periods and almost always have fun. But I think the burnout is normal and there's nothing wrong with taking a rest or recharging yourself.