Loss of Fun

How do you handle when a game stops being fun? And does your answer change if it's face to face or play by post?

By stops being fun, I mean the cumulative actions of the DM or the other players make playing a total slog. Either they are complete number crunching combat gods and you want to roleplay or vice versa. Or the DM acts as though the players are the enemy (well, they are, but he's really overt about it).

Do you gut through to the end of the adventure, quit without saying anything, try to talk it through or something else entirely?

Funny you ask that, as I recently decided leaving one group of mine...and I have to say that it's really simple:

It heavily depends on the reasons of leaving.
I'm going to assume that you mean "Stop being fun" not in this abrupt "That's the last straw, I'm outta here!"-way, but more in a "Hey, I just realized that this is less and less fun for me!"-way.
My situations is this:
It's an online game (playing online via TeamSpeak and FantasyGrounds), but because we use TS we talk to each other, making it more personal than a mere play by post. We've been playing for about 3 years (2 years in this constellation) and I've decided that the overall way of playing isn't what I like to spend my mondays on - the group consists of great people and the GM really puts a lot of effort to form a breathing world, and after we had a big discussion about half a year ago about what was working and what wasn't some of the major problems were adressed and resolved.
However, the group meets every week for 3-4 hours, and we have one fight roughly every 4-6 weeks - and these fights are usually done after one or two good swings by the fighter (me). Many members of the group are not too keen on fighting and prefer a rules-light way, and this can get pretty extreme - the druid is getting annoyed over the fact that she does no damage with her bow (Because her feats on level 7 were, if I recall correctly, one skill feat and maybe Point-Blank-Shot, though I'm not even sure about the latter), the rogue just recently discovered that he can choose more feats than only on level 1 (again - we're level 7 now). And I will tell them exactly that - that I just don't feel like I belong into this group anymore because our focus is just too different. I do, however, enjoy exploring the GMs world, so I will stick with them until we're done with this particular part of the adventure (escaping a prison dimension) so that they will have plenty of time to find someone to take my place.
I won't, however, tell him in the TS, because I'm really bad at stuff like this. I will write it down, send it to him as a PM and invite him to discuss it with me when we talk again. That's not because I think he will overreact when I tell him but because I'm just bad at gathering the courage to say such a thing in person - after all, we have been in a group for over 3 years.

Now, what about your other suggestions?
"Do you gut through to the end of the adventure" - Yeah, kinda. As I said, to the end of this particular part of the adventure. If I find myself in a situation where I really have an issue with returning (a hostile GM, for example) I would not do that.
"Quit without saying anything" - I find that to be the most cowardly way possible. I myself am not good with saying certain things to another person's face, but I would at least send them an E-mail or something else, because otherwise I do not only harm the GM (again, if he was a douchebag), but the players as well. And I have never played with a group where I really hated ALL of the other players...
"Try to talk it through" - If that is a possibility, yes. If it's just something along the lines of "Hey, guys, I know you like combat, but it would be great not to kill every opportunity to role play.", sure. Who knows, it might get better. If I know, on the other hand, that I'm the only one not seeing the fun in invading the dungeon of raping honey-covered goo ogres that sing Disney theme songs, then well - a discussion won't change much.

End of fun is the end of the game. I won't say I (and a few groups) haven't slogged through a couple more sessions after the fun was gone. But generally no more than that.

We've never continued a game that stopped being fun. We just stopped and regrouped.

Life is too short for no fun gaming. I see two possibilities when I am in this situation. First, maybe this particular adventure is not good for me. Maybe I will bow out until the next one or the group starts over. Second, our play-styles are just not compatible. I politely bow out, no need to be a jerk, sometimes folks are just a mis-match.

I bowed out of a campaign last year, in part due to the fact that it wasn't fun for me anymore.

I have to take some responsibility for it being less fun for myself, because I chose to play a character that wasn't optimized for combat. I knew the GM would make combat a focus because I've played with this GM before and that's his style. But I hoped that the GM would find a way to let me get by without getting into combat all the time, and that didn't happen.

I told the GM and fellow players that I wanted to more time to focus on my studies, which was true. I also admitted I wasn't happy with my character. I'm sure the GM would have let me change characters, but I was so uninspired by the game that I didn't want to.

