Question Of The Week [September 24th 2025]

Q: Have You Ever Suffered From Game Burnout?

A: I see it quite often, and it’s been happening more in recent years where people express their exhaustion from playing video games. I’ve been playing games my entire life, since 1988 at 3 years old. I never have gone more than a single week without playing video games in my life, and those few times were due to literally being without electricity back when camping with family or at a summer camp for a week. But there have been times in my life that I’ve not been fully engaged with a game I’m playing or just don’t really feel like playing.

I wouldn’t call my situation “burnout”, but the surrounding factors in my life can certainly lead up to just not “feeling it” when it comes to gaming. One particular time in my life was actually very recently, back in the summer of 2023 (funny how it’s always in the summer) I ended up just going several weeks without feeling very enthusiastic about games. I still played them and just went through the motions. It was the first real time I remember asking myself if I was getting burnt out on games. Nothing very interesting was coming out at the time, thanks to the Pandemic and the handful of games that did come out weren’t really my style or interested me.

One day while sitting on the couch, browsing my Steam Library for something to play, I grabbed my tablet to check something and a random thought entered my mind. A memory of playing Pinball Arcade on my first tablet around 2013 or so (I didn’t get a tablet for the longest time). I knew that my tablet wasn’t going to be the best way to play it, so I looked for it in Steam and installed it and proceeded to play some Pinball Arcade. The lights and sounds brought me back to a simpler time in life, hanging out at our local pizza parlor, Ballpark Pizza, and playing The Addams Family and Terminator 2 pinball tables.

I was enthralled once again, and spent the next several weeks mainly just playing video game pinball. I ended up finishing work, hanging out on the couch and playing while my wife made dinner, and now it's a new memory seared into my brain as a great relaxing and fun gaming memory. It is funny how renewed I felt while loading up every table to see what new gimmick the themed tables had, some boring, with very little to offer, like some of the mid to late 80’s, but then some excellent tables like Phantom Of The Opera or WhoDunnIt.

Over the last couple years, I’ve dived deeper into the history of tables and learning more about Pinball has really brought a new depth to learning more about the hobby.

Using the word burnout to describe what I was going through, wouldn’t be correct, not what I believe anyways, but I do believe it would have been close. And I don’t believe that’s a bad or upsetting thing. Burnout can happen, especially if we have “too much of a good thing”. I see it often when people only play one single type of game (mostly JRPGs) and don’t branch out. That’s why I always love playing Palette Cleanser games on the stream. A game that is so different from the previous game. It provides a bit of fresh air, and offers something new. “Variety is the spice of life” is a famous phrase for a reason. You have to break from the mold and try something new every once in a while, because if you don’t, you’ll find yourself suffering burnout quite often/