Am I just burn out?

MaxBat · April 2014

So I've been playing pretty steadily since early release - meaning, almost every day. I have a character in each faction and I've raised one to level 19. I've done a lot of quests, some PvP (limited) and explored several areas.

But I feel like I don't want to play any more. In fact, it's starting to feel like a chore to play this game. And I feel somewhat obligated to both like it and play it because I paid $80 for the IE and now I'll shortly be paying a monthly fee I committed to.

I have some disappointments, which I've pretty much kept to myself. Sure, the map is wonderful, but after awhile every things starts looking the same. The dungeons are shallow and not well developed. And so on - I don't want to turn this into a hate thread.

As I mentioned before, I've played every instantiation of the Elder Scrolls going back to Daggerfall - and I've poured hundreds of hours into Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim. This is the most expensive video game I've ever bought and I really, really wanted to like it. And I did like it - for a couple of weeks.

To be fair, the game wasn't buggy for me. It played well on my Macbook. ZeniMax delivered the smoothest release for an MMO ever (or so I'm told - I've only played one MMO, WOW, and that for about four hours total - hated it). The story line was, all things considered, fairly satisfying - but not compelling enough that I want to finish it.

But now the new car smell is gone and I'm missing the depth and magic of the other Elder Scrolls games. I can't say it any better than that. This game feels like it has a lot more in common with the Dragon Age series than TES, particularly in the area of character creation and gameplay mechanics. I like Dragon Age well enough, but I only put a few dozen hours into that game. Which is maybe while I feel the way I do today.

Which is ... I'm kind of wishing I hadn't bought it.

demendred · April 2014

Take a small break. When you come back, you'll want to play again.

natronosaurus · April 2014

This game doesn't feel like an elder scrolls game to me. i was foolish to expect elder scrolls online. we were. i'd be surprised if i put as many enjoyable hours into it as any previous elder scrolls title. i'd tell any of my friends who were on the fence about this title to instead boot up skyrim again.

that being said, if you're in daggerfall and want to blow stuff up, give me a tell.

Sarenia · April 2014

Breaks are a good thing.

I got burned out too at level 13. Took a few days away, made a new character, had a blast. It's up to level 10 now.

ESO isn't going anywhere. Play some Skyrim or something for a few days until you get the craving again.

Laura · April 2014

I use to think it was boring but every time I walked away I wanted to come back.

To be fair skyrim was like that for me too.

Korusus · April 2014

On EP, I got burned out on it when I got to Mournhold realized all the locations look the same and all of the public dungeons are short wham, bam, thank you ma'am, and all the dark anchors are the same, and the established lore rarely factors into any of the storylines.

There's an urgency and frantic pace to the story...everything is an emergency, everything is one step away from disaster. That's not very Elder Scrolls in my opinion where half of the fun is just existing in a living-breathing world. NPCs should have lives outside of just waiting for the next hero to come along and rescue them. Once your are finished with a locale...you never have another reason to go back. This is Narsis? This is Ebonheart? Really? Why do I feel like Tamriel Rebuilt would have built locations more memorable and interesting than anything ZOS put into the game? And they are touching locations that have never been touched in an Elder Scrolls game since Arena...very uneasy with that thought.

So as an Elder Scrolls fan I am burned out. As an MMO fan I'm still enjoying it as much as any theme park MMO is enjoyable. But I don't see myself sticking around long term.

Mishoniko · April 2014

While I wait for the Reaper's March quests to get fixed on my main and before I roll an alt in another alliance, I've been playing Metro: Last Light. I'm sorry I didn't play it sooner, its a fantastic journey.

Sharee · April 2014

If something that should be fun starts feeling like a chore, don't do it. It means you are doing it too much. Its the same no matter if an MMO or a single player game - if you overdo it it will lose it's charm. Do something else for a while. If the time is coming to pay another month, take the opportunity to postpone it. Cancel sub, and reopen it later when you feel like playing again. There's nothing wrong with taking a break.

achon · April 2014

got the same feeling (a bit too because of that srt last wekk) but i took 2 Days off sartet it and damn, that quest at Deshaan (if you look in the North there is a small Dungeon with a chest) was amazing. I am still on it. Well, guess this game got me back now.

MaxBat · April 2014

Laura wrote: »

I use to think it was boring but every time I walked away I wanted to come back.

To be fair skyrim was like that for me too.

Me, too, but not to the same degree as this. I put 175 hours into Skyrim before I started to get bored with it. One problem: the absence of specific classes and no real difference in races made all my characters in Skyrim feel the same.

Of the three games, Skyrim was probably my least favorite. But then, I still play Morrowind and Oblivion ...

Jadeviper1974 · April 2014

I never play just one game at a time. I always have a "fall back" game to go to, or even a couple of games. Right now my fallback mmo is SWTOR.

Sollyz · April 2014

If I played in every faction and only got a character to 19, I would start to feel fairly burn't out to, please don't even begin to criticise a game before you reach 50 VR 10.

Zorak · April 2014

MaxBat wrote: »

I have a character in each faction and I've raised one to level 19.

Stopped reading here.

reignfyre · April 2014

Sollyz wrote: »

If I played in every faction and only got a character to 19, I would start to feel fairly burn't out to, please don't even begin to criticise a game before you reach 50 VR 10.

Huh? Would you start a 1000 page book, get 200 pages into, bored to death, and then say-- nah I gotta keep going, can't criticize the book until the end?

No, you cut your losses. Level 19 seems plenty. Hell doing the first zone, and moving into the 2nd, its abundantly clear that the rest of the levels will all be the same. Clear the map lawnmower style, when its all filled in, move on to the next.

I don't think its burnout, the game is shallow.

Korusus · April 2014

reignfyre wrote: »

Sollyz wrote: »

If I played in every faction and only got a character to 19, I would start to feel fairly burn't out to, please don't even begin to criticise a game before you reach 50 VR 10.

No, you cut your losses. Level 19 seems plenty. Hell doing the first zone, and moving into the 2nd, its abundantly clear that the rest of the levels will all be the same. Clear the map lawnmower style, when its all filled in, move on to the next.

I don't think its burnout, the game is shallow.

Not making this game more sandbox was a mistake I think. The Elder Scrolls has never been primarily about questing so it seems odd that they put so much emphasis on it in ESO.

The most fun I ever had in Morrowind was collecting all of the Artifacts of Tamrielic Lore...not because it was a quest (it wasn't) but because it was fun. The world kept right on going without me.

At first I thought it was just Stonefalls being a low-level zone and maybe it would start to get better in Deshaan...nope. Just more linear quests to grind through and get to 50 so you can do what the developers wanted all along and play DAoC PvP 2.0. And the lore...kept hoping the lore would be the saving grace for me. But with all of the Dark Elf architecture looking exactly like any standard fantasy castles and not a piece of Bonemould in sight...the game lost me. Why exactly don't the Hlaalu use Hlaalu architecture? Why don't the Indoril cities look like Vivec? Why does every Dark Elf sound like a posh-British aristocrat from the Middle Ages? Why do the Chimer look identical to the Dark Elves when they are supposed to look like High Elves?