The Limit, Part 3

[Badstench]

I've been a little bit down on gaming this last week.

My computer had a hernia which necessitated the purchase of a new one. That's not why I'm down; I'm happy with my new acquisition... it's so much faster and offers more alternatives.

But I lost time. Is it sad of me to worry about the forum in my absence? I was freaking out that "Birthdates" would slip behind, that I'd not be able to present "Players in the Spotlight" punctually.

So, once I was up and running again, all my time was spent playing catch-up with forum responsibilities.

Are they responsibilities?

In my mind, they are. I feel responsible for the promises I make and the undertakings I begin.

My first efforts, after I bought a new laptop, were all targeted at fulfilling my promise to you that certain threads would appear when I said they would. This had a direct cause and effect on my gaming time, which hasn't happened much over the past week.

In effect, I had reached a limit.

But, this is not an excuse or a reason to decry my loss of game time. If anything, it proved to me that the people who play this game are of equal importance.

Sryth is basically a one-on-one game that doesn't need interaction between players, but the forum denies that premise.

I actually enjoy interacting with other players on the forum; it reinforces the idea that I'm part of an international community.

I also have to be honest and say that this forum offers me a chance to present myself to other people within a passtime that I enjoy participating. I write stories, I share opinions, I tell jokes.

I've spent approximately 3 hours gaming this week, and five times that much in the forum. I don't begrudge this of anyone, you or me.

The Limit in the context of this post is by way of me sending out my appreciation of the part you play in making my gaming experience more than the game itself.

Thank you.

[thingirl]

And I'm not makeing your jobany easier. Now some of those questions make sence...

[Elrond]

Badstench, you do a very commendable job with the forum. Your contributions are innovative and attractive. You deserve multiple reps. for it. Here is the first one coming your way!

[thingirl]

Here's 3 more :)

EDIT: This is my 1,500th post.

[Badstench]

One of Elendil's questions to me in the last series of "Players in the Spotlight" asked if I was in danger of 'burning out', what with everything I was doing in the forum and trying to attain 'ranking' status for Judge Fury.

I flippantly answered that i didn't think 'burnout' would happen.

Famous last words.

Over the past 3 weeks, I hardly touched the game... and when I did log on, i found my heart wasn't in it.

I kept up with the "Birthdates" thread for the sake of continuity, and because i enjoy learning all the little facts and figures the research offers. The new series of interviews with non-players was graciously accepted by the gm, and this also proved to be a challenge for me: coming up with questions that would satisfy me, you, and not be repetitive for the gm.

But I have hardly played the game at all. I found myself playing Age of Empires more often, and even revisited Runescape for a time.

This proved to me that I wasn't sick of gaming or the computer... I'd burned out with playing Sryth.

I should clarify that statement; I'd burned out with 'grinding'. i still logged on to check for new releases and to participate with the recent raffle and halloween event, but that was pretty much it.

Another thing that added to my gaming woes was the advent of slow connections to Sryth. This made it almost impossible to play. I don't know why this is happening of a sudden... maybe the game has a a lot of new players and the Sryth server is being swamped at various times? May be my server is experiencing overload?

Whatever... I've been infused with a new enthusiasm for playing, so you'll see Judge Fury around a bit more now (I hope).

I think my scarcity of playing time might have had something to do with the fact that i didn't have a clear goal for Judge Fury. After I achieved legendary status in Restoration, I only had a wishy-washy idea of what to do next; I wasn't focused.

I'm focused now, so watch while Judge Fury, a) treats his Divination power to a flood of XP points and b) keeps an eye on his capability of reclaiming top spot in the Bonehorde challenge.

The latter has become a mid-term goal... Garret Jax has done extremely well with his current high level... damn him!

[Elrond]

Lol ... Thanks for the reference to my earlier question :) . My take is that a temporary "vacation" from the game every once in a while is healthy. I took one last week to read the LotR. Tarn runs are more "fun" now that I haven't done any in a while!

