Burnout: Recovery Strategies?

Hey there! So there are plenty of strategies on how to avoid burnout. Like, say... watching Netflix while farming Atmas or listening to music.

But what if we are currently suffering from Burnout? What are some good ways to recover from that?

I would play this game for, maybe, 8-10 hours per day on average. I wouldn't rush anything and I would genuinely have fun. Then the first Token weapons game out, like the Dual Haken and the Hellish Claws. I really wanted the Dual Haken especially, and so I grinded. I don't belong to a static or a raiding FC, so I had to PUG all of my EX Primal kills. It took me about six months of serious grinding (and a lot of wipes, a lot of failures, a lot of ragequits, and a lot of drama) to actually get it done, but I succeeded. But in doing so, I feel like I lost a lot of motivation to play the game.

Then I decided to try to get my Atma farming done. I put on some music and restricted myself to two hours of atma farming per day. I managed to get it done, but in the end, I just lost my motivation to play the game at all. I have to force myself to login now, and I hate that feeling because I love the game so very much and my FC is filled with a ton of wonderful people.

Does anyone have any good ideas on how to recover from MMO burnout?

I usually put the MMO down for a short while. That way when I return, things feel more 'fresh'. Or just wait until the next patch when a bunch of new things are implemented.

The answer for this and any "how to avoid burnout" question is simple, do something else too.
If you are playing 8-10 hours everyday, try playing less. Go play something else for a bit, watch TV, read a book, hang out with friends, go play a sport, do a craft project.
Too much of anything, even a good thing or something you love can cause burnout and soon that thing you once loved to do has become a chore.

Fighting games, lots and lots of fighting games.
Atma doesnt drop? Punch something in the face.
Titan Ex group fails? Mercilously kick someone in the shin till they fall over.
Df member goes brb for 30 minutes? Training mode + 50 hit combo = instant gratification against punchingbags.
Catch 126 nq fish in a row? Unleash hellfire on your foe and send their eternal soul to hell.

Seriously ageession is the best cure for burnout, it beats staring at a screen blankly for an hour suddenly realizing you didnt accomplish anything nor were you entertained.

I feel you on the burnout thing. I hope you're able to enjoy the game. This is going to be a bit stream of consciousness, apologies in advance.

Do you belong to a chatty FC? One with an active TS server? That helped me a lot.

Log on, but spend less time on the game. Use the other time you played to take a walk, catch a movie, play cards against humanity with friends, that sort of thing.

Find a greenleaf and help them with quests or dungeons or whatever for a half hour or so (it's random stuff you haven't done in a while and may be a good change of pace)

Avoid doing grindy (hunts/atma) things for longer than an hour.

Release the clutch while you begin to step on the accelerator, if you hold them both down you'll get a burnout when you release the clutch.

Dude, just play something else, watch tv, read, exercise, socialize, study (but actually study and learn something, it's fun), travel (if you can afford this, traveling is a brilliant way to disconnect and then come back to things you love), and listen to music too, but ACTIVELY LISTEN. Don't just play it on the background. Put on headphones or fire up a nice sound system and do nothing but listen to the music you love.

All of these things actually augment my love for my passions, hobbies, and pastimes. I can always listen to my favorite band, Rush, because I'm always exploring new musical avenues, for example. So if you're feeling burnout it's really simple. Put the game down and explore other things.

I go to work :-(

1) wait till sub finishes
Lol if u did bulk month subs
* better to do month by month to avoid wasting money if ur close to burning out
2) stop playing after sub ends
3) do anything else that isn't playing ff14arr.
4) keep up to date on whats happening in the game via forums, youtube, friends etc.
5) come back to the game when you are ready/ have seen some new things get added in, tht interest u.
6) log in and surprise ur buds in the fc with a " im backkkkkk" message and wait for the " welcome back " messages.
7) proceed to pick up where u last left off.
* bonus points if they nerfed things u were planning to do
I.e atma grind, boss requirements.

Best strategies vary from person to person...

But usually, simply stepping away and taking a break is a good idea. You don't even have to go completely cold turkey: ...just, maybe log in once a week to socialize if you want.

But like others have said... focus on some other hobbies or pasttimes for a while. When you're ready, the game will still be here. Just because you're not among the first to complete the new shinies in patch 2.whatever, doesn't mean you've missed out. It will still be here.

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Originally Posted by HakuroDK

But what if we are currently suffering from Burnout? What are some good ways to recover from that?
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Does anyone have any good ideas on how to recover from MMO burnout?

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Truth is, if you are burnt out, you aren't getting the enjoyment out of the game.

Try google "Star Citizen"

Echoing what others have said, if you aren't having fun playing the game, then stop playing it. Doesn't mean you have to quit, just take a break. MMOs have lifespans of 10 years or more. You can't really expect that you'd be spending that entire time playing the game religiously, I don't care how good it is.

