How do you handle TF2 burn out?

[Armadillo of Doom]

I'm sure that I'm not the only one to notice that things have slowed down a bit. For my part, I'm on winter break, and simply have more free time to do other stuff. Going to see a concert this Wednesday night However, mapping is really a hobby, and the interest in it comes and goes. I find myself playing custom maps a lot less than I used to, settling into the familiar (but still hella fun) patterns of the stock maps. So do you guys do when you can't handle any more TF2 for a bit? Is there anything that we as a community could do to pick up the pace around here?

 

[Sgt Frag]

Typically I mountain bike alot. Nursing a back injury though so it has been ALOT of TF2 lately.

Also had been doing alot of Zero Gear stuff.

Participating in closed beta for that game right now.

But I've spent the last few weekends actually working on my arena map and barely playing TF2 at all.
------------
I think it's that time of year though, holidays, vacation.

The payload map is closing in on finish date, I suppose there'll either be more burnout or new stuff starting after that.

 

[YM]

As soon as the payload contest is over I'll set up another one and drum up some hype about that.
We can also bug valve to release a new gamemode and new maps for it soon since the site picks up massively after each update they do.

other than that...
We could always sabotage steamcloud so that no one can play L4D...

 

[AWESOME-O]

We could always sabotage steamcloud so that no one can play L4D...

If you do that, i'm so going to kill you

 

[Scotland Tom]

To handle burnout on playing TF2 I go online and read about it.
To handle burnout on reading about TF2 I go and blog about it.
To handle burnout on blogging about TF2 I go and map for it.
To handle burnout on mapping for TF2 I go and play it.

It's as simple as that. Of course I'm somewhat obsessive when I find something that I particularly enjoy, so my method may not work for everyone. The good thing about my method is it keeps my mapping progressing at a slow but steady pace and my blog sees regular updates every 1-3 days. I'm actually due for a blog entry today, so for the four of you who actually read it you can look forward to that.

 

[NoHeroes]

We can also bug valve to release a new gamemode and new maps for it soon since the site picks up massively after each update they do.

If CS is any indication, TF2 has a long life ahead of it. Having said that, I'd love to see a game mode in the vein of the "Balloon Race" map (we run a dedicated balloon race server which, despite the fact that that map is hardly polished or without a huge number of flaws, stays full 18+ hours per day).

 

[Ida]

I handle TF2 burnout by playing other stuff while I wait for Valve to release a new update. Even the tiniest update makes me want to play again (it can be as small as the Dec 11 update, even though I was already on a TF2 roll when that happened), because...well, I just have to try out the new stuff. =D

 

[YM]

I don't doubt that TF2 has a massive life ahead of it. Its an undenyable fact though that the free weekends and class updates increase sales and interest here massively.
I think perhaps we should aim fore a little more publicity, getting out name out on other websites and stuff like that to attract traffic.
I think what we've got to do is reach out to all the people making maps who aren't currently posting WIP stuff here and get them to do so rather than releasing their map without even posting it here.

 

[Invictus]

Lately, I've been playing a fair bit of CoD5 and Fallout 3, and watching a lot of the Discovery Science Channel...basically, anything but TF2.

I still lurk the forums, though.

 

[TotalMark]

I just play other games or do other things for a while. The game eventually calls me back.

I've recently started playing really old DOS games, some FPS's like Wolfenstein and Quake.

 

[Apex_]

I host multiple games on my server, so my group jumps around a lot. I pretty much forgot TF2 existed between October and this week, never touched it and didn't really stop by here that often. Meanwhile we played some L4D, hacked the two locked campaigns to work in versus and briefly messed around in other mods that did little to hold our interest.

Usually I'm working on my PC or some type of firearm though, and constant tinkering with both tends to keep me occupied for hours on end.

 

[A Boojum Snark]

I just don't over-play the game in the first place Getting frustrated at dumb people and quitting after a couple hours ensures that

 

[YM]

Was I the only person who finished reading to the bottom of the post??

Is there anything that we as a community could do to pick up the pace around here?

 

[Invictus]

No, but you might be the only person with any ideas.

 

[Ravidge]

you could have an event where everybody has to play their least played class.
Everybody would be terrible, but atleast everyone is "trying something new" (not really new but you get my point) for some change of pace.

 

[YM]

you could have an event where everybody has to play their least played class.
Everybody would be terrible, but atleast everyone is "trying something new" (not really new but you get my point) for some change of pace.

snipah D:

 

[grazr]

Personally I would really love to contribute to the community in a more physical way.

Unfortunately (for the sake of my hobby) my life is incredibly busy :/

I think possibly we could take the time in a group session to go through a map and produce a community feedback for a selected map.. each week? I'm not too sure how frequent it could possibly be because it would really depend on the frequency of beta releases within the community.

But people could go through a w.i.p. map on the server together talking about the map.. what could be changed and why. Then post it up on the forums somewhere. Perhaps a feedback session forum area, or just the W.I.P thread itself..

But it would kind of be like a cross between a community review and feedback. It would be nice to see some featured feedback because people can reference all the great advice in one place. Rather than having to seek out individual posts.

Just an idea.

 

[Ida]

snipah D:

Would be lots of snipahs around, I bet.

It sounds fun, though. I think it's a good idea to spice things up with some "fun" events every now and then.

 

[A Boojum Snark]

you could have an event where everybody has to play their least played class.
Everybody would be terrible, but atleast everyone is "trying something new" (not really new but you get my point) for some change of pace.

I quite like the sound of that!