Normally referred to as "burnout", MMO games are particularly known for inducing this state in players due to their large scale and higher requirements of time and effort in order to gain success. MMO burnout is nothing new, but every player has different tolerances. How much you can tolerably invest into a single game varies greatly on your playstyle and attitude toward gaming as a hobby. It depends on how much free time you have compared to how much of that free time you're spending on games. It depends on how much of your gaming is dedicated to one specific game or type of games. It depends on how you ingest your games: solo, exclusively with online gaming buddies, or with your usual "real life" social circle. It depends on if you're playing to pass the time or if you're playing to maintain a competitive presence in the game. The thing is, even the casual, when-I-have-time player can get burned out on a game. You don't need to be addicted in order to feel like a game is overstaying its welcome or commanding too much of your attention.
So if everyone—casual, hardcore, and those who split the middle—can get "burned out" on a game, especially a large-scale game like an MMO, then what actually causes burnout? I refuse to use the catch-all term of "boredom", which may as well be synonymous with "burnout" in this context. Instead, I would suggest that the causes are monotony, competing interests, and loss of social gratification.
Monotony is, in my opinion, what most people mean when they list the symptom of "boredom". You might grow bored with something for any number of reasons, but repetition will make even the most engaging experience boring eventually. Repeated gameplay, even enjoyable gameplay, ceases to gratify. Lazy, or even "abusive" if you prefer, design can lead to boredom with a game even quicker. For example, long "grinds"—repetitious gameplay in order to gather enough of a resource (e.g., XP, reputation, gold) to unlock the next tier of rewards—might work well as filler to keep people playing but isn't very fun and wears out the players' good will.
There's also the issue that some players burn through content faster. Maybe they play more hours during the day, maybe they skip narrative content, maybe they're just more efficient in play, (and maybe all three) but many players will naturally out-pace the developers introducing new content. The meta-gamer shouldn't be punished because he doesn't gawk at the scenery enough between killing monsters. The min-maxer shouldn't be punished because she's figured out the fastest way to gather resources. A guild of hardcore raiders shouldn't be punished because they're brutally effective at clearing boss battles. Success in play is to be rewarded, not break the game. Sure, this means in-game rewards of gold and gear, but it should also lead to new challenges, new content, and a guided "curve" the provides a reason to keep playing. Ignoring the absolute top gamers who can never have enough content to satisfy them, if a large number of players are regularly clearing every obstacle, tracking down every reward, and maxing out every new skill long before the developers have a chance to update the game, then there's a problem with the game.
You will notice that the lazy answer to the latter problem, not enough content, is to introduce the former problem by adding repetitive "filler" gameplay. It does no good to give the player all the best content up front and then hope they can entertain themselves until the next expansion, but it's also not really doing them any favors by forcing them to suffer through boring, soul-draining grinds in order to move on to the next portion of real gameplay. The bottom line is that there's no substitute for new, quality content. Casual or hardcore, if you're not getting enough of the content you enjoy—either because you're stuck in a grind or because you've already completed everything worth doing—you're going to burn out from monotony.
There's also the issue of competing interests interfering with your "MMO time". The most obvious of these are real-life complications that make plugging into a virtual world problematic. School, work, family, friends, and health should all rightly come before personal entertainment. There are limitations to that maxim, of course, but things come up and sometimes that means you won't be making the regular guild raids for a while. If this never happens and people are telling you it should, well there is such a thing as gaming addiction (it's taken more seriously when expressed via gambling) and at some point non-MMO concerns should be overriding your virtual fantasy life. However, such "real-life" complications don't really count as a "burnout" as they don't stem from a lack of desire to play. More applicable competing interest examples are other games or other entertainment options that seem more appealing than your current MMO.
This issue may be tied to the previous "monotony" concern, but does not necessarily require a drop in enthusiasm for you MMO in order to occur. I'd be very interested to see how the release of StarCraft 2 affected the subscription numbers for World of Warcraft. I've seen more than a few gamers ebay their MMO assets and convert entirely to console gaming (some of whom regretted it, others who never looked back). I myself made the decision to let go the mouse and keyboard in favor of hanging out with family and friends face-to-face as none of them happened to share my hobby. Shifting focus and interests is normal—after all, why shouldn't someone be struck with the desire to learn the bagpipes or knitting?—but can be problematic for an MMO where the player is expected to maintain a particular amount of progress in order to keep up with new content. This would of course be the new content added in order to make sure there's enough to do in the game. See how there's really no avoiding this issue? If someone starts to get the sense of "falling behind", then they feel like they're neglecting the game—as if it's a "job" and not entertainment. The more an MMO feels like a "job" and the less like entertainment, the faster you're going to burn out.
