Bizarre burnout

[ReynTime]

If a game is making you ask this question, that game isn't worth the trouble anymore.
I asked myself the same question about Minecraft at some point. I haven't bothered playing it in years since. Ditto for Pokemon (HAH) games and Animal Crossing.

Besides when XIV changes its typically for sake of making things easier for players who hate spending more than 5 mins in battle content. Even raids rarely aren't progressively worse since Shadowbringers. Truth be told I'm only still playing because my gaming companion still plays and I don't mind sticking with them even if it's a game I don't have a lot of passion for anymore such as FFXIV.

[Lazariah]

Hey OP, sunk cost fallacy is aweful. You get really connected to something and it makes you feel like you can't leave. But if you're not having fun, you're not having fun. You can take a break then come back. I know it is hard but it is what it is. Your choice is either to stay and be miserable and eventually begin to resent the game or leave, take a break, and someday maybe come back. The latter is just healthier. The game isn't going anywhere, trust me. And forcing yourself to stay will only make you hate the game in the long run.

Edit: OH and take a break from the forums and other such social media with FFXIV. Seems like a lot of your burnout is from hearing players complain.

[Illmaeran]

I know the obvious answer is to just stop playing, but ffxiv is (was?) my favorite game, and I just hate seeing all this stupid negativity and stupid reworks in the game. I've met so many nice people and I would hate to stop talking to them because of a lack of common interest anymore. I just don't feel like there's anything else to really do anymore, since all the jobs I like are leveled up to max, and most relics just look ugly.

The obvious answer is probably the best one, just not as a permanent alternative. I've hit points where I was so frustrated with the game that I couldn't bring myself to play, unsubbed, and came back six months or even a year later when the next expansion was set to release. I love this game too; it's there in my top three favorites of all time. I want to continue loving it so I've made the decision to take breaks when and as I need to in order to refresh myself before growing to hate it.

Other options:
1. Stop reading all the doom and gloom social media crap. It's amazing how other peoples' opinions can sway our own even if we don't realize it.

2. Try just playing the game, do things you don't normally do, play a different job, anything *casually*. Give yourself permission to do anything you feel like at that moment even if it's just people watching in Limsa.

3. Go back to ARR or your favorite expansion and do *EVERYTHING*. Aim for a 100% clear of it, barring achievements unless you want to do those too.

4. Find "stupid goals" as I like to call them. Pick a couple of pets and grind them out then move on to something else. Come up with a menu for an RP restaurant and gather/craft everything for it on your own (I'm doing this now and it's surprisingly satisfying). Complete your entire Challenge Log for the week. Anything goes, just don't push yourself to get it done NOW.

[OhNooo]

1. Stop reading all the doom and gloom social media crap. It's amazing how other peoples' opinions can sway our own even if we don't realize it.

To this point I just wanna say that as someone who started playing in StB, I didn’t even know the OF existed and wasn’t looking on social media about the game at all. I didn’t make a forum account or start looking at the game subreddit until after 5.0 - even so, I could feel the game change during Shb and I felt uncomfortable, but I still kept pushing hoping the game would get better. I took breaks, tried all sorts of different things in the game, but nothing worked. It got even worse for me in EW. The one thing that has kept me giving it another try time and time again is all that sunk cost fallacy - the hundreds of hours I’ve spent grinding deep dungeon solo.

To OP, just do what’s best for you. The devs obviously have a vision for the game that some of us just can’t get on board with. Waiting and hoping for them to fix things or leaving are pretty much the options we have. At some point, enough is enough.

[Absurdity]

I wouldn't call it a bizarre burnout.
You don't agree with the direction CBU3 has been taking the game and you find yourself not having fun anymore, that is entirely valid and don't let anyone tell you different. I wish I could give you a solution but all you can really do is find a different game that you like, because it is very unlikely to ever change and very likely that they will just double down.

All of us that feel the same and are still here, we're essentially just wasting our time. This becomes especially obvious when any criticism is usually met with "everything is fine, stop being so negative, I like it, you're in the minority" or any combination along those lines.

There are enough people who are totally fine with the boilerplate grey sludge of design that SE has no reason to change the direction for the game. So all you can really do is vote with your wallet, stop giving them money and most likely be replaced by a sprout immediately.


Call me ridiculously cynical but that's what seeing the game you loved turn into something you increasingly can't stand for over 2 years does to you. People say that the forums are overly negative but I wouldn't even be on these forums if ShB's job design didn't happen, I didn't even have a forum account until the end of Stormblood because there was no reason for me to feel disgruntled enough to visit the forums back then. It had some incredibly rough edges but sandblasting them all off may not have been the right choice either.

[Lauront]

There are enough people who are totally fine with the boilerplate grey sludge of design that SE has no reason to change the direction for the game. So all you can really do is vote with your wallet, stop giving them money and most likely be replaced by a sprout immediately.

It's the trend I've seen in the EW Lucky Bancho data sets. We'll see if it keeps up.

[SturmChurro]

It's the trend I've seen in the EW Lucky Bancho data sets. We'll see if it keeps up.

I haven't seen the data, but I always presumed that much of the new community that came with the streamer surge, would get to that point in the game where they would feel there is not much more they want to do, burnout, or leave when their streamer stopped playing. It definitely wouldn't last. EW launch hype definitely prolonged a lot of it. I'd like to hope SE will take more feedback to heart.

[Lauront]

I haven't seen the data, but I always presumed that much of the new community that came with the streamer surge, would get to that point in the game where they would feel there is not much more they want to do, burnout, or leave when their streamer stopped playing. It definitely wouldn't last. EW launch hype definitely prolonged a lot of it. I'd like to hope SE will take more feedback to heart.

Yeah, I'm very curious to see what is going to happen with it. From memory, a good chunk of them have still not fully completed EW as of the last data-set; I think he put the full clear at 660k for the last dataset, of the 1.3m or so. It's going to be a while to see where all the chips fall. The breakdown is here - you can run it through an auto-translator, or go here and access it in the EN version of the site. The latter site seems to have added the data from the new to the old survey so it's double-counting, more or less.

[Theodric]

As an aside, don't be afraid to try other games - particularly MMO's. You might be surprised by what's on offer and may very well find your niche elsewhere. FFXIV has changed substantially over the years and on many fronts is seeking to appease a completely different target audience to what it originally sought. Much in the same way as how WoW did when many of us found ourselves taking our leave of it.

[AngelCheese77]

I just came back from a 3 month break myself. Gives a fresh view of the game. Otherwise, for your sanity, stay away from the OF.