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What do you do to combat gameplay burnout?

Discussion in 'Access Guide to the Human Sphere' started by Randomcallsign, Jan 16, 2019.

  1. Randomcallsign

    Randomcallsign Well-Known Member

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    Just wanted to post an open-ended question regarding burnout when it comes to actually playing Infinity. I love the system, the ruleset, playing the game itself, and the hobby side of things but lately I've been on such a long run of bad dice it's diminished the fun I'm having.

    I've tried superstitious fixes like switching and even sacrificing dice to no avail.
    I've also moved more towards painting up my second army in the hopes that hobby time will make me miss the game regardless of results. (Also, maybe playing a different army will change things up for me.)
    I also want to just try to play through it knowing that even if the dice don't always do what I want I made the right tactical decision in the moment.

    I don't want this to come off as whiny or rage-quitty. But I know burnout is a real thing that affects many players and I'd love to engage with others about their experiences and recoveries in an effort to maybe help all of us fight back onto the gaming horse.

    So, how bout it? How do you stay engaged?
     
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  2. MikeTheScrivener

    MikeTheScrivener O-12 Peace Kepper

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    Take a break!
    play some video games, play a board game with some friends, don't force it. It's natural to want to take a break or just relax form time to time. This is a hobby and should feel as such – it should feel like something you enjoy rather than a job you have to do. I know for me, if I'm feeling burned out, I just try and take it easy. sooner or later I'll get the idea for a list or an army and a new project will be born and I'll be more into infinity than I was before.
     
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  3. Ben Kenobi

    Ben Kenobi Well-Known Member

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    Can't speak for Infinity, but I made the experience, that, when you take a complete break for 1-2 month and then go to a big tournament
    (16+ people, very hard for Infinity) where you meet new guys and can talk about the hobby, helps a lot.
     
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  4. Skaldur

    Skaldur Active Member

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    I think change is the natural counter to stagnation. You could try a few things to get you excited again:

    Buy new models or terrain to paint and play with or even start a new faction

    Expand your playgroup. I'm not sure what your meta is like but if it always the same people it can get a bit stale sometimes... People always play variations of the same list and the stronger/ more experienced players always triumph. Going further afield for opponents or trying to bring new blood into your group is a great way to shake things up
     
  5. natetehaggresar

    natetehaggresar Senior Backlogged Painter Manager

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    Two things;

    1. Bad dice happen, if you are actually being crit off the table left and right, well there isn't anything you can do about it. Compared to other games I play the number of dice you roll is smaller so outliers with truely bad luck happen more often. Just don't take it as a reflection of your ability to play and laugh as your dudes drop like flies.

    2. If this seems to happen ALL the time, I think some introspection is required. Is your opponent truely getting lucky, or could you be making better play decisions? I'll sit down to talk with my opponent after a game and try to figure out ways I could achive the same strategic goals while minimizing my risk. Also after games I try to look at one important roll in the dice calculator. Sometimes things you felt were a good idea might not have been, dice probability in infinity is not intuitive, and some common catchisms like "burst is King" are false, at least at face value.
     
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  6. Section9

    Section9 Well-Known Member

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    If you still want to do infinity things, be here on the forum, build/paint some new terrain, try some crazy-ass army ideas that you're not expecting to win anyway, ...


    else do something NOT infinity and take a break!
     
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  7. barakiel

    barakiel Echo Bravo Master Sergeant

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    I find burnout happens when you don't have a project. I tend to be very project-oriented in how I motivate myself.

    "Hey, big tournament coming up in March, so I'll practice for it."

    "Whoa, cool new sectorial coming out, I want to play a dozen games to learn it better."

    "Look, brand new player in our group, I'm going to play a few games with them to help them learn."

    Starting a new army can be very positive if it gives you drive, but it can also help you feel directionless and less motivated. I see a lot of burnout when players buy every new thing, without really investing any hobby or play time towards enjoying their new purchases. This can enhance burnout, so approach with caution.