[billydakid]

Actually everyone can experience burn out. I've done some things to avoid this. I used to think I had to fight every mp battle. Doing this was beginning to burn me out ,and I began not fighting them as much. Instead i've kept doig Tarn as I have been since it came out but have been doing the bone horde challenge several times a day. This way I can gain just as good exp and do it when I want to do it and not when i have to. I will occasionally jump in on an mp battle but now feel I don't have to to get my exp because I'm getting it at other places at my own choosing. This has eliminated the burn out thing for me.

[Elrond]

Actually everyone can experience burn out. I've done some things to avoid this. I used to think I had to fight every mp battle. Doing this was beginning to burn me out ,and I began not fighting them as much. Instead i've kept doig Tarn as I have been since it came out but have been doing the bone horde challenge several times a day. This way I can gain just as good exp and do it when I want to do it and not when i have to. I will occasionally jump in on an mp battle but now feel I don't have to to get my exp because I'm getting it at other places at my own choosing. This has eliminated the burn out thing for me.

Reading the above post hit me with the thought that Da Kid is one of the most prolific grinders in the game. Yet his lack of "boasting" makes him one of the least recognized grinding guru's. Here's a repp for your efforts!

[billydakid]

Thank you Elrond for the rep.

[scout1idf]

Actually everyone can experience burn out. I've done some things to avoid this. I used to think I had to fight every mp battle. Doing this was beginning to burn me out ,and I began not fighting them as much. Instead i've kept doig Tarn as I have been since it came out but have been doing the bone horde challenge several times a day. This way I can gain just as good exp and do it when I want to do it and not when i have to. I will occasionally jump in on an mp battle but now feel I don't have to to get my exp because I'm getting it at other places at my own choosing. This has eliminated the burn out thing for me.

I hate to say it, but I'm still burned out. Except for the special events and of course daily CHR runs, I rarely do any playing. I did Axepath the other night just before bed and that's about it.

I hope this burn out ends soon! Especially since I noticed over the last couple of weeks that Scout has slipped from #16 to #19.

It was to hard getting into the top 20 in less than a year of playing and now it seems to be slipping away from me........

[billydakid]

I think we all need some new blood to kill. other then the halloween event we haven't had a nice good adventure lately. I think we're all dying to see what happens in the pvg adventure. I know I am. I found when I was doing all them mp's usually with one other person or on my own that was burning me out this way it's much less becauseI i know when tarn ends can usually do one of those runs in 25 to 30 mins,and I know when bone horde is over for me. It saves a lot of time and like I said get the same exp. I hope this may help others to avoid burn out.

[wetheril]

It's interesting to hear what you all have to say about grinding, and burn-out. I guess I'll share my take on it as well.

More than three weeks ago, I couldn't even get myself to do CHR everyday. When I first came back, there was a lot of new content, and that was a lot of fun playing catch-up. After I finished with the new content, I had no desire to just grind away, so I did very little grinding for a whole month after I came back to Sryth.

That kind of changed, when I decided to set a goal about 3 weeks ago; I never announced it publicly, but I took it just as seriously. smv1973 was the only one I ever told about that goal in the beginning--to hoard 1 million general exp. Grinding without a purpose is just something I can't do. I have recently achieved my goal, so why am I still grinding? I currently want to see how long I can chain together 100+ exp days.

Admittedly, I learned a lot about how to make my grinds more time-efficient, and most importantly, how to pace myself. It's easier to do something if you have a method to go about doing it, and that's what I did; I have an Excel spreadsheet that records my grinds, rewards, time, and location, and helps me calculate approximately how much exp I've made that day. It makes it easy for me to figure out if I've done enough for the day, or if I need to hit a few extra spots to make up the total.

I see it as being a lot like training yourself for long distance running; you don't just do it all at once without any idea of what to expect. You start small, and gradually work your way to finding your own rhythm.

[texlaw1992]

I've taken a break from Sryth to play the new GTA - almost finished now.

