I went through 1 boredom phase about 2 years ago which lasted 2 months, and then I went through one about 14 months ago that is still ongoing and shows no signs of letting up.

I think it is also partly because many people I used to play with just sorta stopped, and the community is one of the things that makes LFS so much better online. We'll see what happens

Quote from birder :

I think we all get a bit bored with LFS when there is no changes for months and amonths and months. If the devs did an update every 3 months, however small , it would partly stop this but as it is we have an update every 12 months (ish) and this is too big a gap

In CD we have over 50 Race Team Members and its simple to see when the "Bored of LFS" syndrome kicks in as we dont see some of our members for weeks

A new bit of content and they are all back for a while

One thing is for sure, i have used LFS more than any other game i have tried as the others normally last a month before i get bored.

I think many of us use LFS as its by far the easiest to race online with, and there is always a race to be had without all the waiting about.

Quote from Mp3 Astra :

I'm currently only racing for leagues, although I did have a great session on Bump and Jump on Monday. But I have lots of work that I didn't do over the summer, so I'm balancing that, TF2, LFS, sleeping and video making all at the same time.

I agree with both of these posts quite a bit. I've played LFS for 4-1/2 years now, and the longer I play it, the more I have to change my association with it to keep things fresh. League racing, league administration, team stuff, and the occasional bit of pickup racing. I also like to get away and do other gaming like TF2 or COD:UO or DoD:S, or even some old classics like Mafia or even IL2 and FSX. Variety is the key, both on the user side and from the devs, which I think is why there is such interest in that VW Scirocco.

Depends on what you all count as a "phase of boredom"
I think I never really had such a phase (or that it lasted longer then 2 or 3 weeks).

My first thought here was: "How can this be that people who are here for only 1 or 2 years are bored with LFS?"
As I never really stopped playing it for more then a few weeks in the last 4 and a half years.

Sure sometimes I only race on 3 or 5 days/per month and usually I have the most fun with it when racing in leagues
but I never really stopped playing it at all or never stopped playing it for longer then a few weeks.
But then I had other reasons or things to do that hindered me (moving, new job, holidays etc.)

Back to my first thought:
Maybe one reasons for newer people is that there are not that often major updates
like we had in the past or early years of LFS.

When I started there was only the demo available, (At first I didn't liked it that much tbh)
Then several updates later I really started to like LFS
We had only 4 tracks and 6 or 7 cars
Then I think the MRT came as an X-mas present, then I played the demo for several more months,
then S1 came out, I played the demo for some more months as I had no DSL during that time
Then I finally bought S1, then S2 and during that till today there came so much new stuff and lots of big updates:

"Old and new LFS World, Skid marks, from iirc 10 players per race to 15 to 20 up to 32, the CMX Viewer,
Westhil, Aston, an own LFS Forum (instead of the slow RSC we only had), FBM, Clutch pack, flags, tyre heating,
BMW F1, auto patches, engine sounds, outgauge stuff, refurbished BLackwood,
replay hotlap analyzer and lots and lots of more "smaller" stuff".


Over the years I really got used to the "It's ready when it's ready" mentality.
Because whenever something new came out for LFS it was great and well thought or tested.
So I'm used to wait for good things.

Another reason for not stopping is for me of course my Team.
There is always something to do, something to talk about, something to plan or to test
and I never really get bored.

But that's me, I have no patent remedy for others.
Playing other games for a few weeks is for sure a good thing
and if you got no fun driving LFS, don't force yourself to drive.
Testing other so called racing sims is for sure also a good idea
because when you then go back to play LFS you know what makes it special
and I always got back the fun instantly

My steering wheels are in my attic. I don't actually know what came with the last patch apart from the XFR interior on the LFS home page, can't even remember if I've downloaded it.

I'm basically here just for the forum really.

As time goes by the less I play lfs and the higher the requirements become to get back into lfs.

Luckily there is the offtopic section

I still play LFS, but with some smaller or bigger breaks. And maybe it's helping me, because everytime i come back after few weeks, then i realize that i'm suddenly faster with some car or on some track.

I think i'm gonna take another break.

And i agree Scatter, when i'm really bored of LFS, i go and try another game or activity and after some time i come back.
Also agree with opinion that is a cycle, which almost everyone is going through, you cannot do the same thing for too long (even work, but that's something slightly different ).

Quote from Cr!t!calDrift :

Anyone going through one now?

Yes. The phase has lasted for err.. Two or three years now.

Quote from Cr!t!calDrift :

What can I try that will get me back on the track again? It's not that I dislike the game, I just feel like I'm missing something.

Try rFactor. It has many things LFS is in need of. The Legends mod that was just released is worth a try!

After you've got yourself used to rF and if you then pop back to LFS, you might have forgotten the details and find it new and refreshing.

