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Comment by scrollaway | Hacker News Reader

Your post could be reworded to talk about learning just any musical instrument.

I think learning to play a musical instrument would actually give me more satisfaction because it would open more doors towards creativity.

But it's all personal of course. :) Some people like boss fights (or Souls-like games) and I'm happy for them.

I just would be happy with a "bypass this" button.

I disagree, because with an instrument you actually get music out at the end, which is enjoyable in its own right on top of the satisfaction of executing the technical challenge of playing it. A more akin analogy, in my opinion, would be “any musical instrument which has been artificially muted”—this could definitely still be fun, and indeed I’ve played my keyboard without sound before, but it really doesn’t compare.

A better analogy than music might be dance: The reward for dancing well is simply the feeling of dancing well. In a properly-designed game, the game feel of successfully completing the technical challenge is itself the reward. A dance that feels unpleasant probably won't be performed recreationally, and a game that doesn't feel fun to succeed at won't see much play.

> I disagree, because with an instrument you actually get music out at the end...

You've clearly never heard me playing my horns!

I never found the end result of all that practice to be rewarding (as the kids seem to say these days), [0] and -brother- I tried for years and years. So, I switched hobbies to video games and have a leisure-time activity that I like a lot more.

[0] Those unfortunate enough to be within earshot were usually fairly unimpressed with the result, so this isn't just me shittalking myself.

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