anyone else take long brakes?

[trunks.5249]

i logged in to do some events and couldn't wait to log off .for some reason for a couple of months i cant get enough. then slowly i cant bring myself to log in. then i do not touch the game for5-6 months. then i cant get enough all over again. am i crazy or do you guys do this has well?

[Taclism.2406]

I'd say your attitude is the opposite of crazy. A "crazy" (or stubborn) person would find some copium reasons to stick to a game they don't enjoy anymore.
You recognize when you're going to burn out and need a break before it ruins your enjoyment for good. That makes for a way saner approach to gaming as far as I'm concerned. Also lets you experience other products and thus have more perspective as to whether or not you wanna return / buy more of Anet's recent releases

Edited October 24, 2023 by Taclism.2406

[Danikat.8537]

Yes, that's how I've always played games. I'm always going between at least about 3 or 4 different ones but which ones it is change all the time and it's rarely a planned decision to stop one for a certain amount of time (or even to give up on it completely), or to pick it up again after a break. I just play whatever I feel like at the time.

Over the summer I was in a very similar situation to you, I'd log into GW2, check on a couple of things and then just log out again and do something else. Then I had a crazy-busy period when I wasn't even doing that a lot of the time (annoyingly that crossed over with SotO launching) then I started doing the SotO story and that got me back into GW2, but sooner or later my activity will drop off for a bit again. (For one thing I want to get Baldur's Gate 3 sometime.)

I don't think it's a big deal, the point of any video game is to have fun so if you're not enjoying it there's no reason to play. I also think GW2 is pretty good about making it easy to drop the game for a while and then come back when you feel like it. Even when people have been gone for years the only challenges are remembering how to play and working out which of the missed releases they want to buy, if any. If you remember how the game works you can just carry on from where you were.

[trunks.5249]

6 minutes ago, Danikat.8537 said:

Yes, that's how I've always played games. I'm always going between at least about 3 or 4 different ones but which ones it is change all the time and it's rarely a planned decision to stop one for a certain amount of time (or even to give up on it completely), or to pick it up again after a break. I just play whatever I feel like at the time.

Over the summer I was in a very similar situation to you, I'd log into GW2, check on a couple of things and then just log out again and do something else. Then I had a crazy-busy period when I wasn't even doing that a lot of the time (annoyingly that crossed over with SotO launching) then I started doing the SotO story and that got me back into GW2, but sooner or later my activity will drop off for a bit again. (For one thing I want to get Baldur's Gate 3 sometime.)

I don't think it's a big deal, the point of any video game is to have fun so if you're not enjoying it there's no reason to play. I also think GW2 is pretty good about making it easy to drop the game for a while and then come back when you feel like it. Even when people have been gone for years the only challenges are remembering how to play and working out which of the missed releases they want to buy, if any. If you remember how the game works you can just carry on from where you were.

BG3 is really good. just do some research on the classes or you might end up starting the game over a few times lol

[Kiki.9450]

I took one very long (several years) break when life was too busy for me to really be able to commit to GW2. Life calmed down for me mid-2021 and I've been playing pretty well non-stop since.

 

Whether it's life situations or just burn out, it's good to stop, step back, and play other games or pursue other hobbies. Take care of yourself and your family and friends first. When you're ready, the game will still be here.

 

One of my absolute favourite things about GW2 is that, regardless how long you may not play, your progress in the game relative to other players is about the same. No real catching up to do before you're "allowed" to play the latest releases and no missing out on significant seasonal or one-time events!

[Danikat.8537]

1 minute ago, trunks.5249 said:

BG3 is really good. just do some research on the classes or you might end up starting the game over a few times lol

I've known I want to play it since I heard the name (I loved 1 and 2, and many of the other DnD video games), I just haven't had time for a new game recently, life keeps getting in the way.

I'm fully expecting to spend at least an hour in the character creator the first time and to restart a few times, even though I have a better idea of the kind of characters I like to play than when I started the first one. I even did that with GW2 and then I was adapting some characters from GW1. I basically spent the beta tests making different versions of my characters to see what I wanted to play and still ended up restarting 2 of them in the first week after release. Come to think of it my main GW2 character is one of many incarnations of the spiritual successor to my main Baldur's Gate character (although she got her start in Ultima Online and her first DnD game was Neverwinter Nights). Maybe I'll take things full circle and play her in BG3.

