Burnout

What do you guys do when it seems that everything there is to see and do has been seen and done?

I came back in April after a 2 year hiatus (quit because my old server seemed to be barren and it was pretty much just me and my husband running stuff together) transferred to Virtue in hopes of starting fresh and getting into RP but found little for reds. I still found plenty to do in the way of Praetoria, base building, badge hunting and costume creation goodies but those lost their luster too.

Lately, I am wondering why I even log on. How do I regain that spark of excitement?

Maybe its my choice of allignment that has me feeling bummed about the state of the game. Even on a server as huge as Virtue, I find little social interaction redside

When I find myself burning out, I look for inspiration, either in the form of new characters to create or old characters to reimagine. The Best Costume Designs thread is a great source of these, but it's hardly the only one. Other games, books, movies and even real life provide plenty of opportunities to find inspiration. Maybe you saw a fictional character you really liked and wanted to transfer to City of Heroes or maybe you saw a documentary about a person whose story could make for a great hero with a judicious application of embellishment and outright fabrication?

I've also found that new ideas work best when you run them by other people first, though this requires someone who's either creatively- or logically-minded and has the patience to discuss these things. If such people are absent from your circle of acquaintances, the Costume Redesign thread is great for this (and, yes, I realise the last page is spammed with my own stuff). The thing is that ideas often sound great in our heads and even look good when put to character... Until we sleep on them and wonder what the HELL we were thinking when creating Insane Rick. Getting someone else's perspective helps weed out the bad plots and also helps flesh out the good ones.

I'm not sure that you can stay for years and years if you rely on JUST the base game to deliver fun for you. It's not that entertaining once you've done most of it. For me, the greatest joy in this game comes not JUST from playing it, but from playing it with an amazing character that turns heads (even if it's for the wrong reasons ). City of Heroes is, at the end of the day, a fantasy. It's an action figure come to life, and an action figure of your own making. Maybe I never grew out of the mental age of five, but I can't think of anything more I want out of life

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Gosh, I have been playing for seven years now and STILL have not done/seen it all....and content keeps getting added all the time. I can't say I have ever been bored or suffered burnout. If I ever felt like that, I'd probably stop playing. This game has given me so much fun in so many ways. I have made some wonderful friends. It has proved to be a wonderful fantasy getaway during some real life nasty moments, and a great way to vent by feeling powerful while 'arresting' baddies. Perhaps a time away might be what you need. Wait until there is some new content to be tried. I play for fun and have never been let down yet. Hope you can find your 'fun' again someday.

I've been playing solidly for over five years with maybe 3 or 4 months max out of the game since I first started.

Sometimes it's frustrating, sometimes it's tricky fitting in with what else is going on in the game - but I've learned two big things generally:

When I'm not able to find a team or a group, it's not that there aren't people out there, it's that I'm either being too impatient, too grumpy or both.

When things begin to pall or feel a bit stale, I generally go for something I've not played before - or do something oddball. Oddball in the sense of it being quite crazy; trying to run from 1-50 without being defeated, not taking any vet powers, or taking two powers that don't naturally seem to have much synergy (and often you get surprising results.)

Also widening your social group can help - joining various channels, SGs etc all is good.

And if none of that works, take a short break. Go play a competitor and realise rapidly why this is the best superhero MMO on the planet. Grab a couple of less well-known comicbooks, and find a couple of interesting characters and blend them together. (I tend to choose the less powerful characters because I find them more interesting.)

Hope that helps

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

Sometimes it's good to just take a break and try other things. I've done that a number of times since I first subscribed way back when. I always come back. But if you don't feel like logging in, you don't do yourself any favors by forcing yourself to play.

The great thing about the new payment model is that if you do cancel your subscription and take a hiatus for a few months, you can log right back in without paying a dime and check out what you've missed.

I have been having burn out issues as well. The main thing for me is trying to come up with new things with different playstyles that perhaps I have not tried. The other thing is also making something unique based on the story I choose to play.

Unfortunately for me right now, my level of burnout actually stems from a few things, and since I love a good list I thought Id share one.

1) Low level content has been replaced by sewer (Death from below) grinds until 20, and although I do not have to do it, it's a fine way to play test a toon to see if it's something Id like to continue. sadly im using it as a low level building device as opposed to something that is fun.

2) To many concepts based on new proliferation which means leveling certain powers over and over with a new secondary, primary, in order to see the effectiveness change.

3) Ideas coming from new costume parts and unlocks, or new store items etc. I get a good idea, then make it, and then follow list step 1 and relaize it's not as cool as I thought it would be.

4) High level trial content burnt me out, and continues to burn me out even if I don't actually do it. Grinding shards, doing tips to get merits etc just do not hold my interest as they did when it was done, so I make something new, or just RP...or pose a lot in my fabulous costumes.

and oddly

5) TOT event. It's a different grind...or actually just a huge farm. I have enough halloween salvage to costume slot about 30 toons now.

So...

In the overall. Level 1-20 is now a sewer grind. Level 20 - 50 is now a ToT grind (Temp of course) but when thats done, leveling just feels slow, and then when you hit 50, it's Trial grind.

Im certainly not quitting, but I am also feeling the burn out.