I am definetly at the burnout stage but since I am already at the end-game casual stage I guess that's it for me.
 

Hmm, I've never really hit the recovery period with a toon after I was burnout. With my first 60 burnout I quit for 6 months then came back on a new server and opposite faction. With my current burnout 70, I cannot see playing in a casual way. I would rather not play at all until the expansion, or play a new toon. Just playing and making no progression in anything would seem a waste of time to me. I suppose I could casual pvp but I would want to win enough to get decent honor. Therefore, I'll prob stay retired until '08.
 

I cant get burned out on these games because I play them casually.

A different type of problem I run into is my friends who play quite a bit more hardcore than myself... will get burned out then jump to a different game. I usually jump too, without really getting burned out from the first game.. lol

I think it is ironic when a game releases either an addon or expansion with content geared towards people who are at either the "mastery" or "burnout" cycle... and neglect the "practice" or new player content at all. Take for example a Casino, Do you want to let the people walking in know about the "latest and greatest" in he Casino or would you speak with the people who have been there for hours and people that are leaving about the "latest and greatest" the casino offers. It seems to me WoW has had such logic failures similair to this.

Entry, Practice, Mastery, Burnout, Recovery
 

Hmm thanks for the link, really gotta read that in detail.

I'm always a tad suspicious of these stage models, because they too easily become self-fulfilling prophecies. Like the stage model of grief by Kubler-Ross. So you find someone in a specific state, you can always point them to a stage that matches, i.e. the model always appears right.

Still it's interesting. I guess if I take this seriously I'm in recovery, and funny enough I do play casually. But going back to the social raiding post you linked, I do feel it's by WoW TBC design. There is really little middle-of-the-road endgame content in WoW TBC. If one wants to raid it is a serious time commitment.

The pre-raiding game hasn't changed since TBC release, but then again one can try different classes and just play with RL friends for a while.

In some sense I wonder if Nick Yee's model isn't biased by WoW's game design and the type of mastery, burnout and recovery one sees is exactly what the game design allows/enforces.