How long has burnout lasted for you in NH?

[Clock]

I used to played NH ever since launch everyday until some point at the end of 2020, and that's when I got burnt out. Some days in early 2021 my play time was very sporadic, I would have long breaks from playing the game and only opening the game, to closing it the moment I start playing.

When 2.0 came out, I started playing again and bought the hhp dlc which I enjoyed, I then got burnout during the end of 2021 again and the cycle begins again. 2022, I played again in April and then I stopped playing for months until December (I still don't play as much as I used to)

Tldr; I played since launch and I've had multiple cases of burnout and breaks of playing.

 

[Xara]

i’ve been burnt out quite a few times since the game came out. i’m still dealing with burnout a bit currently, but i’m still trying to play daily so that i don’t fall behind. i’d rather play once daily than have days worth of gameplay pile up because i took a break again lol.

most of my burnouts lasted a few days or weeks, but my longest one lasted for nearly a year. i was going through a lot and dealing with a lot of awful stuff in my personal life, and i just didn’t have the energy or motivation to play. i wanted to play, i just didn’t have it in me to do so. the 2.0 update was awesome and added a tonne of incredible stuff to the game, but i had to put my cat (my best friend) to sleep 2 days prior, so it didn’t motivate me to play as much as i thought it would. if anything, it overwhelmed me and made me feel kinda worse because i couldn’t be as excited as everyone else lol.

i’m finally caught up to present time in-game and playing daily, but i’m just doing my daily tasks when i play. i don’t have the energy to work on my island, and i still haven’t finished the hhp dlc. i imagine the game would be more fun and i’d maybe be less likely to burn out if i did these things, or at least did something different so i’m not just doing the same things every day, but no energy lol. i’ll get to these things eventually (i’m almost done with hhp), but for now i’m just happy i’m playing again.

 

[Disneyfangirl23]

What’s a burnout?

 

[demondays]

Tbh my burnout has been going on since the end of 2020, because I ran out of things to do and the update came a bit too late for me and I'm STILL struggling to get back into it lol. I have to say that acnl was the game that I spent the most time with.

 

[azurill]

My burnout lasted about 3 months in the beginning of 2022. I took a break because I wasn’t having fun and just Turing it on and only playing about 10minutes then turned it off. When I came back to it I redid my entire island since I wasn’t happy with it and have loved it since. I recently restarted my second island when I started getting bored with it. I was worried about restarting the second island but am so happy that I did.

 

[Clock]

What’s a burnout?

From the dictionary, "Burnout is a state of mental or physical exhaustion caused from excessive or prolonged stress."

In that case, the more you play a game, the more burnout occurs. And with burnout, you feel that you don't want to play the game anymore and it feels like a chore.

 

[Disneyfangirl23]

From the dictionary, "Burnout is a state of mental or physical exhaustion caused from excessive or prolonged stress."

In that case, the more you play a game, the more burnout occurs. And with burnout, you feel that you don't want to play the game anymore and it feels like a chore.

But for me playing doesn’t feel like a chore and I enjoy it

 

[Croconaw]

Forever, I guess. I stopped playing whenever I got bored with it. I just didn’t have motivation to play anymore.

 

[Bui]

It's been more or less permanent for me, and it set in very early in the game's life compared to previous Animal Crossing games. Despite not being able to play anywhere near as long or as frequently as earlier titles, I was pretty much fully burned out within 6 months, and most of the updates did nothing to help break through the burnout. The 2.0 update brought me back for about a week or so, but in the end the burnout was just too strong.

 

[Pyoopi]

I stopped around July-August - 2022. A lot of my little endeavors in the game are connected to story of my island and the theme. I had a lot of fun running an island journal here too. The game was a creative outlet but it started to turn into a creative workload and I already have enough of that on my plate. So I pretty much overwhelmed myself a bit.

At some point I'll return because I do want to finish my island, continue my island journal and release my dream address. I'm just really slow.

 

[VanitasFan26]

I stopped around December 2021. I haven't gone back to the game up until December 2022. Its still feels the same to me. Despite playing other games and moving on I come back to this game and asking myself "Why do I keep playing this game?" and then I remember its a game to play if I'm bored and just need to have something to turn on to escape real life problems. Then thats when the charm started to return back to me.

 

[WaileaNoRei]

I don’t think I get burnout, per se. bur there have been a few months here and there where I haven’t played (especially in the winter, idk, I guess I do not like winter in the game). But I felt more like I was not playing because I was doing other things or busy, or just wasn’t in the mood/ having personal issues, which is different than burnout I think.