That game also made me realize that there are certain types of settings I just don't want to play anymore. It was a sci-fi game, and I prefer to play fantasy. Next time someone starts up a sci-fi game, I will excuse myself before the game starts.

For me if the game stops being fun, I reach out to the rest of the table to see how they feel about it. If it's only me, then I look at what I might be doing that is not resonating with the group. If others say the same thing, we will usually pull a group meeting together to discuss.

The last time this happened was when I was running a 4e campaign for my 3.5 group. This was when 4e first came out and we were all curious about it. One of the players picked up the "Keep on the Borderlands" module (I think that was the one) and I agreed to run the players through it as we tried out 4e.

After our fourth or fifth session it was clear to me that the sessions were not as fun as I remembered us having. So I reached out to the rest of the party and what I heard back was basically that about half of the players just didn't want to learn a new game system, especially one that they felt was actively hurting the game.

Now, I personally did not agree that the game system was that bad, and I ended up playing a two-year 4e campaign and had a great time in it, but my original group simply did not want to play 4e.

So we quit that campaign and started up a new campaign in 3.5 and soon were back to our old antics. Then a year later we converted to Pathfinder, with none of those issues. So I guess the game system really was a problem for some of our group. Oh well, I love Pathfinder too, so we've just continued on with Pathfinder and are still playing.

As long as you’re playing with people, I don’t think it matters much if it’s pbp or f2f.

Sure, it’s easier to disappear without a trace in a pbp … I’ve heard of people getting dumped by text message as well …

You obviously feel strongly about it enough to come here … which is a credit to you. If you’re feeling this way, chances are others may be as well. I don’t see this situation being much different than the way one would handle any other difficulty in similar types of adult relationships, like those between friends, acquaintances, work colleagues etc.

Good luck with your decision.

This is one of the reasons I have "find the right people to play with" pretty high on my priority list. If you end up in a group with opposing values it can become decidedly unfun in a very short space of time.

Finding out what kind of game it's going to be in advance tends to solve the problem of having to quit partway through.

When those issues turn up mid-game, the first thing I'd recommend is actually talking about it. Sometimes the other players will be willing to meet you in the middle somewhere to make the game fun for everyone. Sometimes not, in which case you've always got the option of bowing out politely. Nobody should feel obligated to spend their (for most of us, limited) leisure time in an activity they'd rather not be doing. Always try talking it through first, though.

Yeah the guys who just quietly vanish are numerous in PbP games. But that is probably because the format encourages you to overestimate your free time.

Yeah, I'll tolerate a few un-fun sessions, and have done so, but if it continues to be dull, time to go. Cheers chaps and all that.

Everyone has an off day. Sometimes the whole group has an off day.

This is not about one off day. What triggered the above is that I'm in game that has not been fun for a while. The other players are great. The DM is a nice guy. But his style of DM'ing makes the game unfun for me. I'm probably walking at the end of the adventure.

So it's likely just me. :)

Everyone has an off day. Sometimes the whole group has an off day.

This is not about one off day. What triggered the above is that I'm in game that has not been fun for a while. The other players are great. The DM is a nice guy. But his style of DM'ing makes the game unfun for me. I'm probably walking at the end of the adventure.

So it's likely just me. :)

Sometimes it is just you. Good for you to recognize this and not let it manifest into bad gaming behavior. Instead in a few months you will be posting about your new fun game instead of posting in any one of the numerous my GM is an ass threads.

Everyone has an off day. Sometimes the whole group has an off day.

This is not about one off day. What triggered the above is that I'm in game that has not been fun for a while. The other players are great. The DM is a nice guy. But his style of DM'ing makes the game unfun for me. I'm probably walking at the end of the adventure.

So it's likely just me. :)

It might also be something I call "gamer burnout." It happens when you are creative for a long time that for some reason that side of your mind just turns off. Creative activities like role playing games become boring. I have burned out like this twice in my life and the only way I have found to snap out of it is to step away from the game for a while and fuel your creativity with other peoples works like movies and books. Before long it all gets exciting again and you find yourself back at the table.