Overwatch is a really well designed FPS-MOBA.
That means first-person-shooter multiplayer-online-battle-arena.
Think of it as football+chess.
For the uninitiated:
A first person shooter requires tactical aim, positioning, and incredible reflexes.
A moba requires an understanding of your character’s abilities, the group of characters on your team, and the characters you are fighting against.
Both require you to memorize the map (or level) you are playing on, and potentially a host of other things, depending on the game.
The League
In Overwatch, there is a pro league, and literally everyone who plays Overwatch has the opportunity to join that league, as long as they are good enough. To track this, the game has an in game ranking system that goes from 0–3500.
The way you stay at the top is by being amazing and playing all the time.
The Loot
Overwatch also has a slot-machine-like reward system.
You gain experience after every game, more after a win. If you gain a level, you unlock a loot box. This is also known as a low-risk-variable-reward mechanism (the same thing slot machines and facebook’s notification system use to keep you hooked.)
If you get lucky, you can unlock skins for your characters, which are just bragging rights, but they still look cool.
The Game Itself
Overwatch is made by Blizzard. They’ve designed iconic games like Starcraft, World of Warcraft, and Diablo II, which have gone on to be played for 10+ years by the communities that love them.
Overwatch will be played for years to come.
The Sum Total
This means Overwatch has amazing, replayable game design, an addictive rewards system, and a world-wide competitive system that continuously ranks you, and every player has access to.
It is no wonder that tons of people online are struggling to get better at this game every day.
It’s enjoyable. You spend a lot of time playing a really well-designed game. You use online tutorials to improve your skill. You watch your skill improve via a ranking system. You get in-game rewards for continuing to play.
Why I Stopped
After a while, it gets draining. I got addicted. I spent all my time playing. If I wasn’t playing, I was watching tutorials. I became burnt out, and that affected my ability to improve.
Ironically, I knew I would never go pro. The skill churn was so addictive I just couldn’t stop. Because I was getting better at something, however slowly, I felt like my life should be moving in a positive direction.
Though, it wasn’t.
I was really just wasting my time playing a (really, really fun) video game.
Are Video Games Healthy?
I’m going to skip the whole video games are good vs. video games are bad conversation. It’s not really what this article is about.
Smart Optimization
This article is about addictive improvement and needless optimization of certain parts of your life.
The most common one I’ve seen is people trying to “get better” at applying makeup. Which, if it’s what you really love, more power to you, however there are people out there who I assume must be approaching it in the same way I approached Overwatch.
There’s a limited return to the amount of value that makeup will provide in your life (unless you are a professional makeup artist.) But, social media provides a rewards system, and a perceived ranking system of others who post pictures of their makeup.
I find this kind of behavior in a lot of social media. People seek approval from others, which is rewarded in a measurable system of likes and followers, which can be used to gauge your level of skill, which you can then improve by watching more tutorials online.
This is a transparent view of life: that it can be measured by a linear graph, and improved by watching tutorial videos. It’s also self defeating. You monofocus on a single task without considering the limited benefit that task can provide or what other things would benefit you. You then judge a part of your self-worth on an imperfect ratings system that was designed by a company, often to keep people engaged instead of accurately ranking value.
I call this needless optimization because you are putting a large amount of effort into optimizing something that doesn’t really matter.
You’ve taken your hobby past the point of fun, and made it work, or a daily grind, when you could instead be applying that same work ethic somewhere more valuable.
As you can tell, I am a writer, and the amount of time I’ve spend trying to actively improve my skill at Overwatch could have easily been spent writing the first draft of a novel.
And it would have been more fun. Just a lot less instant dopamine.
I haven’t stopped playing video games, but I have stopped playing Overwatch, and I couldn’t be happier.
