Gaming Burnout or End of Year Blues

Posted by Stropp on November 22, 2006

Tobold posted tonight on Measuring World of Warcraft Burnout. He has noticed a recent increase in the number of quit posts on forums, as well as blogs, and cites the financial reporting from The9 Limited as evidence that players are leaving WoW. The9 is the company that runs WoW in China, and is reporting a 10 percent decrease in player activity over the past quarter.

Now there are reasons other than burnout that could be responsible for this decrease. As one of the commenters on Tobolds post mentioned, the Chinese government has put a restriction on how many hours a player can play a MMORPG. This is very likely the primary force that is causing Chinese players to play less.

For the rest of us though, there are probably a number of factors why people are leaving the game.

It’s the end of the year. I don’t know about anybody else, but I always feel tired at this time of the year. I’m looking forward to the Christmas break, and there is always a work deadline that falls at the 23rd of December, or in the first weeks of January. No idea why, our customers are out enjoying their holidays, not reading system specs or test plans.

It’s also the time when a lot of new games get released in time for the holidays. Perhaps players feeling like something different buy a new game and spend a bit of time playing that rather than WoW. I’ll admit to that one too. I purchased Neverwinter Nights 2 the other day, and have spent a few hours playing that. I’m writing up a review at the moment, and should have my First Impressions out in a day or three.

The end of the year is not just about feeling tired, it’s also about getting things done before the break. Students have exams, workers have deadlines, and everyone is expected to do more family oriented activity.

Finally, everyone is expecting the Burning Crusade expansion to change how certain aspects of the game is played, as well as to reduce the importance of certain high end items that can only be gained through raids. If the PvP system is changing, why bother running battlegrounds until your eyes bleed to gain that extra rank if it is all gone in a month and a half? Why bother raiding every night of the week for tier 4 armor if the green items you get at 63 are much better? May as well take a break until the expansion is released.

So is it burnout? Certainly for some players. WoW is like every other game, it’s only worth playing while it’s fun. And if some players are burnt out and not enjoying the game, then yeah, they’ll leave.

For the majority I think, it’s more likely the end of year blues. Tiredness, business, and the expectation of something new and different when the Burning Crusade comes out. I know that I’ve been feeling that to some extent, but I’m also feeling excited about the new content that will soon be upon us. I’ll be wandering into Outland early next year with a look of expectation and wonder on my face.

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