A couple times when I started to feel fatigued from playing the game too much in a day - like I spent too long doing something and it started to feel like a chore rather than fun. Those times it helped to tell myself I’d just take the next day off if I wasn’t feeling it.

It can become exhausting when you feel like you are chasing a vision/ ideal but it is making you tired and annoyed rather than fun, or even just chasing the initial excitement of the game (and it’s never the same excitement as you feel when everything is new).
There’s only so much energy any of us have for our hobbies, so I think the best way to deal with ‘burnout’ type feelings is to just let the game be when you are not in the mood.

I do think a lot of people who started the game during the pandemic played at a much more intensive level than they would have in normal times. If you crammed 3 years worth of play time into 1 year, then it would make perfect sense to be feeling burnt out.

 

[WaileaNoRei]

I stopped around December 2021. I haven't gone back to the game up until December 2022. Its still feels the same to me. Despite playing other games and moving on I come back to this game and asking myself "Why do I keep playing this game?" and then I remember its a game to play if I'm bored and just need to have something to turn on to escape real life problems. Then thats when the charm started to return back to me.

Just want to say I love this sentiment and. It is pretty much what I wanted to say, but much less wordy than me!

and welcome back, btw! I have just recently returned to being a more active user on here too! Hope you are doing well!

 

[xSuperMario64x]

lol I've been burned out on the game since July 2020, haven't played consistently since then

 

[VanitasFan26]

and welcome back, btw! I have just recently returned to being a more active user on here too! Hope you are doing well!

Thanks. I'm not 100% fully better mentally speaking but I am getting there.

 

[PoppyPumpkin]

I played pretty steadily from launched until sometime last summer. I have a second switch and a switch lite, so in total I have 3 islands. I'm still working on 2 of them, but I think my burn out came more from me wanting to further my main and first Island, but not knowing what to do. Or what villagers to let move. Which I know sounds -so- silly but x.x it stressed me out on my other islands too even though they're still a work in progress. My ocd gets the better of me in so many ways >.<
I just started playing again more lately. I never let it sit for TOO long honestly, usually only when something new comes out like the new ffxiv/wow expansions.

 

[Ganucci]

I got the game on release day and played almost every day up until mid-summer 2022. Since then I've checked in a few times, but haven't gone back otherwise. I think I was starting to slow down right before the 2.0 update, but that brought me back in for a while. I started to realize I wanted to spend time playing other games and the ACNH grind was getting monotonous. I'm not one to flatten my island and or restart, so I ran out of things to do.

Also, another huge reason was that the reality of Nintendo just absolutely dropping the ball on one of their best selling games for some reason just kinda hurt me. Animal Crossing is a series that has always been dear to my heart, so when it got such popularity I was thinking the updates would come for a long time. Even if they weren't big content updates, just a few items here and there, I thought it would live for a while...but oh how wrong I was. It just was and still is so sad to see it abandoned. The lack of a 2023 Celebratory Arch was the nail in the coffin for me and now I have zero motivation to go back.

 

[gabuie]

i got burnt out the moment i found out there's a "tutorial mode"...i continued to play in hopes to revive the feeling i had while playing wild world and new leaf but all i was left was a hollow shell of the previous games. don't get me wrong there's some good aspects of the game but nintendo honestly released an unfinished game for their own profit...very lazy if u ask me...PS I'M STILL PLAYING ANWYAYZ lol haha xd

 

[jiny]

i played daily back when the game first came out,, but i kept losing motivation because my island didnt look as pretty as other islands i was seeing online and the fact that terraforming and designing my island takes up a LOT of time i just burnt out from playing and i only recently started playing again in december even now i still feel like playing seems like a chore? sometimes i play just to play happy home paradise lol, its fun

 

[PoppyPumpkin]

i played daily back when the game first came out,, but i kept losing motivation because my island didnt look as pretty as other islands i was seeing online and the fact that terraforming and designing my island takes up a LOT of time i just burnt out from playing and i only recently started playing again in december even now i still feel like playing seems like a chore? sometimes i play just to play happy home paradise lol, its fun

I think a lot of people burned out because they compared themselves to other Islands. I know I did. My main Island, I think, looks really nice. But it's nothing compared to some of these huge in depth Islands, imo x.x I think the need to make it look better but not knowing where to start always gets me. Honestly the only thing I can think to say is all Islands are amazing in their own way and no matter what yours looks like, it's special because it's yours. Try not to compare yourself to others and just focus on doing things in the game that you enjoy, not that you feel like you -need- to do so if Happy Home is what makes you happy when playing then that is TOTALLY fine to log on to just do <3