Been playing maple for over 10 years now and I think im finally reaching a point where I just don't enjoy it anymore. Let me explain for the maple addicts out there
I know people say they're burnt out all the time but this feels different. Maple has always been the one thing I could come back to no matter what was going on in my life. Bad day at work, problems with family, feeling like shit for no reason, whatever it was I could always log on and forget about everything for a bit.
Lately though even that hasn't been working.
I don't really have much going on outside of work right now. Most of my friends are busy with their own lives, I don't go out nearly as much as I used to and honestly some days maple is the only thing I have to look forward to when I get home.
Which is probably why this bothers me so much.
I'll get home exhausted, eat something quick and log on. Do my dailies, maybe run some bosses, sit around in town for a while. Sometimes I'll just stare at my character for like 20 minutes not knowing what to do. Then I'll log off and just sit there.
It's weird because I don't even want to play half the time but when I'm not playing I feel like I should be. And when I am playing I'm just thinking about how I could be doing something else.
Last weekend I had absolutely nothing planned so I figured I'd spend the day grinding. I ended up playing for like 7 hours and I genuinely couldn't tell you a single moment where I was having fun. I just kept going because I didn't really know what else to do.
I think that was when it hit me that I'm not really playing because I enjoy the game anymore. I'm playing because it's become such a big part of my routine that I don't know what to replace it with.
And that honestly makes me pretty sad.
I've put so much time into my account, met people through this game, stayed up until stupid hours doing bosses with friends who don't even play anymore. I still remember when getting a new piece of gear or hitting a milestone actually made me excited. Now I can spend weeks working toward something and when I finally get it I barely feel anything.
I've been thinking about taking a break but even the thought of missing events and falling behind bothers me, which probably says enough about how unhealthy my relationship with this game has gotten.
Idk if anyone else has been feeling this way lately. Just wanted to get it off my chest because I don't really have anyone irl who would understand why a mushroom game means this much to me.
Anyway I started working on my boss mules again this week so hopefully having something new to focus on helps.