Burn Out

From Tazlure Gaming System Wiki

Burnout is a heavy subject for beginning moderators. Believe us when we say nearly all of us went through it at one point or another. In a way this is part of the creative process that all writers face from time to time. yet it is more than just writer's block. It is having to deal with our whole community which can at times be too much. It is important to us that you recognize it and salvage what you can of your fun in the game.

Symptoms of Burnout

If you recognize one of the following symptoms it is likely you are in one of the early stages of burnout. If you recognize several, maybe it is time that you admit you are having a problem:

You have 8 or more threads
You always feel like you are struggling to get everything done
The game feels like work, yet you feel obligated to pick up more work out of loyalty
You are online hours at a time, but can't seem to get anything done. Nothing creative will flow from your hands.
You are avoiding certain threads as the involved players take all your energy
You just realise you snapped at a player in chat over a small issue that was not worth your response
So much is going on in your real life that in those few moments that you can be online you feel you cannot concentrate, even though there is a huge pile of work waiting for you
You feel nothing you do is good enough

Causes of Burnout

Often several factors combine to cause a case of burnout, and once you are down that road you are likely to suffer from the other symptoms as well so it is not always easy to determine what is the true cause of your lack of inspiration and soit de vivre.

Real Life

One likely factor is the existence of real life. If life is treating you well, or you are generally happy IRL, there will be less stress on you and less chance that posting will be viewed as a chore. Likewise, if life is treating you badly at the moment, or is very demanding on your time, your creative juices might dry up temporarily.

This one is the worst of all kinds of burnout, and while it's common enough, it never ceases to bring sadness. Even if a staffer has proven to be a good fit for the job and they're having Fun with it, RL can and will rob us of some fine minds. This one requires no explanation, but we can see it instantly with such examples as RL crisis at work or home, financial, living change, graduation and moving, finals, natural disasters, wars, the very fabric of our world. At all times, we must all prioritize our time expense, and Tazlure, as a hobby, is never above Real Life crisis.

The RL Monster is also the "go to" excuse for mods burning out for any reason. Another cold truth: every time you ask a mod about their slipping performance, they'll site a RL Monster as the reason. In most cases, this will be true, but in some cases, it could be a way for the staffer to seek a graceful departure from staff. This should never be questioned and should be accepted at once. This could be a handy outlet for reason number 1, at which point it's best to protect their dignity and accept the resignation, or the No Fun problem we'll focus on shortly.

I should not have applied in the first place

This is common, and really, it can't be avoided. These are community members that apply for moderation, get accepted, and join the team easy enough. They get some threads, begin to run them, then suddenly...done. Perhaps the complexity of the task hits them, or perhaps a lack of inspiration, or maybe they just...don't like to write much. Either way, they were a bad fit for moderation from the start. They can't really know that to be true until they try it, and we can't spot it in them, either. The chief "realizations" that many of these people learn that often leads to their departure are:

Player clash. You know...players are separate entities. They won't always play nice with your system. Without the proper mindset, mods fail to make the meta-game leap from controlling a person to controlling the environment, and they still want to have a hand in the story. The difference is staggering.
Workload. It isn't just the writing...anyone can hammer out half a dozen lovely posts if they need...it's the reading. They need to read the post carefully and understand all activities before they act. Multiply that requirement by a dozen players, and it can intimidate people fast.
Expectations. We really don't keep massive expectations to our mods. We typically expect our screening process to ensure canddiates are at least motivated to write in a literary style, and that works well. But expectations go well beyond this: new staffers want to impress players, a natural reaction, and they tend to make difficulty for themselves attempting just this: too much dev, taking much of the player's task away and assuming too much responsibility for the story on their own hands. Again, multiply this by a half dozen players....you get the picture.
Politics. In a large scale game, such as Tazlure was, there coordinator is the person in charge of an area, and may on occasion have to veto certain plotlines because they clash with existing content and setting. In smaller scale games that run a council type kind of democracy, it may be the team that veto's content. Either way the new staffer feels restrained.

Regardless of which "cold awakening" the staffer had, it's clear that moderation...at least for them...is No Fun, and it usually doesn't take long for them to disappear. Sadly, they assume this is a dispersion on their character, which is just not true...some people enjoy the task, while others do not...but they believe it anyway and they wander off forever.

You are not having fun with your PC

Your pleasure in your own PC is another great contributor This is something that moderators are sometimes embarrassed to admit, but if they are not having fun in a game with their character(s) (could be because their moderator changed, the plots have gone stale, or the moderator is otherwise bored with their own character) then the spark for the game often disappears with it. There are a few people who enjoy moderating more than playing. These people will be unfazed if they become bored with their character. Yet, most people find that their characters bring them the most fun, and that moderating brings them fun as well, but more vicariously.

Players that get to you

Every moderator gets a difficult player periodically. This player complains about every little thing, does not understand how to play (e.g. controls the succes of his actions, mindreads, tries to use modern notions), or they are very boring or uninspired in their writing. Nothing can sap your energy to moderate more than a difficult player or two. For them, moderating is work, not fun. You put a lot of work into moderating and part of the fun is having the player seize the opportunity to inspire you further.

Too Great A Burden

The chances of burnout can be in direct proportion to the number of threads you take. The odds of moderation becoming a chore can be influenced by whether you are spending 3 or 30 hours a week posting. You have to really love something to spend 30 hours a week of your precious time doing it.

Writer's Block

Writer's block is a real fear. We all like to think that we are creative people, but sometimes we lose our inspiration. A player posts to walk into a tavern to look for employment possibilities and you have a total blank about what to do with them. All you can think of is something boring that you fear will bore the player and you in the process. It happens to everyone.

