Anyway, start early/stay consistent. This stuff seems overwhelming until you surprise yourself with muscle memory
Can't speak for others, but I don't think about spelling/make-up of words while typing. They flow.
This is the ideal state with vim; muscle memory for documents. In the end it can reduce effort/improve speed
:%s/vim/any editor/
A similar idea applies to skateboarding, basketball, whatever. Sure - it's physically exhausting to get there, but the motions become routine
In fact, I have Vim mode turned on in all contexts where it is possible -- in my terminal, in any editor I use, etc. It is difficult for me to properly edit text without Vim mode, honestly.
But not using h, k, j, and l would cripple my productivity in command mode. It allows me to zip down 6-8 lines just by holding the j key down for an extra split second, or 6-8 lines up with k key -- and I can control exactly which line to stop on by lifting my finger.
It pains me to think of not having this at my fingertips.
For me, hjkl for directional keys is extremely difficult to remember. I think because in the spoken word we say "up and down", not "down and up", so my brain wants j to be up and k to be down. My muscle memory really fights me on that.
Beat that game and hjkl will feel just as natural as arrow keys, and so will a ton of vim commands.
I think the creator does himself a disservice by selling 6 month licenses rather than lifetime. But 6 months is more than enough to play through it. I think it only took me a couple days.
I'd be more likely to buy/support lifetime over six months, or really, any interval. This is a largely-unchanging editor. Why drag out this relationship? Once I learn the things, it's on me to put them to practice/make it real. Six months is lifetime, if you haven't mastered it by then I'm not sure you will.
I can't say whether or not this would be more effective than others, I haven't played it.
The proposition of buying a license at all is a bit of a hard sell. Again, there are a lot of free things to give me the info and gamified experience. Perhaps not as nice, but this needs to do a bit more to sell me than look pretty.
The hard part is aided by several other freely available games, yet experience of all kinds still teaches. I have a feeling it's more motivation or personal choice, than game(s), when it comes to why my arrow-key usage persists.
Then again, I also don't use services for languages. I'd rather read. A lot.
Someone willing to be so dedicated that they'll invest both money and time, while not falling back to old habits, will most likely succeed without the 'payment' part.
Anyone should be able to sit down and dedicate themselves to self-improvement or entertainment for free.
It's all very arbitrary. Not all six months are equal. Not all editing is equal. I edit more than any healthy person should, is it good or bad? Who knows.
Presenting a subscription is just a little off-putting. How deep does the hole go, you know?
The active side of learning is one thing. The game you choose, the manuals you read, or whatever.
The other side - what happens outside of that, both actively and passively (with time), is important too. I want to stress that.
It's easier to build good habits than break bad ones, and the lines between aren't clear.
The learning aid doesn't matter if you aren't dedicated to the teachings by putting them into practice while editing.
In fact, habits you have unrelated to editing can hurt your editing!
I didn't want to turn this into a spat saying "this thing" or "that one". It defeats the purpose of my message: the learning aid doesn't matter so much, dedicating yourself to it does.
Disclaimer: I'm biased. I learned before gamification was so readily available. I can't objectively judge them completely
The game I played was called "painstakingly edit a lot and look at a cheat sheet until the bones remember". Self-enforcing learning model! Both good and bad, again - habits.