About MMO Burnout

I've recently read an article on MMORPG.com, where i get my daily dose of news about my favorite hobby. It sparked this observation:

I would have to say that there's nothing wrong with burnout in regards to a game. It's a natural, normal way of your brain telling you, “WTF!? Lets do something different with our time.” I don't think that there will ever be any collection of new and unique ideas that will permanently stave off burnout. Even if there is a regular stream of new content introduced to a game, the repetition of the underlying engine will eventually become too much.

Back in the days before MMOs, I would play thru a game beginning to end, just once on average. If bored, or if it was a good game, I'd run thru it again, getting all the side stuff and secrets along the way. Then after that, if it was a really really good game, I would mechanically beat it over and over until I could do it while not even paying attention to it. After a year tops, the game never got touched again.

Then came the MMO. The social aspect of the MMO allows me to follow pretty much the same formula, except it extends it another year or two. Though now i take my time on an MMO. I don't just blast thru it the first time. Sometimes after a time, I haven't even hit the endgame, yet the burnout sets in. It doesn't matter whether your to the end or not, the foundational mechanics of a game are the same all the way thru it. That's what causes the burnout: new level, same routine, different looking mobs.

So I say about burnout: It's no big deal. Play something different when it comes on. Your going to get it no matter what you spend your time doing, whether its games, work, school, TV, dating that annoying person who keeps telling you to play less video games. It's just a sign that you need a little change in your life.