First Blood
Dota 2 & Habits
How to Mimic the Addiction
If you’ve ever come across a Dota 2 Player’s Steam Profile, you might stumble upon this. A jaw-dropping playtime of 9000 hours. Nine thousand hours of video game playtime.
“WhY wOuLd aNyonE WasTe ThiS aMount Of HoUrs in a videO Game!?”
Prologue
I spent more than almost 6000 hours on the game, actively playing from 2012 until 2018. Most of my friends are still active even to this day. The profile link I mentioned earlier is my friend’s. I played competitively with him and a few other friends consistently for almost 6 years.
Just a few weeks before my last active days, I’ve achieved lots of successful milestones playing the game — reaching ranks that are decent for super amateurs, winning small college tournaments, all that glorifying stuff. The same goes for my active friends as they were — and still are — dedicated to the game, even when most of them are doing a 9-to-5, five times a week.
I was a skinny dude and got no idea of how & where my life after college would go. Dota 2 was my drug— my escape from reality, a treatment — personally, a bad one. Feeling my real-life performance wasn’t comparable to that of my gaming, I had to start regaining this ‘life’ of mine. I eventually had the guts to uninstall the game.
My shifting of focus consisted of changing my environment and my habit. But the game-changing one was definitely right after I read James Clear’s Atomic Habits. The book taught me about the flow of human behavior and how to exploit them— creating a habit & mindset as I’ve never felt before. Fast-forward years later, here I am, living a consistent healthy daily habit and having the work that I love. Great!
So how did this Dota 2 get the best of me? Why so many people struggle to treat actual lives the way Dota 2 (or any other successful triple-A game for that matter) is treated — with passion and consistency?
It’s more than just a ‘game.’
Most of us probably understand that a game’s sole purpose is to entertain people. But, you know what? That only goal won't make these games the way they are today. Especially games that's been consistently relevant throughout the years of rapid technological & gaming development. There's much more going on behind the scene.
Connecting the dots, Dota 2, Fortnite, Counter-Strike, Valorant — and all those successful triple-A games/competitive games — have much in common. Lies behind it — a system so good that it almost guarantees players to have a good time playing. It created a life-longevity to the game, and surely revenues to its companies.
This system didn't just get created overnight, as it is based on a long series of extensive research on human psychology and lesson-learned things throughout the journey of humankind.
Since the late 1900s — the day internet started becoming a thing, researchers have been keeping a close eye on the human-computer interaction by observing & collecting data about what, why, when, where, whose, and how a digital product succeed and/or failed. The observation & findings became solid knowledge for the future of everything we are experiencing today — including the gaming industry.
Introducing — The System
You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. — James Clear
Imagine you’re playing a new kind of game with someone for the first time. You looked excited. Unfortunately, you lost that round, and you thought to yourself, “I’ll get the hang of this in no time.”
Now assume two scenarios that would happen afterward:
- You get better at the game and eventually beat your friend on your tenth try, or
- Your friend keeps beating you even after your tenth try.
Case Number 1 would definitely spark joy for most—the bias excitement — thinking about all the great possibilities that could happen after. “Wow! I’m so great at this game, I think I’m ready for anything life will throw at me.”
Case Number 2 — rather — would vary. Most might quit the game; others would be frustrated believing that they suck, or another rarer case would be going for the eleventh try and beyond.
Assume you’re working for a company as a game developer. As business means getting more money, the best solution is to minimize or even prevent case Number 2 from occurring since it’ll give the least amount of revenue due to its unpredictable nature. Hence, tutorials were introduced.
In most games, you will almost always get introduced to tutorials. These tutorials are early stages that would often challenge you to re-learn what you know about the game. The early stages' objective is often to get Players to get to know the game — to explore.
Another reason is to get these players hooked. When people does this, most will do anything to enrich the experience. It could involve buying virtual accessories or ‘skins’ for games or get better at the game by looking for guides on multiple sources, such as the internet. This phenomenon creates a whole new lot of business opportunities and a chance for revenue. An online multiplayer ‘Player vs. Player’ genre has a similar approach, by using a what-is-called the Matchmaking System.
The matchmaking system automatically defines a Player’s level of knowledge of the game based on their playtime, gaming performance, and other metrics using a hidden algorithm. This level of knowledge would be used to increase or even guarantee the chance of a ‘balanced’ game by matching up with other players with the similar knowledge and statistics. Both parties are expected to have an enjoyable experience since both have equal advantages & disadvantages.
Most people play because they wanted to have a good time. Take the earlier case Number 1, for example. Do you think a new player would be having fun playing against a player with 5-years of experience? Not everyone, and certainly not many. They’ll get beat quickly.
Usually, most online competitive games also maintain players' excitement by using a well-known ranking system.
Players gain rank by winning games and vice versa.
This system also what causes most Players to stay — why? Because it is based on basic human needs — Rewards & Recognition.
Using the medal image above to explain this example — say that you’re ranked an Archon. You kept winning eventually reaching Legend and subsequently reached Ancient — you’re happy and excited — you get the right to brag for your achievement. The system fulfilled your human needs — rewards.
On the other hand, you began noticing that your foes are now better players than before. Unfortunately, you started to lose games, and your rank dropped to Legend. You’re disappointed. Dropping to Legend caused your foes to be less skillful than you were on Ancient but not as bad as when you were on Archon. Fair trade, but also a challenge.
This roller-coaster of emotion & sensation is what brings the excitement going. Without it, people would get bored.
Imagine being a professional basketball player, and you get to play high school kids. How would that make you feel? The excitement will dry up fast considering they didn't provide any challenge to you due to their lack of experience compared to yours — you get bored quickly.