    As for bad dice luck... I don't really know, I'm reluctant to think of any game where bad dice were the sole reason thing went poorly for me. Dice may have been a major factor, but there's almost always something I could have done better to avoid putting myself in a position where that dice roll mattered so much. One way to help address bad dice is to change up how you play your army, perhaps with new lists or a new approach. With a new approach, you focus less on what the dice do, and more on how to use the units and control them in a way that helps the game. It's easy to get complacent if you play the same list or similar units too often.
     
  8. dlfleetw

    dlfleetw Well-Known Member

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    Play a mix of games; our group has a healthy mix of boardgamers and miniature enthusiasts.

    We switch around what we play.
     
  9. natetehaggresar

    natetehaggresar Senior Backlogged Painter Manager

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    @barakiel is super right.

    I frequently hear THE SAME players who are near the bottom of rankings for tournments say things like they need to "learn to roll better."

    If it's consistent, it isn't the dice that are causing you to lose.
     
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  10. Hecaton

    Hecaton EI Anger Translator

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    Yeah, I've played hundreds of games of Infinity, and I've maybe had 1 or 2 where I lost entirely due to dice and not due to bad decisions in the list building stage or on the table.
     
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  11. theGricks

    theGricks Well-Known Member

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    @barakiel is spot on.

    Personally I don't get burnout because with a baby in my life, I only get to play maybe once a week. I get burnout on the hobby aspect personally but that is due again to baby. When you only have one hobby or the ability to devote a ton of time to one thing, you will get burnout, thats anything you do.

    An option may be to focus on another hobby for a bit.
     
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  12. meikyoushisui

    meikyoushisui Competitor for Most Ignored User

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    It seems like the players who make the best tactical decisions tend to have the best dice as well... it's strange how that works out.
     
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  13. Randomcallsign

    Randomcallsign Well-Known Member

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    You've got a solid point there. I punched in the first really bad result which was getting a Assault pistol Desperado into the short range band against a Linked HaiDao Multi Sniper. I felt really good about being able to pie slice on a few previous orders with an HMG to reduce his link team to three and negate his +3 BS. Moved the desperado up and used smoke to cut off a fire lane from his other two team mates and fire away in my good range band. with five shots the calculator shows I had a 70% chance for a wound, which I could have then repeated or used a chain rifle to remove his NWI and a 30% of killing him outright. The 11.28% chance of the reckless biker being knocked unconscious was the unfortunate result however. Hindsight being 20/20 I should have maybe had a backup model somewhere nearby that could have operated as a failsafe against that possiblity but I don't think I bounced back well enough from that failed model trade and wound up playing off my back foot for the rest of the turn. Trying to move models out of their favorable positions in order to accomplish what the Desperado had failed to do.

    With the obvious caveat of every situation being entirely unique and nothing is presented in a vacuum. What factors do you consider when faced with an unlucky roll such as this. Do you consider repositioning other forces to accomplish that same goal or do you shrug off the fact that these things happen and try to keep your other models performing their original goals?
     
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  14. natetehaggresar

    natetehaggresar Senior Backlogged Painter Manager

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    One thing to keep in mind is that over mutliple orders your risk increases from any single order expenditure.

    A 70% chance of success that you need to pull of twice only happens 49% of the time. (Again simplifying because I'm not a mathematician).

    You're also risking two 10% chances of super failure.

    One example that comes in mind for me was a 200 point game in an escalation tournament when I had Perseus in a securitate link going after an Achilles 2 in suppression. I opted to smoke and engage Achilles in melee with the friends in combat bonus. The odds we're good, but since this is an example of learning from mistakes, the result is predictably not in my favor. It also threw the game since I had no other way to handle Achilles.

    Turns out just shooting him woulda been safer.

    Aleph went first and already had wounded persues and killed some dudes, at 200 it was then or never. (Yes Achilles's was outside of cover, you only have so many orders).

    So in that case I at least could of significantly reduced my risk. (Whereas bitching about my bad luck is pretty much just lying to myself to feel better about loosing).

