When Bioware launched Galactic Season 4 and PvP season 2 at the end of March, I was not particularly enthused. I felt that I hadn't really had enough time to recharge my batteries after the end of the previous season and was therefore less than energetic when it came to going back to completing my seasons objectives every week. Still, I wanted to at least make a start and see how I felt before making any decisions about how to ultimately approach the season.
It didn't take long for me to decide that I wasn't going to repeat my Season 3 experiment of getting the achievement for 100 weekly objectives on every server. I don't regret having done it last time, but in hindsight it took a lot of extra effort for not much of a reward. Also, the fact that I had set myself this stretch goal was the main reason I kept grinding until the very last week of Season 3, which contributed to the feeling of not having had much of a break. Regardless of when Bioware releases Season 5, I should have more of a break this time by simply setting myself the goal of "only" completing the reward track on all servers and nothing else. That should be done quite a few weeks ahead of the actual season end, resulting in more downtime for me.
With the PvP season I was even harsher in my cutting back, after I found myself thinking one evening that I really "should" be playing a few more matches to max out my weekly season progression while at the same time really not feeling like it. I wasn't really that excited about the PvP season concept to begin with, and already gave up any ambitions at completionism last season after my off-putting experiences in arenas, but this time I decided to just aim for completing the overall reward track before the end of the season and not bother with the achievements at all.
The one to complete a certain number of warzone weeklies kind of happened organically already, but the one to earn 2000 medals kept me grinding until literally the last day of Season 1 last time, and I'm just not going to bother with that again. I'm currently sitting at 19 out of 25 season levels completed but with less than 800 medals, so I'd basically have to play enough to complete the whole track twice over just for the sake of that achievement - no, thanks. I've been much happier just completing two to three warzone weeklies a week without worrying about hitting my weekly point cap, and that should still be enough to complete the reward track with plenty of time to spare.
It also helped that when I got the warning that I was approaching the PvP season currency cap, I finally did some research on what you can even buy with these coins (it's not super obvious in game) and found that I basically didn't care about any of it. In the end I bought the stripey Ackley for my Sage just to not run into any issues with the cap.
It's honestly been a relief to dial down my investment in seasons this way. We've definitely hit the point where the novelty has worn off, and instead of just feeling that FOMO rush of wanting to earn all the things before they go away, you know that after this season there'll be another, and then another, and you kind of have to plan for the long term and ask yourself just how many hours of your life you really want to be spending on this. For me the answer to that question is "some time, but not as much as I have been".
I've definitely seen this struggle in my guild as well, with some people already growing tired of seasons in their entirety. It can be fun to have some structure in your gameplay, to have a checklist of tasks to follow that give you that satisfying feeling of having achieved something, but in that same vein it's easy to fall into a routine and start doing tasks you don't actually enjoy. If you don't catch yourself in time to remind yourself of what it is you actually enjoy doing, it's easy to accidentally burn yourself out and reach a point where you just want to step away from the whole thing entirely. I'm honestly glad to have avoided that so far.
While I know we won't have actual data, I do wonder what the anecdotal perception of participation for this season and seasons five / six will look like. I wouldn't be surprised if the amount of people completing all the achievements for the season start tapering off because of the too-short break and the overall sameness each Galactic Season is starting to have.
ReplyDeleteI haven't really bothered much with the PvP Seasons. I would like a black/silver crystal, but that's basically all I want. If the two types of seasons were staggered I might participate in both, but as it is one at a time is enough for the type of casual play I'm engaging in.
I often wonder how representative these anecdotes are as well. I know that my guild with its focus on group content is not representative of the majority of the player base, but I guess they probably are good examples of the more engaged and paying portion? Then again, I saw a couple of people on the forum complain that they see no reason to play when there isn't a season on, so who knows how it all shakes out in terms of overall numbers.
DeleteYeah, anecdotal evidence always needs a large grain of salt. That said, I do tend to view comments seen in-game with a bit more weight than forum posts, etc. The latter tend to be people much more invested in the game than someone tossing out a comment in passing while just playing the game. Maybe I'm completely wrong, but random in-game chat does feel closer to what the average player may be thinking.
DeleteObviously you do get the trolls, but those are often easy to spot because they can't resist making a jerk of themselves to get that attention. I guess in the end the only actual data we have is what Bioware releases for the game. Whether their analysis is flawed or not, they at least are looking at the actual numbers of what we players do or don't do.
:sigh: This all feels like a bunch of low-grade Kremlin-ology.
Well, to circle back to your post, I'm glad to see you're cutting back to avoid burnout. What you did for the earlier seasons is more play effort than I could have maintained. Here's to the seasons being more reasonable and long term fun. :)