Has anyone else felt burnt out after a while? I'm 135 hours in, haven't even finished the main quest, only the companions, and halfway through thieves guild, and I still haven't explored Dawnstar, Markarth, Falkreath and Morthal. Yet I'm so tired of playing the game now. I feel like I need a break or I'll get completely turned off.

Nevermind all the bugs I've had to navigate around (and still continually suffer!), I just feel like I've spent over a hundred hours doing the same thing over and over again without any sense of satisfaction.

"Go to this dungeon and get me this thing."
"Go to this dungeon and kill this dude."

Arghh! I need a break. Skyrim's like a drug, I know I shouldn't but I keep going back to it. It's my OCD nature that wants to clear up the horrible backlog of quests. Also, every now and then something amusing happens thanks to the ragdoll physics.

People always say "Uncharted only lasted me 8 hours, Skyrim can last 500 hours!" but for me Uncharted gave me so much variety in those hours, but Skyrim feels so samey, there's a distinct lack of variety in the design of the quests. Situations where you pickpocket or are asked to do something in a very specific manner can be entertaining, but I would have liked more outlandish scenarios, like horse-chases, swordfights on boats, flying mounted dragon battles, just stuff that takes a break from generic first person sword bashing in caves.

Anyway, I think I'm going to put Skyrim to the side and start Mass Effect 2. A change of scenery and gameplay will do me good I think. It will be weird jumping into a franchise from the second game, but oh well, I don't have a gaming PC to play the first.

By the time I return to Skyrim some DLC will probably be out, and hopefully more patches... but more importantly it will not feel stale anymore. Well not for another 130 hours, then I'll take a break again. Maybe I'm just not used to spending so much continuous time on one game.

Anyone else feel Skyrimmed out after a while?

J'rahzir feels that the sweetest sugar must be neglected from time to time. Khajiit thinks one should do something else should one find himself bored. Perhaps One has a Mate who enjoys fine food, yes?

OP, what level are you? If you're just running around grinding dungeons and not doing quests, that's what's going to kill it for you.

Skyrim is an incredibly addictive game for many reasons - you mentioned the quest backlog that appeals to our OCD sides to finish, but also the fact that one character is just one huge story with no real delineations where you can say 'oh cool that level is complete let's take a break'. I've heard many stories of people's lives being thrown into chaos because they're so addicted to skyrim, even though they're at the stage where it's not really enjoyable for them any more!

Taking a break from skyrim, allowing yourself to forget your character, the map, the story, etc, is the best way to enjoy it when you come back. Skyrim is a breath of fresh air if you are disciplined and make yourself take several day breaks. If you play it everyday religiously, you'll start seeing normal day to day life in skyrim graphics.

Agreed. And two more rules I find important as well:

(1) Don't over-grind. It's useful at times, but you don't need to go into every damn random dungeon just because, or the game will turn into nothing but a hack-and-slask type game. Do quests, set goals for your character, and so forth. Don't just randomly go around looting. Eventually it just becomes a pile of loot - which is neat and all, but you really can't display everything, now can you, and there's no way to simply pile it up and lie on it gloating like Smaug or something.

(2) Don't try to do too much with one character. Do a couple big quests with one character, then retire them and make a new one, to do different quests with.

Totally agreed. Doing most of the questlines with a single character makes the game (and your character) loose depth. Plus the game gets boring really fast.

Don't judge the game based on the thieves guild and companion quests.

I can understand what you (OP) mean that the quests all seem samey. But other than the fact that the quest structures (go here, kill that, get this, come back, repeat) are similar the locations and items are different. So, I think it's all in how you as a player approach your game.

You can look at it any number of ways, but as I see it there are two ways to look at it. The game is either filled with fetch quests, or you realize that that is just the nature of giving aide to the people of Tamriel (or any world, for that matter). The things the Grey beards ask me to do are very different from the things the thieves guild quests have me do.

And like you (OP) I have only really done the thieves guild stuff, some companion stuff, enough to get homes in Whiterun, Riften, and Solitude.. I haven't even been to several towns. I haven't done anything really in Markarth. I've only been through Dawnstar once... So, I know you are feeling burned out on the game but if you approach it with a different state of mind I think you'll have a more fruitful gaming experience. Don't look at them as fetch quests. Look at them like opportunities. This is the history of Skyrim in the making and you are doing the things that will be the lore in future games. Take pride in that, dragonborn!

I got burnt out after 2 weeks of playing non stop all day and every day/night.

i currently just got back into the game a few days ago.

Nope, never felt a burn out. I role play, I do not make myself OP, and I appreciate every detail in the game. After every playthrough, I take about a week or two off and I don't play Skyrim 24/7 either. I just finished my 2nd playthrough as a Khajiit assassin. My first was a Breton Mage. I am now moving on to a Nord Dual-Wield/Two-Handed Heavy Armor hybrid. Each playthrough takes me roughly 150 hours or more.

I have to admit that I've rarely played the game two days in a row. I tend to sit and play it a couple hours at a time, and I'm not going to do that several days in a row, so that tends to prevent me getting burned out.

Maybe the 50 or so (just guessing) folks who previously started similar threads?

I've reached this point myself, and am also doing so now with a different game. Just don't see this as being unusual ... for me at least ... given the substantial number of hours I've put in.

Although, I've also noticed that with RPG and strategy type video games, I often enjoy starting a new game much more than the later stages and finishing it.

Well, you have to go exploring, Find cool stuff, and just meet new NPCs. Some of the best things about skyrim aren't the story or quests, but the landscape and AI itself.

I won't play this game for several days if it freezes on me more than twice in an hour.

Other than that, not much in the game bothers me enough to make me not want to play it.