Getting out of the Dark Zone

If you didn't spot the early signs of burnout quickly enough it comes to a stage where you are unable to post. Players, patient at first, will start complaining and finally a game designer carefully asks if there is something that you need help with. You realize that somewhere along the road the game stopped being fun.

It is possible to revive the fun and excitement of the early stages when you first discovered this wonderful hobby. It will take some work though.

First, be honest and ask the the administration for a hiatus. Tell them when you think you'll be back, and leave the team your notes on the threads you've been running. Nobody will be angry, and you will always be welcomed back if you want to return. We've all been there and the likelihood is you already had us worried for some time.

For a while simply enjoy not having to do anything at all in the game. Go do some physical exercise, read a few fantasy books, watch a movie. Phone a few friends and have a night on the town. Don't stay a stranger for too long, or coming back will feel awkward.

On your return analyse why you had to step back and follow the strategies to prevent burnout.

Strategies to prevent Burnout

Here are some strategies to prevent you from suffering burn out before it is too late:

Adjust the amount of threads you are in to your current needs

Periodically review if you shouldn't give up some of our threads. Read your jobdescription and wonder if you have enough time to do everything, including the administrative procedures with the amount of threads you are in. Don't hesitate to offer up one or two threads. We are all after all a team and the others will be glad to help if they are able.

Merge Threads

Don't feel obligated to do a collection of one on one threads with your players. In fact a story will often be greatly enhanced if more than one player is involved. On the plus side players get more time to entertain each other, leaving you with a breather.

Ask for support

It is important to realize that you're not alone! Get together in chat to plot and scheme together, bounce ideas or for outright silliness so you can relax and gripe a bit about those players that are currently vexing you. The secret moderator forums are also a great place to ask for ideas and input.

Although related to some of the ideas mentioned above, teamwork is an important component of avoiding burnout. You are not in this alone. The weakest games are the ones in which each moderator does his/her own thing and no one is comparing notes. The game becomes very uneven in quality and there is much turnover in staff. When you are feeling appreciated by both the moderators and the players for all the time you spend moderating, when you have the supporting ideas of fellow moderators, when another moderator is willing to step in when you are having a rough time of it, and when you are feeling part of a vibrant and elite team of player/moderators, you are at your strongest in avoiding burnout.

Be upfront about what your PC needs

If you are no longer having fun with your PC have a frank private discussion with the Administration about the causes and steps that may be taken to fix the problem (e.g. teleport to another part of the world, start over with a new character with relevant skill increases, or get a different moderator with a different style).

So don't forsake your characters just because you've got mod work to do. Make sure you have your fun, too. If you are afraid players will not treat your PC as a player, request a private login that nobody knows about.

Having fun with threads and NPCs

Find those threads you are really having fun with at the moment and give yourself to those. While a thread is FUN, it is invigorating , not work. Eventually, a story that has been good will fade back and usually something else will spring up that you'll enjoy. There will be few threads that you will enjoy all the time. There are times when every story goes through a boring or inactive time with ground that must be covered. There are also those frustrating times when you not really sure where to take the character next and are stumbling along looking for some inspiration. Usually when the idea comes the threads becomes exciting again.

Running a NPC in a thread of another moderator is another unique chance that might bring some joy in your life as a mod. It often feels like an extra PC, with the added benefits of working with a friend, being allowed many liberties and having mod knowledge of what is going to happen next.

Don't let players leech you of energy

Unless you are really having FUN with a thread, give your player enough to work with but during crunch times, don't worry about trying to wow them with lots of detail, take your story in smaller bites. Find ways to let the player be creative without you having to do all the work. Set a complex task before them that they player must complete in steps before going on. And if the player tries to throw it back at you, don't do the work for the player.. make them perform it themselves. There are several people writing this story, and you are only one of them.

Remember an important truth: We Are Not Here To Entertain The Players.

We are not a public service, nor are we paid or obligated to insure that the players "have fun" on the boards. We do make sure that possibility exists, but that's as far as our commitments go! The most amazing failure many mods make is to assume that they have a responsibility to run some great story for their players and allow them to interact with it as it develops. This isn't untrue, but it's the players that run the great story: we only pop in long enough to apply physics and interpret the environment.

In a very real sense, the Players are here to entertain us. If you approach it any other way you might be generating too much work for yourselves, work that creates anxiety. Tazlure was not founded on the stories spun by our moderators: it was founded on the stories spun by our players, with the moderators guiding, judging, and establishing the world around them as they went.

Dealing with especially difficult players

One idea is to contact Administration about how to handle the situation, or if you are not afraid of feedback throw the question out in the team. Second, see if you can transfer the player to another moderator that has a different style (sometimes what one moderator may think of as a difficult player, another moderator might enjoy). Third, feel free to send a PM to a player and ask the player about what he/she wants out of the game. What sort of things do they like (e.g. romance, intrigue, hack and slash, mysteries, criminal acts, training, etc.) Once you better know the player, you can better moderate them, and you will find that they become better players. Also, moderators have different tastes as well. One moderator might be super at romance and intrigue, but find hack and slash and training threads to be tedious. The key is to match up a player's style with a moderator's style. When a moderator and player are in sync together, they challenge each other and the game becomes wonderful for everyone.

Beating Writer's Block

You need to find inspiration. There are several ways of doing this. The easiest is to post a message in the Cantine with a title like "Creative Ideas Needed." Other moderators will be quick to offer suggestions and you might like one. Problem solved. If not, send your player a PM and talk to them frankly about their ideas and see if they suggest anything. Another way is to take a week off and go read a fantasy book that you might like. Sometimes a book, or even a movie like LoTR, is good to get you back in the right mindset of a fantasy world. Another idea is to go read other threads and see what other moderators are doing.