It's not worth it

I don't feel like it's worth it to spend time on Line Rider anymore. It's not really fun to me anymore, whenever I make tracks I'm trying too hard to make them good so that I can impress people, but no matter what I do I end up getting half as many comments as an LCC member track, which makes me just want to try harder but it feels like it is all in vain, because I still don't get many comments. This has made doing a track feel more like work than play, because I'm constantly worrying about whether what I'm doing is good enough for people to care. I don't feel like many people around here take me seriously, which makes me wonder why I still come around. Perhaps I'm just going through a bit of depression right now because of the season but I've been thinking about this for about a month now. This place is slowly dying, Sledcast feels like it is a desperate attempt to keep things fresh, but all that happens is talking about the past. Elitelinerider.com is just a pile of [censored] right now, with dumb kids who never release tracks spamming everywhere, and none of the videos there have been graded for months, showing just how much the mods/admins even care about the site. The most active topic I have seen since I began back in March was not even related to Line Rider at all, it was about religion.

tl;dr If you just skipped to this section then you just proved my point.

I might start coming by again soon if I am just in a fit of depression right now, but don't count on it. I'll stick around probably for another day just to tie up loose ends, but that's about it.

That's sad

k if you're making tracks to impress people urdoinitrong.

Everyone goes through these dramatic "phases" at one point or another when they don't realize that you don't need to have much effort put forth to make an enjoyable track. (Except me, tbh ). I noticed that you were streaming a high speed track. Protip: High speed is boring to make for most people. (there are exceptions, ofc)

Also, everyone has that issue with comments from time to time. Sometimes, my tracks that I consider to be some of my best get 5-10 replies on the site, if not less. This site just has a shiz-ton of lurkers.

(And I think you're doing a great job running the last couple CotM's )

Shotoku wrote:It's not really fun to me anymore

This is a sign that it may be a good idea to take a break. Only play LR ultimately to have fun. I only play when I have an impulse to. (Usually to try new stuff out) Back in 2010 I burnt myself out somehow and lost interest. Then I couldn't make anything I liked and as that kept happening I felt like LR was becoming a chore. So i took a break untill I felt like playing again. Which ended up being two year break, lol. But you can't control how long it takes and that's okay. Just be patient and try to find something that will take LR's place for a little while. If you like it enough then you'll come back when you get that inspiration again. If not, then it's all good. It's just LR. :]

boo recommends not taking any obligations unless you can handle them, because that's just a way to get burnt out easier. As for you with the whole "im putting alot of effort into my tracks but im still not as good as i want to be", I think you need to take some time to realize what playing lr is about. Competition is good, but not when it consumes all of your inspiration and will to trackmake. You can only improve/make better tracks when you have creativity in you to do it. Right now it seems like you have none because you've been putting too much pressure on yourself, which results in even less interest in lr.

Take a break mon, don't beat yourself up for lack of interest. It'll come back. And even if it takes two years, It's alright.

EDIT: Also you better read my wall of text because I took the time to read yours.

yeah i agree with cereal, everyone goes through this. i've been going through it since IS except idk my attitude about it has been more of "i'm to lazy to make another track" lol.

but yeah just wait it out and eventually you'll come back. just kind of don't worry about lr/here for a week or so and just kind of play lr if you notice you have free time and just make a little for fun thing. make what you WANT to make

Sorry to hear you're uninspired; hope you decide to turn around and pick it up again. I, for one, really enjoy your tracks.

I just think you're misguided on the whole point of making tracks. If you make tracks with the sole intention of impressing people or getting attention, you're going to eventually burn yourself out. However, if you make tracks to have fun and participate in the community, you'll continue to enjoy playing with this "genius toy" for years on end. Measure your success in self-satisfaction, not in how many comments you can get.

Also, your comment on Line Rider "slowly dying" is exaggerating and oversimplifying the state of the community, if not outright fallacious. Sled Cast is a novel idea that lets us know more about our fellow - and favorite - riders. I will cede that ELR is on the verge of collapse, but there are unquestionably several intelligent and/or skilled active trackmakers on the site (Kevans, KW, Opal, and HG, among others). With ToCC3 on the horizon, and new, exciting levels of super-technical power quirk and flowy manuals defining a new era of track style, Line Rider is all but experiencing a renaissance in 2012.

All that said, I do hope you'll come back; I think I speak for all of us when I say that you're really appreciated here.

EDIT:

Cereal wrote:you don't need to have much effort put forth to make an enjoyable track.

