Balance and Motivation

There are some places I have never been.

"I think about unsubbing like once a week. Isn't that how most Eve players are?"

It was a joke with a serious edge in a conversation about losing motivation to play. I paid attention to it for a few reasons. For one, I never like when someone close to me starts running out of Eve fuel. For another, I've noticed it across a wide spectrum of players. It is a reverse spring fever and it happens every year.

Some of it I feel is Eve's reverse population habits. The adult population we enjoy commenting about has a side effect of being adults. My boys were commenting on how empty space has been the last two days. I pointed out that in my area it is spring break and all the parents are occupied with children off of school. It was not unreasonable to believe that spread further than my local area and was affection ships in space.

I do understand Eve burnout. I'm prone to withdrawing from my information consumption when the general metamood becomes too dark. I'm puzzled by those who spend their relaxation time wallowing in despair and darkness. Similarly, I am past my initial addiction. Yet, after two and a half years, I am more wrapped up in Eve than I have been before. The concept that I have been playing for a long time and shouldn't I do something else now doesn't come up for me.

A lot of that breaks down into personalities. I am logged into Eve almost all of the time that I am at home but I am not always actively playing Eve. I, for instance, cannot spend the entire day out PvPing. I have pets to feed, errands to run, floors to mop (this rain, those dogs), meals to cook, and the general trappings of daily life mean that I segment my game play into chunks. I often do meal prep in between systems as I move my freighter. Sometimes I do absolutely nothing but spin my ship and daydream.

Eve is time hungry. Just managing my market and logistics can consume an entire evening of moving stuff from one part of the game to another. I can understand how people feel that they have not accomplished something when something is a defined activity for the day. That is because Eve is work. There is no getting around it. I am not fond of the spreadsheet arguments. But then, I run most of my stuff off of memory. But, the game is work. Doing things is work. Moving things is work. Hunting things is work. It is one reason why accomplishment tastes so delicious. It is also another reason why people get burned out of playing a game.

I have many goals in the game. Sometimes my evening is just spent curled up on my chair reading and writing while chatting on coms and in game. I pull a lot of enjoyment from the social side of Eve. My game relationships matter to me. I have been to enough Eve events that the other players are people. Many are people I will have the pleasure to meet later. Other times I go and create my own sandcastles in space.

Do I think of ubsubbing? Nope. If anything, I'm more into and committed to my game play than ever. But, there is a healthy game and life balance that everyone has to reach. I think that because Eve is a game to many instead of the hobby that it actually is, the conscious decision to create that balance may not happen when it needs to. And thus, burnout, lack of motivation, or in general apathy.

Like being sleepy means you should maybe go to bed sometimes that blah feeling means a little Eve break is the best solution. Personally, I'd prefer people to take a step back than go into complete burnout and vanish from my life.

I'm selfish that way.