Incidentally I think that helps me with burn-out as well. I have a lot of characters (too many really) and they're all different so it adds a bit more variety to what I'm doing. For example when Halloween started up I was thinking about which character I should use, and then ended up using a few of them to do different things. Sometimes it's about which profession I think would work best, other times it's purely what would be fun for me.

[knives.6345]

I took like a 7 year break before 2023. I left with only the original Legendaries, came back with 2 new sets. O_O

And I was also like.. Who tf is Aurene? And all the other elder dragons dead now?  No one else does dungeons? Why is the game so easy?

Now I take a few days break every week or every other week.

[Knight.6914]

I am, and one of the things I most regret in my videogame-life is not being present half the time of LS1 arc. I felt relieved when I could play it, though I know nothing would compare to the feeling you could get back at 2014, as world developed. 

I've played GW2 since the beginning, sometimes with "hardcore playing" sessions of many hours a day for weeks, sometimes more casual (depending on other games and of course real life matters and interests). 

And I have the need to disconnect from time to time, sometimes weeks, sometimes more than six months or even a whole year.

But somehow, I always return, and enjoy the game again for months, before taking another break. And GW2 semi-casual design suits me very well for that. I don't feel the pressure to come back, so I actually do it because I want to enjoy it, and I don't feel the pressure to let it go, because, rather than losing interest in GW2, there are other things that in that exact moment are more attractive  so I stop playing.

Seems pretty healthy to me, for a MMO.

[starlinvf.1358]

10 hours ago, trunks.5249 said:

BG3 is really good. just do some research on the classes or you might end up starting the game over a few times lol

This is why session zero is important. 

[Lucius.2140]

I do that since nearly the start of Season 3. This is my longest time back (around 2 1/2 months).

Is totally normal to go out and back, content tends to dry out, or get repetitive and theres several options out there.

What usually mantain my some time is switching alts and doing some collections, some are interesting.

 

 

[Fueki.4753]

I don't now if it can be called a long break, but I've only logged a few times since SotO launched and shoved the unwanted Wizard's Toilet into my face.

Before that, I did dailies always daily. But the toilet and its mobile-esque UI, combined with the lack of wiggly chests for the rewards AND the lack of real choice between the dailies managed to completely sap my daily bit of motivation.

Edited October 25, 2023 by Fueki.4753

[Tukaram.8256]

53 minutes ago, Fueki.4753 said:

I don't now if it can be called a long break, but I've only logged a few times since SotO launched and shoved the unwanted Wizard's Toilet into my face.

I am playing far more than I used to.  I love the new daily system and the Wizard's Vault.  And SotO is the most fun I have had in ages.  😎

For the OP - Right after HoT released, I hated it. I took a break... pretty much until PoF released. I went back later to the HoT maps, and they still suck. I took a break during Icebrood, because my computer died, and it took 6 months to get another from the US.  Been pretty steady for a while; EoD was great, SotO is even better (so far).

[Fueki.4753]

15 minutes ago, Tukaram.8256 said:

I love the new daily system and the Wizard's Vault.

They could have released the Toilet without sacrificing any of the good points of the prior daily system.

The rewards for completing a daily should have remained right-clickable as a wiggly chest above the minimap, so people could choose whether to use the UI or to bypass it.

The dailies should have remained twelve objective distributed among PvE, sPvP and WvW, so players could choose which ones they want to do. If they have concerns about players gaining too much toilet currency, just limit the currency to be gained from four of the dailies.

They could have done substantially more with this system to not negatively affect groups of players, but they decided not to.

Edited October 25, 2023 by Fueki.4753

[Galmac.4680]

I had a long break, what horrible 8 hours… 🤣

[Dante.1508]

Yes usually about a year or so.. Play for about 2-3 months then i'm gone again.. There is so little open world content i give up. Currently on a break now haven't logged in since relics were shown.. i'll probably come back at the final release of Soto.. But honestly it looks a mess at this time so who knows..

[bossdonut.1938]

yes if you are bored just stop for a while

ff14 expansion this time around isnt singing to me so i dont play very much

 

however i have to do my weekly cactpot

 

i still havent won

[aetemes.2603]

On 10/24/2023 at 8:10 AM, trunks.5249 said:

i logged in to do some events and couldn't wait to log off .for some reason for a couple of months i cant get enough. then slowly i cant bring myself to log in. then i do not touch the game for5-6 months. then i cant get enough all over again. am i crazy or do you guys do this has well?

Loool it's so funny I always come back to the game around halloween time every single time...by the time the haloween event is over I can't get my self to play anymore..I'm gonna try to log in at christmas/wintersday, an event I literally have never experienced and miss out on all the skins...or the new year luck one...

