The games that I found myself really invested in were always the ones with infinite gameplay loops. Not only is the pursuit of mastery obviously enjoyable in of itself, but I’ve found that there are both meta-level and micro optimizations that can be made that differentiate the top 0.01% from rest of the playerbase.

It’s also cool to think about how some of these optimizations translate across mediums (people who are good at crosshair replacement are typically good at other things that require spatial prediction/muscle memory, etc.).

There’s a unique signature to these kind of games/activities — they feel just complex enough to enjoy and want to improve at even if you suck at first (high skill ceiling = promise of a deep complex problem space to explore).

Now that I’m trying to recall, I think some of the most fun I’ve ever had is when I was a beginner trying to understand what was possible in a game.

As my understanding and familiarity grows, my peripheral vision expands and there is suddenly so much enjoyment in realizing that there are more layers to the game (i.e., more shit to learn).

There’s this really fun progression of:

  1. Figuring out the rules (what can I do?) →
  2. Discovering strategy/tactics (what should I do?) →
  3. Entering the flow state of play (given everything I currently understand and what my body is capable of, what is the optimal path to victory)