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Comment by vitabenes | Hacker News Reader

Most potential enjoyment, perhaps. I think that's more than fine for personal projects (or work projects that don't matter in the company's grand scheme of things).

However, for professional endeavors, I always go back to one of Neil Gaiman's pieces of advice to aspiring authors: "You learn by finishing things."

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Yeah. I'd love to finish more things. I like that quote. But at the same time, I don't feel the incentive of accomplishment that the article refers to. Finishing something just feels... empty?

Hmm, interesting. Might be a case of anhedonia, which can be associated with things like addiction or depression.

Looked that up. Doesn't sound quite right. I enjoy working on things. It's just that actually finishing something doesn't contribute to the enjoyment. So, if there's a task that improves the project but doesn't bring it closer to actually being releasable, I don't feel any incentive in prioritising the other tasks that merely aim to finish the project.

This reminds me so much of achieving level 99 in skill in RuneScape. It takes about 50-200 hours, and most people don’t accomplish it for years. Once you get to 99 you just, teleport somewhere else and move on.

I’m now writing a book about this, for what it’s worth. Thanks for sharing your perspective.

Oh, yeah. I never went to max level in an MMO I used to play. Once you reach max level in a skill tree, there's no more point in exercising that skill. The reward is that you no longer get rewards. So, why bother? The goal of reaching max level (especially over those huge time investments) doesn't make sense. There's no higher enjoyment at max level, and many games even get boring once you get there.

It's a circular incentive. You level up to kill better mobs. You kill mobs to level up. So, unless there's any other reason to kill mobs, the game dies when everyone reaches max level.

Yes, this gets right to my central question of Why We Play. :)

I like the simplicity of your description. Can I ask what game you are referring to?

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