i've been exactly where you are.

after being burnt a few times and burnt out in others, i found myself drifting away from rp as a whole until i ended up basically hanging my hat for well over a year - much longer than any break i had taken in, similar to yourself, 11 years or so. i didn't say it to anyone and only really made allusions to it to myself, but that's what happened.

it's difficult to really point to a single reason why. maybe it was drama weighing heavily. maybe i came to see myself as having outgrown the medium. maybe i was depressed. maybe i thought my energy could be put into more 'constructive' projects. maybe new sites i saw popping up never really clicked with me. but it happened. i didn't really much think about actually rping during that time.

as of right now though, i'm back in it. as with anything, it's your friends that pull you back in. and i've been enjoying myself, even in a genre i wouldn't have ever really pictured myself enjoying. i think over my break, distance did make the heart grow fonder - but perhaps i simply lacked some fundamental things that i think make rping really fun.

for me that's something like a sense of community, the ability to collaborate on something with a friend, and the exploration of an interesting idea(s). perhaps it's worth asking yourself what you really want out of rp - all the different things - and see if maybe some of those wants aren't being fully satisfied. if that fails, a total severance could be a good idea - to see if maybe indeed there is something rp provides that you can't see at present for being part of it.

that's my experience, anyway.

i've been considering retiring for a while too - or at least i was. i've taken a long break twice before, but for other reasons; the first time, when i was stuck in a weird transition from school to college, and then another from college to work life. now, work keeps me really busy, and its difficult to dedicate the kind of energy and attention to writing well when you have things in real life that need your attention, and goals and dreams you want to achieve. 

however, what i remember when it gets like that, is that roleplaying is a hobby that i truly enjoy. i love to write and plot with people because it just seems like such a great way to write.

i understand what you mean by feeling burnt out. i do take a break once in a while, cause honestly, while you are writing with people and they might be inconvenienced by having to wait for you, you aren't going to enjoy forcing out your posts. i personally have never taken a long break because of this; when it feels like my writing is stagnating, i switch off my computer for a few days. i do other stuff. i definitely pick up a book or two or watch a movie. but i never feel pressured to return. if i don't reignite my muse or feel the itch to write, i wouldn't return. but somehow i always do feel like coming back, because writing is such a creative release for me. 

I generally don't like putting a final label on things that I love or might used to love, because it feels to me like I'm trying to box away things neatly when sometimes things are just... ambiguous. Retirement feels final; as if when I say "that's it, I'm retired", it would really be over, but I think there's no need to really put it in a box if we are not comfortable doing so. Sometimes, it's good to let things remain up in the air because there doesn't always have to be a "you are either in it or out of it" binary.

I think it's important to try and be okay with a non-answer for ourselves. If I don't want to rp now, that's okay. Do I want to come back in the future? That's for future me to decide then, with her different set of future circumstances and mindset. Trying to decide between retiring or not makes me feel like I'm just barricading myself in or out. Instead of coming at it with a lock and a key, maybe this can be a door we can easily open and close anytime we want, as we progress in our lives. (:

Another thing I want to specifically address (Asu ) is that there are going to be a lot of things in life that we cannot really give a 100% to, but might want to, in a way or just refuse to do it at all. I believe this could be what you're facing, with :

but a friend of mine suggested retirement like Miyazaki instead of hiatus'ing for these unsure feelings— the pressure to return and produce would be off my shoulders, and I wouldn't feel like there's a deadline for me to come back to.

I believe that as our priorities and obligations in life change, so will our feelings and the amount of time we can afford to spend on different activities. That said, I also think it's important to adjust and be comfortable and more forgiving (towards ourselves) with the idea that we can't always give a 100%. At the end of the day, we only have so much time and energy. These two factors will always change like tides, and as such, will the time and energy spent on different things on our lives. You might not be able to spend as much energy or time on what you love, but your effort spent shouldn't define how much you deserve to feel about this. Forgive yourself a little bit more; I might cheekily suggest being more comfortable with half-assing some things a little bit more.

However, I feel differently from your friend; I would recommend hiatuses instead. The thing about taking a hiatus is that we don't have to put deadlines on ourselves either, I think it's unkind to ourselves if we slap our hands together and say "I have to be okay with writing in [specific amount of time]". Is there really an urgent need to make a decision now? I personally don't see retiring as letting go of a hobby; it still feels like we are holding on to it because we need to label it as something- an all or nothing. To take the pressure off yourself-how about letting go of it by being okay with coming back whenever you want? Let it remain a little bit uncertain- free yourself up and your future self up, according to your needs and wants.

I hope this helps a little, even though I know it might seem like a somewhat frustrating answer because of the lack of certainty.

so not to piggy back or be redundant but i thought maybe i had something to add to this convo. my motivation here is to hopefully alleviate the stress of this decision for any reading this thread?

i find that we as modern english speakers have this wild obsession with labels. this knowledge comes from me being apart of the T in LGBTQ (sorry about bringing identity into this but its relevantish). everyone is obsessed with labelling things to the point that at times it can really be redundant or have no relevance at all. a man who's been gay for 20 yrs can get horny for a woman, someone who's hyper-feminine can float into masculinity after a while... really these are just describers placed for comfort of self within your community/culture. sure you may get a double take from those who have known you, but overall it doesn't really matter. do what u feel.

so my point is is that your labelling this as retirement/hiatus doesn't really carry the weight that you think. it's really only as deep as you make it (and as we can see some of us carry this weight heavier than others). if you wanna "retire" and give it your 'final goodbye' only to come back in 3 months i doubt anyone will be like "but omg didn't you say you were retiring? why are you here?" and even if they do, like what are they gonna do? gatekeep? girlboss? gaslight? like you are free to label it as you please, if at all really, and then do what you want with it to the comfort of yourself. if you wanna label it retirement to feel that freedom, do so, but your rp friends won't stop you from coming back unless they're really shitty friends.

i have always told people: if roleplaying has become more of a chore than fun for you then babie just what are you doing? leave, go find something to do that results in some sort of actual satisfaction/fun/happiness/reward. if you are scared of the perpetual looming dastardly 'fear of missing out' i promise you that you aren't and there will still be some nerds on the internet pretending to be anime characters in play-by-post style roleplaying when/if you return.