There's also the possibility that the game is moving away from your interests. If you're really into player-versus-player content and all new releases are focused on player-versus-environment raiding, then you're going to feel neglected. Even a perceived divergence from your interests can lead to a sort of "dev disgust" that makes you walk away from the game. MMOs are constantly evolving in order to survive, and it should be remembered that not everybody is going to be on board with dramatic changes in gameplay (e.g., Star Wars Galaxies), payment models (e.g., rage against micro-transactions), or a perceived shift in focus toward a different demographic (e.g., "WoW is for casuals").
Then there's the loss of social gratification. MMO games are social games, and I firmly believe that an MMO is only as good as the players you're playing with. Sure, I like to solo, but even soloers interact with the in-game community. Soloers want to trot through Ironforge with their fancy new gear as much as the next guy. Unfortunately, the social aspect of MMOs that makes them so enjoyable can also make them vulnerable to disruptions that are entirely not the fault of the game. If you love a particular MMO but the people you're used to playing with all move on to a different game, that's going to affect your enjoyment. If guild drama goes down—as it is often wont to do—then that can seriously make you want to walk away from the entire game. If you like to participate in a particular type of gameplay and your regular group starts to focus on other aspects of the game, then that might leave you adrift and alone. There can be similar rifts that form due to timezone differences, level disparity, server transfers, or mismatched groupings of different playstyles. You might love the people in your guild but—for example—really wish there were some role players for you to interact with. Sure you could look for another guild or group to service that desire, but then you're not playing with the people you want to play with and it might not be worth playing with strangers to you. And this is all ignoring the obvious social concern mentioned previously, where you might simply wish to spend more face-to-face time with family and friends outside the game. Spouse-aggro is a serious concern and can cause problems in relationships.
So if you want to avoid burnout, then take a break before you become totally disgusted with the game.
Don't let it get to the point that you can't stand the look of your in-game avatar before you come up for air a bit. Or better yet, pace yourself to begin with once the initial launch fervor dies down. Another strategy I've had some success with is to mix in-game and face-to-face social circles. If you live by people in your guild, hanging out with them in-person can be a good way to shake things up from the old routine. Even if you arrive at your guild-mate's house only to boot up your laptop and have a LAN party, this changes the social dynamic.
TOR especially has a chance to lessen the impact of burnout. If they do indeed encourage rolling alts in order to experience new narratives, this will keep people entertained with new story and voice-acting goodies that prevents the game from growing stale. (Assuming they care about the narrative and the voice-acting.) Varying gameplay from the usual delivery and kill-list quest types can also prevent the feeling of a grind. BioWare has stated that they're going to avoid such quests, although from what gameplay we've seen for TOR the difference seems to be more about presentation than about actual function.
What is really needed to prevent burnout is a combination of in-game events and the ability to put your game into a "holding pattern" when you start to feel the urge to take a short break. In-game events might be as simple as cosmetic changes to the landscape for holidays or might be an elaborate component of the world story that permanently alters the game's status quo. These events, big and small, provide a sense of a changing world where the player's actions impact its progress, but more importantly I would argue that they act as a sort of "mixer" for the social component of the game. People show up for the events and interact. They remember epic PvP battles or cool limited-availability quests. It provides a structure or glue that keeps the game fresh and keeps the community together. In-game support for what amounts to taking a vacation from the game would also be useful for keeping players engaged who may have something else they want to do for a time. Such a system would have to include a gameplay component, a progression component, and a pricing component that all lessen the negative impact of stepping away from the game for a bit. Essentially, the concept of "rested XP" applied to all aspects of the game. This would benefit the player by fending off the "feels like a job" syndrome and would benefit the developer because it wouldn't require the player to outright quit the game in order to take their sabbatical. It's much easier to keep a player—perhaps by offering subscription credit if your playtime drops under a particular level for the month—than to try and to convince them to renew a subscription once they've made the decision to quit.
A plethora of mini-games, alternate gameplay such as TOR's space content, and general distractions from the core gameplay of the game can also prevent fatigue from setting in. Sometimes all you need to avoid burnout is to stop raiding for a week and focus on the pazaak tables in the local cantina instead.
For me it's just a matter of time before I get burned out on a game. I always seem to have less of it and more that I want to do with it. But TOR can do some key things to lessen the impact of game fatigue. By avoiding "abusive" gameplay such as grinds and by introducing new achievements and rewards, a game can stay fresh and rewarding even without drastic changes to the core gameplay. Different reasons for becoming "burned out" on the game—casuals who feel they're falling behind and working a job, hardcore players who feel like they've run out of things to do, and anyone who simply feels there are better ways to occupy their time—can all be addressed by BioWare if they choose to officially support "off time" by making it easier to take breaks before you get burned out or while waiting for new content. Personally, I have hope that the narrative aspects of TOR—the story, the voice acting, and the new Star Wars lore—will keep me engaged in the game for a good long while. And before I find that I'm burning myself out on it, well I can always take that vacation from TOR until I start itching to dive back in.
- Discussion: "Don't Be Surprised If You Need a Vacation"