I played Sryth today for the first time in a week. The only remaining thing to do at this point is get the Ice Shield. I'm finally over the halfway mark at 19 runs - all downhill from here.

Hopefully the next month will bring a new Sryth adventure or two.

[Doolipalally]

The problem I have with grinding is that a day when I play a lot of Sryth is usually a day when I don't achieve what I'm supposed to achieve, whether that's chores, paid work, exercise, socialising or whatever.

Like Wetheril I have a spreadsheet which lets me compare grinding days (though by the sound of it it's a bit simpler than hers - hmm, might think about expanding it a bit...) But every time I get a sense of achievement from a solid day's grinding score, I have to balance it with the nagging sense of guilt that I've spent that time at the computer playing a game, rather than cleaning the house, trying to do my 10,000 steps a day, writing a novel, getting some work done before the deadline approaches, phoning a friend, doing my filing, surfing the net looking for Christmas present ideas, weeding the garden, taking old clothes to the charity shop etc. etc.

Am I alone in having a Sryth guilt syndrome?

[thingirl]

No. Not at all. I got the internet removed upstairs. 'Nuff said.

[Doolipalally]

Ah, but is that really guilt, or just that you don't want your mother to know how much time you're spending Srything?

(I have both, by the way, but since my mother lives at least 160 miles away it's less of a problem!)

[thingirl]

No. She took it away! And more the second one, but I really fell behind in school.

[wetheril]

No. She took it away! And more the second one, but I really fell behind in school.

That explains why you've been posting less in general. ;)

And Dooli, no, you're not alone in having this "guilt"; I don't like the feeling of not getting stuff done in real life either, and that actually contributed to my not wanting to grind at first.

Life really should come first, and Srything second (though sometimes it feels nicer to have Srything come first--but it's only temporarily a good feeling). The Excel thing is recent; if I don't have structure in my life, I easily get depressed. It's all about trying to find your inner balance, I suppose. I'm lucky that I don't have any kids yet, so there is only me and fiance to worry about. To be honest, I know there will be days I won't hit my "target goal", and it will be because something in life comes first.

[billydakid]

Dooli don't feel guilty about the house work lol That is one thing I keep putting off because I hate house work. As far as you writing your novel,just think of it this way when your playing the game your going through your writers block so your just clearing your head.

[smv1973]

Believe it or not I deal with Sryth burn out quite often. A couple of weeks ago a storm took out the phone line to my home and my internet goes through the phone line. This ment I was not able to play Sryth for two and a half days. At first when I found out that I could not play I was upset and kind of sad. But after the phone line and internet was fixed I was happy to be able to play the game, but I was also happy that I had a break from the game. Doing the same stuff day in and day out does make the game less enjoyable to play. I find the game is more fun after the little break I had and I don't feel the need to force myself to play the game past the time when I am not having as much fun. My key now is to only play for as long as I am having fun.

[billydakid]

I take Sundays off for the most part. football.

[Elrond]

Am I alone in having a Sryth guilt syndrome?

Hmmm ... An interesting question that rattles the cage or removes the veil to expose some of the most unwelcome feelings that might cross a mind when thinking about Srything!

"Dang, I've spent 60 minutes a day (on average) for 2 full years playing this game. That translates into 1 full month of my life and 1.5 months of my non-sleep life on this game. What could I have done in that time?"

But that isn't how I go about it. If it wasn't for Sryth, the escape and timeout from RL hassles, then I wouldn't have been able to achieve what I did achieve in my non-Sryth time.

The above could be a defense mechanism; but it works!

[Badstench]

Spare time.

What do you do with it?

More importantly... what did I use to do with it?

I read books, I watched movies... and TV. I don't watch TV much any more.

I don't read much any more, lest it's on the internet.

But how do you constitute spare time?

Deep questions and philosophy for the modern age.

[billydakid]

I do something I enjoy like playing this game. Spare time is do to what ever you enjoy with.