MMOs are really in a class of games all their own. You really can't think of them like regular games. Think of it like watching TV as opposed to going to the movies. MMOs being like watching TV and buying a regular offline game like going to the movies.

I'm just recovering from burn out myself. What I did was watched anime online, played Sims 4, and now just got Dragon Age: Origins which EA is giving away free. All that time away, helped re-energize me so I am back in the game, doing dailies and everyone once more. So sometimes, watching shows, and playing single player games, really helps :)

I'm just now recovering from burnout myself. I'm back into the game, but taking my return slow.

Honestly, likes others have said, the simplest advice is just to step away from the game as much as possible. I only logged in about 1.5 times per day for a few minutes so I could do my gardening, because I have nobody to do it for me, and it still kept me making pretty good gil with very little effort. If it wasn't for gardening, I would have just stopped logging in completely, which would have been better.

Don't even log in for dailies. They're going to feel like a chore, and just put you off from the game. Just do something else you enjoy. In my case, I played other games I've been putting off because of 14, games from the past that I never got a chance to play, increased the amount of anime I watch, and kept up better on gaming news that I had fallen behind on.

My break from the game was for a little over two weeks. I think it's a decent amount of a break, but if you need more, take longer.

take a break...

I break up the mmo week by playing Rome Total War (the first and only true one) couple times a week. Or pop in something like dynasty warriors (something that requires very lil thought and mindless hours of killing by smashing the square button)

If you log on every day to an mmo chances are you will burn out even if you are having fun, need something...pick up a book maybe?

Many in my small FC have been 'burnt out' lately. We still love eachother, and log in and happily do scheduled runs etc....but beyond that, during this patch lull, if you log in and look at our roster, it appears to be a ghost town. Still most people log in once a day, say howdy, see if anything's happening/someone needs help etc. It's just tbh, many in the group can only do 'endgame' content 1-2 nights a week due to RL/timezone differences....and we're all kinda tired of grinding the same 3 EX dungeons everyday/primals etc.

So what many of the guys have been doing is after they log out of the game after their quick check in, they all gather together and play Destiny or something else....so they are still playing together, just a different game. Other's have been catching up on console games, studying hard for school, traveling, or putting in the extra 'family' time now, to earn the brownie points they'll need with the SO, so that when they want to dive back into the game hardcore again post patch 2.4.

Basically, it's totally normal at the end of a patch, esp a 'casual' centered patch, to be bored. I've been leading Linkshells/FC's in this game since 1.0 and I can safely tell you people leave around this time, but come back full force, ready to go as soon as the next patch drops.

Personally, my way of handling the lull turns out to be 'get knocked up and be too busy dealing with morning sickness to be able to finish a dungeon run' ....so I mean, you can try this method if you want, but be warned, it comes with a mini-me package.

I usually just play another game for a while. Only making sure to log in once or twice a day for dailies, ex roulette and coil runs with static. After a while, the magic may return. Hell, if I didn't have a coils static, I would probably have quit a second time. Some people just wait till next path too.

Get a girlfriend who will pester you to pay more attention to her.

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Originally Posted by Eggnook24

Get a girlfriend who will pester you to pay more attention to her.

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https://38.media.tumblr.com/6186f83c...dmumo1_500.jpg

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Originally Posted by Yumi_umi

* bonus points if they nerfed things u were planning to do
I.e atma grind, boss requirements.

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This part was great and so true! I don't push endgame content very hard for this reason. I don't have fun when the content is super hard and it's good to know that the difficulty will eventually be eased. Someone else said it but the most efficient way of doing content is not logging in.

One of the things I have done to avoid burnout and still play the game. Is to play an alternate character on the same server. I started from scratch entirely and only played my alt for a while until I felt okay to play my main again.

I am already burned out, I still pay and play a little bit because I am waiting for new content.
Not that there isn't any content to do and here are my reasons.

1. The game is based on gear only the story is all over the place to me only about primal's.
2. I am not interested in dungeons the gear is outdated compared to the gear you already have at 50 not worth running them anymore.
3. Sycus Tower only worth it for retainer gear and sands and oils.
4. Not interested in extreme fights a mount that does the same things as the others but with different skins or a piece of gear you might not get and its outdated.
5. coils again not worth dying 50+ times retrying and keep going over and over for 1 piece of gear you might not get and becomes very repetitive after you keep going to the same junk over and over no change.

I probably can win coil with the setup now but I am not motivated as I was when I first began to do them.

The detective story line is was keeps me interested but nothing outside of that no fun things to do anyways thats about it.

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Originally Posted by HakuroDK

Hey there! So there are plenty of strategies on how to avoid burnout.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by HakuroDK

But what if we are currently suffering from Burnout? What are some good ways to recover from that?

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by HakuroDK

I would play this game for, maybe, 8-10 hours per day on average.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by HakuroDK

Does anyone have any good ideas on how to recover from MMO burnout?

