Burnout?

[artemis74]

Just curious if anyone is going through a period of not even trying anything new or just waiting for several updates before downloading an old favorite? I feel like if I see any new games I don't bother anymore after having seen so many be discontinued, or updates to some games being lackluster. I used to be thrilled to see something new in the past.

 

[Meaning Less]

I would recommend you taking a break from incomplete games, try and play some completed games instead. What you find in this list can be played from start to end without worrying about it being abandoned and there are over 5k of them.

You can also try looking for specific tags that seem more appealing to you right now, for instance sometimes my dick is asking for RPGM games then I go look for those, sometimes it is VNs, other times it is 3D stuff and so on. Move a bit away from the style of game you are tired of right now and explore things you haven't yet, different engines, different art, different games in general.

 

[wurg]

It happens to me from time to time. I'll go a month or two without touching any games. Right now I have a backlog of probably 30 games that I haven't played just cause I don't feel like it.

Some of the problem anymore for me is that some of the games I like update every month, but the quantity of the update isn't a lot, 10 - 15 minutes of gameplay really. Feels like I load up the game and start and it's over 2 seconds later. Other games only update once every 2 or 3 months, without a normal defined release schedule, you don't really have anything to look forward too, so when it comes out there really isn't any excitement or desire to play it right away. Anticipation is a lot of the enjoyment for me personally.

Of course there a couple of games I really liked that just disappeared altogether, got abandoned or the dev just disappeared. Those are the worst, it's probably why you are hesitant to try new games, it is for me a bit too. Why spend the time to get invested in something only to have it just stop all of a sudden.

The worst thing for me is seeing "old saves won't work, start a new game". That kills my interest in a game.

 

[Ambir]

That happens very frequently for me. These days, when a game is updated, I often check the changelog and won't download the game if it's not content I'm interested in. There are games that are exceptions, of course, but specifically for games where there are more frequent updates, I sometimes skip a couple of updates.

 

[woody554]

I rarely get to download anything anymore as I don't really bother before they hit at least v0.5 territory. everything gets abandoned before.

 

[Tokenugget]

Just curious if anyone is going through a period of not even trying anything new or just waiting for several updates before downloading an old favorite? I feel like if I see any new games I don't bother anymore after having seen so many be discontinued, or updates to some games being lackluster. I used to be thrilled to see something new in the past.

Couldn't agree more. We're in a dry spell for the beginning of 2022. I don't know why, but i guess most devs are just milking patreon. For the most part, we're waiting on games that were released 3 years ago to finish.... kinda strange. I guess Greed is Good. Although they're a couple that actually try to release content without the patreon model of "Extend releases as long as possible, because it means i can be lazy in life and enjoy free money"

I need to learn Renpy before saying more. But when games, that are essentially the same old renders repeated over and over, and takes 4 years to complete it's like Most of these devs are not better than EA Games or CD Project Red. Wecome to corporatocracy.

 

[SecretSal]

That's not exclusive to adult games. I get burnout with regular games, movies, music, books, comics, and most of my interests at some point. Thankfully, not all at the same time, so I just do something else till I feel like getting back in the pool. There's usually more of a dopamine rush when pursuing a new interest, since everything is still fresh. That fades over time, but I can still appreciate the high-quality releases when they do drop.

I also find myself getting burned out on some genres faster than others. For example, I've got no interest in starting another adult game in a school setting right now, no matter how good the reviews are. But I'll try a sci-fi game without question, even a 0.1.

 

[JoleenStar]

I used to donate to a lot of patreons I was interested in seeing completed; but I've since stopped because devs hardly if ever complete a game lol.

So many games on here that are super popular have been in development for like 2+ years with infrequent updates or substantial content.

I'll just download once I know there is more than five minutes to enjoy.

 

[woody554]

I need to learn Renpy before saying more. But when games, that are essentially the same old renders repeated over and over, and takes 4 years to complete it's like

like I said in another thread before, I've written a few shitty books for my own amusement, and making a VN is just hands down more exhausting. I've used more time on a single event than writing a book. it's just impossible to overstate how much work finishing a VN takes.

that's not to say that there aren't scumbags who are clearly lying to their fans to keep their scam going for years, but the reality of making VNs just is that it's very very exhausting.

an easy way to separate scumbags from honest struggling people is that the good ones will confess their troubles and disable donations when they're not able to work. the ones who tell you there's an update almost ready and coming out in a few weeks, then 6 months and nothing, those guys are just flat out stealing your money. in many countries they'd get a couple of years in prison easy.

 

[Ambir]

like I said in another thread before, I've written a few shitty books for my own amusement, and making a VN is just hands down more exhausting. I've used more time on a single event than writing a book. it's just impossible to overstate how much work finishing a VN takes.

that's not to say that there aren't scumbags who are clearly lying to their fans to keep their scam going for years, but the reality of making VNs just is that it's very very exhausting.

an easy way to separate scumbags from honest struggling people is that the good ones will confess their troubles and disable donations when they're not able to work. the ones who tell you there's an update almost ready and coming out in a few weeks, then 6 months and nothing, those guys are just flat out stealing your money. in many countries they'd get a couple of years in prison easy.

This. I used to think that making a VN was the easiest way to make a game. It is if you look only at the programming aspect of it. The issue is that VNs also require good art, and then there's the story... It's really hard because you need to be good at everything, otherwise it looks like crap.

 

[jamdan]

Over the past couple years, I've cut down the number of games I play in half. Used to "watch" roughly 7 pages worth of games, now it's a little over 3. And a few of those games are in a state of hiatus or near abandoned.

I've gotten into the habit of not downloading a new game until it's had a few updates. I bookmark it (click the little tag thing beside the post number) and will periodically check to see if anything has been updated. I have around 10-12 games in that list as of now. Sometimes if I get bored, I'll download a couple just to check if it's worth keeping an eye on. And then I'll either un-bookmark it or leave it there until I try it again.

I think it's like anything else. If you do too much at a time, you get tired of it. This happens with video games, movies, TV etc. I watch Netflix 2-3 times a year because I binge movies for a weekend and that's usually enough time to watch anything interesting, until I check again in a few months when new things are posted.

Just like you need to pace yourself if you make a game, you need to pace yourself if you play them too.