I'm approaching about a year of no online racing now as well. I still fire it up now & then and do a few practice laps, or AI avoidance laps. Still read the forums regularly since there are some great people here...

I am 3 months into to my Boredom Patch after a full on stint of 15 Months solid LFS, also got heavily into the FPS scene with DOD:S recently

came back recently to run the BabyR Series but finding it hard to get motivated to practice

Slowly but surely I'm returning back wish me luck on my recovery

If you look at LFS like an girlfriend (one who likes polygamy) some would be with her since 6 years, so getting a bit bored once in a while is nothing special

I have never really stopped playing LFS for more than a month. Even though it's a short time, whenever I end a boredom spell it's because I have an absolute craving for some good old racing.

I've only been playing LFS for less than a year, so I guess I don't even qualify to answer this question. But part of what's been keeping LFS "fresh" for me is all the new gadgets that I've gotten; multiple brake mods, FreeTrack +++. Each of them adds a little more to the immersion, which makes LFS closer to living out its true potential.

And best of all, some of these mods are very cheap or even free. Try it out! Can't hurt. (Check out the FreeTrack thread in the Other Hardware forum for starters!)

Quote from ATHome :

If you look at LFS like an girlfriend (one who likes polygamy) some would be with her since 6 years, so getting a bit bored once in a while is nothing special

I've been here since the game only had 3 cars and you had to earn credits. Although when was the skid pad released? Because I vaguely remember that as well. I don't know how long ago that was.

Yep I'm on a break also......over 50k online miles last year and now I have only played once since the last patch. Another sim has my attention right now, but I'll be back sometime I just know it .

Quote from Cr!t!calDrift :

I've been here since the game only had 3 cars and you had to earn credits. Although when was the skid pad released? Because I vaguely remember that as well. I don't know how long ago that was.

Yup.. remember that as well. I had a bunch of credits, that was the good time!!!

I just been through something like 1.5 year inactivity period (new girlfriend didn't help either, now that change your habits big time where you were use to being by yourself for a long time).

Patch Z was a shock.. I barely remembered how to drive anymore And I'm missing the virtual speed gauge too.

lol

If driving less than 30k kilometers since Jun/07 had an advantage, that was not being able to get _really_ bored.

But the way I see LFS changed a lot during that time. From lots of pick-up racing to mostly league-oriented driving. I still join CTRA, but after two or three races I can't be bothered to drive anymore and just sit on the server watching and chatting.

With leagues is a different matter entirely. I really enjoy the process of setting up the car for the upcoming combo, trying different things, talking to/watching those I'll race against etc. And those last minutes before the event starts are very exciting.

Having a team with friends really help being close to LFS as well.

I guess I had my first bored phase in my past 2.5 years of LFS. Well I wasn't really bored, I just didn't know what to do. I mean didn't have too much time because of girlfriend and some work, and I didn't feel like messing around random combos each time I had 20-30 mins or so to play.
If I drive, I drive advisedly, practicing for series and stuff, always with an aim, but in the past 6 months I quite got out of the wave.

Realized that, and that I missed racing kinda much, so I'm trying to get back to racing again. Well not like too many people missed me

Yep I have been through this phase but SR kinda got me back into LFS :P. I'm still not on as I use to because of school though but even during the summer I wasn't ALWAYS on LFS. :P (just most of the time. xD)

Quote from AlienT. :

Yep I'm on a break also......over 50k online miles last year and now I have only played once since the last patch. Another sim has my attention right now, but I'll be back sometime I just know it .

May I ask what other sim you're playing now? I'd imagine that it would be hard for an experienced LFSer like you to find a sim that you think is good enough..

I'll take a stab at it being iRacing........

i think everyone has been in this phase, me too.
but then you come in a nice team with great people and it is not as boring as bevore.

so it helps not to play the same game all the time. i play flatout 1 & 2 , gta on xbox 360.

i am in it too :/ its the same thing all over again, getting boring :/

I used to pretty much play exclusively on CTRA, even though I'm absolutely useless so can only drive the XFG and XRG there, and I found I just going through the motions rather than having fun. The problem was I was getting so focused on getting points that I felt that any time I was driving on a different server was 'wasted'.

A while ago I switched servers and started playing on the new BTCC server and suddenly found the game fun again. Even the switch from the small cars to the TBO class was enough of a change.

Try a new server with completely different class of cars.

Quote from Cr!t!calDrift :

Anyone here ever go through a phase of boredom with LFS? Anyone going through one now?

O yes, im in my x month, i cant remember. I've run lfs to test in OS X and help admin a league race once "lately". I said to myself i'll come back to lfs in a year. By then there should be 2 or so new patches/content.

I've always been a driver rather than a forum poster over the years. Until now.