Pure. Also QFT

Bai shotoku, I guess today was the last time you will stream, huh you where becoming really well at this game. I hope you can find the strength to come back again. Until then goodbye and have fun outside of line rider.

hell, all of my tracks get like 5 comments, and half are by me. I don't really care, though, bcuz I don't try hard and make them for enjoyment. It you play to gain the respect of people on the internet, you're wasting your time.

@Cereal
I actually thought I liked high-speed (because > 80% of my tracks are) but now that you mention it I had the most fun doing slow tracks, so that might be part of it. I was also considering just coming around every few days to run COtM so perhaps I'll follow through on that at least.

@Boo
I'm glad you understand what I'm going through, part of the larger pressure what when they made MOtW to a monthly thing, making it feel impossible to do well at that without working my hardest on a track, and that's what it feels like, work. Perhaps I have been putting too much pressure, and I just need to try playing differently, but who knows.

@Rofl
I totally forgot our collab, tbh that's part of the reason this started is because I felt you parts were so much better than mine and I felt like I was having a hard time keeping up. When ToCC3 comes around maybe I'll feel like finishing that up unless you want to collab with another person in the meantime.
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A lot of you are telling me to stop being so serious about this, but I want to make stuff others can enjoy so I work too hard. I guess if I just relax a little and not worry about that then I can continue to make tracks, and right now I'm actually wanting to play around with pop lines some more. But yeah, I'll just be doing this stuff when I feel like it rather than trying to work hard and finish a track every day. End note: I'm probably going to be doing lulzy stuff on hax a lot now, and I'll still be doing my routine things such as CoTM. Thanks for helping me through this, I really did not want to leave the site, but I didn't feel it was worth it to stick around before. I have 3 tracks I'm leaving unfinished for now, plus a collab, but I'm definitely not giving a total goodbye, I'm just going to leave a giant text wall that you are no doubt getting bored reading, but I'm thanking all of you for giving ways to cope with my depression of LR so I can have a reason to keep coming around here.

Shotoku. I'm going to tell you now. Leaving LR will be hard, you will lurk "just to see what's happening". If you want to find some excitement in LR, don't do it to impress us, do it because it's fun. If you continue to try to achieve the sort of standards this site has set, you're not going to have fun. Because, these aren't community standards, these are personal standards. Play the game, and challenge yourself. Impress yourself. look at your earlier tracks, and make one better, make your own standards. Then, it'll be fun again.

Have I ever told you how many tracks I've made before even getting one close to as good as your most recent? 16. And those are only fhe ones that I released! That's almost one track for every year I was born. The only difference comes in the fact that I didn't care how they turned out. I was too busy having fun making tiny 30 second shizz that was entertaining to me. And now that I am better, I still feel exactly the same way. All of my tracks are for the lulz, and at that, I think I'm also the only member here that hasn't gone through a time of inactivity. Coincidence? I think not. You should seriously try it out sometime.

Also, if you even checked ELR in the past week you'd find that I graded the videos. I don't know why Raf isn't helping out.

kevansevans wrote:Leaving LR will be hard, you will lurk "just to see what's happening".

Me in a nutshell.

Can we be friends?

Here's what I think. You don't necessarily have to be the king of asdf's or invent new things or make something that will blow someone's pants off and light their eyes on fire to make something that's considered really good or great. The most fun/entertaining tracks to watch are always going to be the ones that are the most creative. Whenever I make tracks, I'm usually trying to be as creative as I can. I'm not even really that good at the thing, I can barely make an asdf or or any of that fancy stuff and I often don't anyway. I stick to the most basic tricks (flings, manuals, shuffles, etc.) and it's usually a fun time and people really respond to it... sometimes. It's not about being the best or trying to improve to become great. Just remember the most basic principle of the game and the very purpose it was created -- to be creative. Look at the oldest and most popular tracks back then in the old times. They don't have anything in them that we do now, since LR has evolved, they're not popular for any other reason, then they are very creatively made. That's what is most important. If it's comments you're worried about, there are like 20 people here and youtube is nothing but a luck of the draw (I have 1,120 subscribers, and only get 10 comments at the most (sometimes not even that)). I hope you'll come back eventually and if not well then that's cool too. So I wrote more than I intended to and went off on a tangent but... whatever. Just have fun and hope to see you around.

@Wizzy and Opal
My problem was exactly that I took things too seriously, I'll take your advice and try that out

Three things I'm not going to do from now on:
1) I won't not double post
2) I'll won't take my tracks so seriously
3) I won't quit

Thanks for the help guys!

yay you won't quit

I definitely like that third idea.

Well, it's good you wont quit playing.
I myself took a 3 year dead period and just got back into it a couple months ago. I can say that you are probably my level of track making, possibly better. (take that as a compliment )
Never quit, but take breaks cause doing the same thing over and over can get stale real quick.