Adding all these examples up with how the game mechanics, visuals, and quality was made created that ‘sweet-spot’ of somewhat a challenging yet pleasant experience. This is what keeps them play for a lengthy time. This is what keeps the consistency going.
There’s more to life.
Knowing all this information gives us the knowledge to understand ourselves better. In fact, there are already a ton of books out there that teach ‘life hacks’ — how to become exceptional in life. All these books have teachings that are in common. How? — Because we humans haven't evolved significantly since our ancestors last discovered agriculture — that's 12.000 years ago. We own and keep most of our ancestors' traits for generations — that even now, researchers & society could easily predict our nature & behavior.
In contrast, everything surrounding us right now evolves so quickly in just less than 20 years — looking at how rapid technology was since the late 1900s — that we didn't have the moment to adjust ourselves.
We may call ourselves modern being, but we still resemble our ancestors deep inside.
Here’s one cool excerpt I took from Scott Berkun’s Confession of a Public Speaker about why and how people get stage fright.
Our brain identifies the following four things as being very bad for survival: standing alone, in open territory, without a weapon, and in front of a large crowd of creatures staring at you. Many predeators hunt in packs, and their easiest prey are those who stand alone, without a weapon, on a flat area where there is little cover (stage).The design of the brain’s wirings — given it’s long operational history, which is hundreds of thousands of years older than the history of public speaking, makes it impossible to stop fearing. This wiring is so primal that it lives in parts of our brains where like many other important functions, we have almost no control.
We are already wired in everything that we do every day.
What the system did was only exploiting our ancestral traits.
Assume you’re in love with Dota 2. Your interest in the game soared, you got hyped, studied the game, you then won small tournaments, you've peaked high rankings, your friends praised you.
Your confidence increased. You felt like you can do other things in life with the same success as your Dota 2s. You decided to try running a chance — with hopes of becoming a healthy person and a person that can run.
Oddly, just after a week of doing just that, you suddenly lost interest; you felt like you’re not getting better at it. Afterward, you started skipping days. “I’m not going anywhere with this. I think it’s just not for me.” You eventually quit. While your Dota 2 & any other of your ‘gaming career’ keep going. Sounds familiar? What gives?
The difference between your Dota 2 and your running is that — remember: Dota 2 got the system implemented — the thing that preserves and maintains your excitement without your consent of realizing any psychological effects. Moreover, it evolves around comfort. Your room, your precious comfortable gaming chair, and that fresh air of your AC. It takes less than 30 seconds to start hitting that Play Button from your sleeping bed—the absolute perfection of a scenario.
Most people don't realize those things are the reason why you, me, my friends, and all 1 million other players fell in love with the grind.
In contrast, your life goals of losing weight, having a healthy lifestyle, exercising has NOTHING implemented inside it. No engineering was done to it.
Think about it — playing Dota 2 with more than 5K hours doesn't feel like a difficult thing to do to most people because they are well-distracted with how the game and the system please & play around with their needs. They thought “a game is different than a real-life!” — when in reality, it's not the game, but the system — designed using a series of long-life human history and research.
‘Copy and Paste’
Instead of doing our ‘life challenge’ mindlessly, why not do what the developers have done? Implement the system—engineer our life. Don't live a passive life.
You shouldn't be running like Usain Bolt the first 3 days of your journey — treat them as if you’re the new player in the game, as easy as possible, make yourselves engaged and hooked in the exercise (the game).
Remember — the players who got more than 10k hours of playtime didn't try to play the game like a 10k-hour player at the beginning of their play days.
Progress requires unlearning
A Bit of Both
We know that Dota 2 and other competitive game has a ranking system that keeps the player rewarded. Now do the same for your life.
To gain ranks, players need to win. Winning requires playing better than most others in their current rank. To do that, players look at Youtube, watch how pro players play, watch replays of the game, watched a live stream event, then start analyzing it. That's how I did it back in the days.
The point is, you need to practice. Not just practice — but deliberate practice. Focus & be mindful of what you’re doing. You can’t expect your playtime to align with your skill. You can’t expect doing the same thing repeatedly & mindlessly would make you better — you also need to improve.
Let's say running 5K would be your start. Once you feel you've mastered the basics of running, then you could try going 5K but with a certain time period.
Once you've reached that milestone, to get even better, try reaching 10K, then 10K with a time period, and so on. This incremental progress would require you to maintain your breathing better, keep mindful of the food you’re eating, learn good running form, the list goes on!
The keyword here is incremental. Not all-at-once.
Keep yourself engaged by knowing your current ‘rank’ is. Make it enjoyable yet challenging at the same time.
Reward yourself afterward. Do stuff you love as long as it’s not sabotaging your system. If you wanted to run better, don't reward yourself with a treat of junk food. Instead, how about getting new running shoes? Or share and brag your running clicks on Instagram.
Epilogue
People have different goals in life. Not everyone wanted to be great at something — some only wanted to be ‘just good.’ I don't control your life — not even Wraith King. But knowing all these exploitable traits of ourselves that could make our lives better — or worse, is one of the greatest tools we have.
Consistency & persistency is key. My way of keeping an awesome habit is by embracing the rule of two — never miss your habit twice in a row.
It’s also okay to stumble and have a bad day because also I stumbled a lot.
Another important thing is to have grit — always come back stronger.
Last but not least, there is no endzone. 5K hours of playtime? 100K hours? the reality is that it doesn't matter. We’re simply talking about hours — that to get where we want to go isn’t about brilliance, but continual & deliberate effort. Always think about the system.
The only secret to being in control is to have it in the beginning. Retaining control is still hard, but obtaining control is virtually impossible. — Thomas Bangalter