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Stop playing for 8-10 hours. If you want to avoid being burnt out, cut down your playtime severely, and find other activities to do, be it in another game or in real life.

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Originally Posted by Eggnook24

Get a girlfriend who will pester you to pay more attention to her.

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Best advice if she doesn't play FFXIV as well. Worst advice if she does.

I multi task between gaming and working
I am a musician, so I make a little music, play a little FF, make a little music, play a little FF
It helps me avoid burning out on either one, writers block is essentially an artists burn out.
Sometimes coming back to it after a little gaming really helps, and vise versa

Play other games.

Make it so you don't have time to play. That'll stop you burning out. Partly already made easy for me with a full time job, but I also make sure I keep a fairly regular workout schedule going, sometimes I can only log on for an hour and then I have to log again. Means I generally still look forward to logging on, though as others have pointed out it's pretty quite at the moment while we wait for the patch!

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Originally Posted by Coatl

Play other games.

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This. I've been playing Archeage since launch and I'm already missing the world and all of the modern MMO amenities of FFXIV.

I play other games. I also like to chill at my FC house, talking with some of the FC crew.

Play less dude.

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Originally Posted by Lollie

Fighting games, lots and lots of fighting games.
Atma doesnt drop? Punch something in the face.
Titan Ex group fails? Mercilously kick someone in the shin till they fall over.
Df member goes brb for 30 minutes? Training mode + 50 hit combo = instant gratification against punchingbags.
Catch 126 nq fish in a row? Unleash hellfire on your foe and send their eternal soul to hell.

Seriously ageession is the best cure for burnout, it beats staring at a screen blankly for an hour suddenly realizing you didnt accomplish anything nor were you entertained.

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NOPE, best thing is throw away ur PC/PS3/PS4 out of the window

felt the same when I got my Nexus. Now I just login for dailies and for raids. Im just playing other games for now(shadow of mordor is amazing). Might also get the ff13 pc version as well despite the bad port reviews. Those 2 games should keep me busy until 2.4 hits :)

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Originally Posted by Eggnook24

Get a girlfriend who will pester you to pay more attention to her.

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That's a great idea!

I mean, other than the fact that I'm an openly gay man and there aren't any eligible bachelors for over a hundred miles of where I live. That's kind of an obstacle to that plan.

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Originally Posted by HakuroDK

I would play this game for, maybe, 8-10 hours per day on average.

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This is the reason. If I have a 6 day week at work I usually spend that one free day playing all day and I get bored after just one day of too much playing.
My advice would be just play less and itll be more fun

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Originally Posted by HakuroDK

That's a great idea!

I mean, other than the fact that I'm an openly gay man and there aren't any eligible bachelors for over a hundred miles of where I live. That's kind of an obstacle to that plan.

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You're in balmung. Get into ERP.

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Originally Posted by Gardes

You're in balmung. Get into ERP.

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ERP is boring and I get nothing out of it.

As for the whole 8-10 hour play periods, I haven't done that since I got my Dual Haken. When I log on now, I get anywhere from as long as 3 hours or as brief as 10 minutes a day, and that's if I log on.

If you have drastically reduced your playtime and are doing other things and are still feeling burnout, it could be because your time ingame is unfocused. You log in but don't know what to do so you just sort of putz around and then feel drained while not really accomplishing much. This is very common with burnout. Lack of interest leads to lack of focus which leads to more lack of interest and so on in a cyclical pattern.
My suggestion to deal with that is to set yourself small goals for whenever you log in and do that goal, no more no less. For example, you decided that today you will do ST and get your weekly drop, then tomorrow you will level a gathering class by X levels, etc. Setting yourself small achieveable goals that you can focus yourself on, accomplish in a reasonable amount of time and then walk away for they day may be what you need.
If that doesn't work, then it would probably be best to just go hand off until 2.4 hits.

Hmmm if already burnt out as others have said reduce your game time by a lot.
Other than that to avoid getting there my suggestions(which is how I generally play myself) are:
1) vary what you do during your game time - I don't join farm parties, I don't focus on one thing only - I will do a bit of everything as I have time, want to do it etc
2) enjoy what you are doing - while doing something ask yourself - Am I having fun? - be brutaly honest in your response - if the answer is no go do something else
3) I play on the PS4 with the PC screen next to it so I can while waiting for stuff or doing crafting or whatever chat with people elsewhere, browse the web, watch youtube videos, twitch streams etc, even have a 3ds near me if I want to play something there - so will always have something other than the game around that I can refocus on
4) take breaks - during weekends I will often login in the morning and log off late at night - I will purposefully walk away from the game and do other stuff - be it help with lunch, go out for a walk, grocerie shop etc... This way I go from being there 12+ hours to more like 6-8h in total - someone else might just log off and go play a different game for a short time to relax - it's all valid as long as it's a break

Don't play 8-10 hours a day.