It’s Okay To Walk Away From A Game For A While

Sometimes, I have to remind myself that when it comes to long-running games, it’s okay to take a break. That may seem easier said than done in some cases. Time spent in certain games can feel almost obligatory, for a variety of reasons – even if the developers tell you they expect you to take time off.

One big reason is the time spent. When you’ve spent hundreds of hours in a game, it’s easy to feel like you need to just keep doing it. Otherwise, you’ve wasted all that time, right? Except, if you’ve had any fun at all, you haven’t wasted time. You do, however, waste time when you continue to play even after you’ve quit having fun.

Then there’s the whole money thing if you’re playing a buy-to-play game. And it’s even worse if there’s a sub to go along with it. It’s kind of funny when you think about it. I don’t believe anyone looks at their Netflix sub and thinks, “Oh. I’ve spent so much money on this already. It’d go to waste if I unsubscribed now.” Did you watch movies while you had it? Then you didn’t waste the money. Do you no longer derive any enjoyment from Netflix’s offerings? Then continuing to subscribe would be wasting money. The same goes for games.

Of course, there are plenty of free-to-play games out there at this point, so unless you’ve made a lot of microtransaction purchases, those may not be as big an issue. That said, I know that once you’ve put a certain amount of money into microtransactions, it can easily feel bad to just walk away.

And then, of course, there are the in-game things you work for. Let’s be honest. Most of the stuff that you purchase for a game or pick up in-game will still be there when you log back in. But there are some items in some games, like housing, that can really keep you stuck.

While not all games do this, some games will clear up things like housing to make room for other people, whether it be neighborhood housing, like in Final Fantasy XIV, where people fight to buy property, or property that players claim in open-world survival games. Some games have regular tax systems that keep players logging in because missing paying that means the house is gone. Others have systems that allow the house to degrade or other players to claim it after a bit. That means that when you come back, that thing you worked for is gone.

So, you end up sticking around because you don’t want to feel like the time, energy, or money you spent is wasted when you return a few months later and everything is gone. But that doesn’t mean you’re still enjoying the game.

The thing is. In any of these cases, players do have some leeway. Housing or other achievements aren’t going to disappear overnight. It’s possible to spend some time away without losing too much. (Unless you’re heavy into PvP, that is, and don’t want to lose ranking. But that’s a bit of a different topic.) But it’s easy to use these things to make yourself feel obligated to do something you started out doing for fun.

These days, there are just too many out there to play to let a game hold you hostage for any reason. And many of them won’t punish you by taking your stuff if you’ve been gone for a while. Even in free-to-play games like Rift and Guild Wars 2, your housing will still be there when you come back. And, well, while communities will change over time, if your guild boots you for being gone for a little while, they probably weren’t as invested in you as you were in them.

Barring a shutdown or account theft, most games will be there when you’re ready to come back. And after some time away, you might actually enjoy it more. Or, you might realize that the game really hadn’t been doing much for you for a while, and there are other games you enjoy more. That’s okay too.