It's weird I think the winter blues hit me, use the game to cope..adjust to winter then move on or something lol.

[Linken.6345]

1 hour ago, Dante.1508 said:

Yes usually about a year or so.. Play for about 2-3 months then i'm gone again.. There is so little open world content i give up. Currently on a break now haven't logged in since relics were shown.. i'll probably come back at the final release of Soto.. But honestly it looks a mess at this time so who knows..

It is kinda strange since that is 95% of the content we do get tho.

[vares.8457]

7 hours ago, Dante.1508 said:

There is so little open world content

lol that’s nonsense. Open World is the game mode with the most content. There is more than enough to do in Open World. 
But if it is too little for you, you can play the other game modes as well. 

Edited November 5, 2023 by vares.8457

[Fueki.4753]

40 minutes ago, vares.8457 said:

lol that’s nonsense. Open World is the game mode with the most content. There is more than enough to do in Open World. 
But if it is too little for you, you can play the other game modes as well. 

For someone who played since launch, the amounts of new content released after EoD may really feel like a pittance, especially compared to what we got before the second "half" of season 5.

While there objectively is a quite a lot of content in the game, the subjective feeling differs greatly.

Edited November 5, 2023 by Fueki.4753

[Danikat.8537]

1 hour ago, vares.8457 said:

lol that’s nonsense. Open World is the game mode with the most content. There is more than enough to do in Open World. 
But if it is too little for you, you can play the other game modes as well. 

Dante said they come back for 2-3 months every year or so, I doubt they've spent a lot of time doing meta events, especially the ones that require figuring out the map timing and coordinating groups (which IMO are the most interesting). Also looking at their post history their current 'return' seems to be finding all the vaguely negative topics in the forum to post comments like this. I think they've realised they don't actually enjoy this game and are trying to convince themselves to cut ties completely, whether the objections make sense or not.

[Widebody.5071]

On 10/24/2023 at 7:10 AM, trunks.5249 said:

i logged in to do some events and couldn't wait to log off .for some reason for a couple of months i cant get enough. then slowly i cant bring myself to log in. then i do not touch the game for5-6 months. then i cant get enough all over again. am i crazy or do you guys do this has well?

I've came back after like 6-7 years break and played about a couple of years since. I am at the point where I just just logged in to tend to my gardening and refinement crafting.

I've lost interest in the game basically. My monthly budget have shrunk from 20 bucks to 5 bucks a month.

The game has turned to petty and political for me with everyone vying for the devs favor in shaping the game in their favor.

There's other good games out that runs much smoother and just as if not more fun to play. 

Spending more time with my grandkids (my ultimate dream) while acting as their personal chauffeur for after school activities is more satisfying.

 

 

[costepj.5120]

I've long suspected that different players look for different things in the games they play. 🤔

As for me, GW2 more than satisfies my gaming needs. I have logged over 18K hours and I still have many things I want to do. It definitely helps having people to play with. I have real life friends and an active guild to keep me energised.

[Teknomancer.4895]

On 10/24/2023 at 10:31 AM, Danikat.8537 said:

Even when people have been gone for years the only challenges are remembering how to play and working out which of the missed releases they want to buy, if any.

Don't forget the bit about adjusting to all of the nerfs and other changes that happen during any extended absence. 🤨 That was huge for me when I came back after many years; my old builds were of course still equipped, but they had been more or less nerfed down to 💩 tier in my absence. It took a long time to figure out what happened and how to be viable again across the characters that I actually play.

On 10/24/2023 at 12:18 PM, Knight.6914 said:

I am, and one of the things I most regret in my videogame-life is not being present half the time of LS1 arc. I felt relieved when I could play it, though I know nothing would compare to the feeling you could get back at 2014, as world developed. 

It's true. When the original LA was in ruins and burning and we were still fending off Scarlet's hordes, nobody had any clue what was going to come next. So when they unveiled the new (current) LA, that "welcome" video was just unbelievable. I even choked up a little to see it all bigger and better than ever, ngl.

Edited November 5, 2023 by Teknomancer.4895
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[TheQuickFox.3826]

It's normal. And very much a personal regard to how much time you have, where you spend it on, how much the game keeps attracting and interesting you. And whether GW2 is your primary game or just one of the many.

 

To me, GW2 is my primary game and I play it on a daily basis I like long term progression so working on things like achievements, legendary gear maxing masteries is a meaningful thing for me to spend my time on. If I did not value this, I would probably have paused a lot more often.