Gaming Burnout

The dreaded phase in a gamers life-cycle: burnout. You've been gaming for a long time and suddenly it stops being as much fun; you feel it wearing down on you when game day approaches instead of getting excited. This can happen for a variety of reasons: things have become stagnant, too many responsibilities are pressing in and vying for your time, or there may be some tension between group members that are affecting everyone.

There are two main approaches to dealing with burnout: muscle through or take a break. Each has its own downsides.

If you decide to muscle through the burnout, you'll keep playing and going until it starts being fun again. Some options are to muscle through are switching roles: if you GM frequently, try playing or vice versa. Perhaps you need to change systems to keep things lively. If you routinely game in one location, try moving it to another. What you're looking for is to change something up and hopefully reignite the fading spark.

The downside is that it might not ever get fun if you don't take a break. Your lack of interest or mood may spread to other people in the group and affect them as well, making the situation worse.

Taking a break is just that: taking a break from the game. This can be an individual or a play-group taking a break. If the group is large enough, one player can take a break without adversely affecting the entire group. If the group is small though, one person taking a break may equate to the whole group taking a break. I find this to be the most effective way of staving off burnout.

The problem is that if you do take a break since you're not having fun; you may associate not playing with having fun. It is important to remember the fun you had so that you can go back to it; otherwise the break turns permanent; which may adversely affect the group. The other concern is remaining in touch with your friends that you game with while you take your hiatus. Unless the problem is with players, you want to maintain your friendships, in the event that you decide that you are done with gaming.