    And sometimes luck just messes with you like here. My opponent got some great crits early on, but a lot of wasted orders, and dumb things can be attributed to poor deployment on my part. That game was entirely salvageable especially when the daktari of all things went on a rampage near the end. My recollection is that of the Kriza had gotten the vet kazaks at the end I might have actually tied it up...

    I think what is most important is to keep in mind the scoring conditions. Don't let blood lust distract you too much, sometimes some things must die, like if you're playing steel against a rui shi. But generally you just need to keep in mind balancing scoring versues killing. If trying to kill something is too hard or you don't have enough orders, score points! Or drop mines to tax your opponent next turn.

    Edit
    Also not seeing 70% on your Desperado shot? Or maybe this is another teachable moment, when you're in -3 for a MSR, your in +3 for your opponents side arm.
     
    #14 natetehaggresar, Jan 17, 2019
    Last edited: Jan 17, 2019
  15. Thaddius

    Thaddius Well-Known Member

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    I think people play for different reasons and there is no right or wrong way. I think be honest with yourself about what you want to get out of the game and if you believe that you can get that out of your current gaming setup. I think once you are able to establish what you want to get out of the game you can see what might be in your way and what if anything you can adjust/do differently to enjoy it.


    For me getting a sense of mastery about the game, not necessarily winning, but knowing I’ve played well and not being an easy win for my opponent is what keeps the game enjoyable. The win/loss outcome is a bonus. I don’t like games where I feel terrain setup/dice have favoured one player or the other.


    There can be other things in the game to enjoy. Hobbying, building the community, demoing are all skills and require special people to lead. Are some of these aspects that you could invest into to help supplement the enjoyment of the game?


    What makes the game work for you? It’s okay to walk away from the game if you feel that the outcomes are too random and that the amount of mastery/skill required is not worth the time investment.
     
  16. theradrussian

    theradrussian Well-Known Member

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    I no longer seem to suffer after getting a full-time job that involves travel, as well as upping the frequency with which I do sports. If anything, it makes me value the little time I can devote to it even more.

    Weirdly, after a long string of wins I've taken to painting over gaming, but I expect the pendulum to swing back the other way soon enough :)
     
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  17. Randomcallsign

    Randomcallsign Well-Known Member

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    True, however, when I closed the gap to within 8" my opponent still chose to shoot with his MSR over using his pistol. I assume maybe he wanted the high damage option of the rile over the +/-6 swing in dice but that was another part of the situation that made it so frustrating.
     
  18. chromedog

    chromedog Less than significant minion

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    I don't play enough games (of anything) to get burnout anymore. I don't think I ever did.
    I didn't have the option of miniatures gaming while at school (40k didn't exist yet as an example) so unlike many of my local peers, my HS years weren't full of it.
    Some of those guys played it week in, week out for several years. No wonder they burned.

    A few games a month will do me. If a tournament is involved, it takes the place of that month's or the next month's games.
    I build and paint terrain or do other non-gaming stuff between games.

    For me, playing a tourney every month would be a surefire way for me to not only get burned out, but pretty much make me want to give up that entire aspect of the hobby forever (the playing of games). I'd still be happy assembling and painting models, which are entirely separate and equally fulfilling aspects of the hobby in an of themselves.

    There are times I've chosen the msr option over a pistol even taking into account a -3 range band - just because higher damage potential with either DA or AP. Never tell me the odds.
     
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  19. MindwormGames

    MindwormGames Well-Known Member

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    There’s a lot of great suggestions here already, but I’ll give you my two cents.

    Try changing up how you play.

    Instead of playing ITS, try a different mission system. Try a narrative campaign. Design your own missions. Play team games.

    In short, shake is up!

    Look at getting something else out of a game than winning, whether that’s trying something new, testing out homebrew rules, seeing how a story plays out, etc.

    Another thing to do, as others have said, is to step back a bit.

    I recommend playing a different wargame, even if you use your Infinity models. Learn a new set of rules, get a person or three together, and play a few games.

    Then see if you feel like you’re missing Infinity.
     
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  20. Alkasyn

    Alkasyn Well-Known Member

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    I simply play a different game now, and my entire group has also moved games.

    I think it's a natural course of action eventually.
     
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