Lately, I've been extremely addicted to Warcraft III videos on YouTube. Each video can last for an hour, but I never get tired of watching them and could spend the whole day doing so. Even though I haven't played war3 for over a decade and didn't understand its mechanics from the beginning, it shouldn't have such a strong allure to keep me captivated for such a long time.
I'm very curious about this addictive mechanism. I've noticed two common factors in this process. One is my curiosity about the unconventional tactics in the videos and the results they yield. The other is the abundance of small rewards throughout the entire process - killing enemy peasants, buildings, units, and even heroes. These small rewards naturally sparked my curiosity and allowed me to spend over a dozen hours in these seemingly "meaningless" videos.
I've found that when playing games, my engagement is driven by similar reasons. In Dota 2, because each match has a certain degree of randomness in terms of players/heroes, I anticipate the outcome of such confrontations. Constantly killing, escaping, and earning money throughout the process makes my brain believe that this is a highly worthwhile domain to invest in, leading to a focused and even addictive desire to continue playing.
This feeling is something I can personally experience whether I'm playing the game myself or watching commentary videos. However, compared to war3, I have a better understanding of Dota 2, and many details no longer require me to ponder their significance. This also leads to less novelty and a greater tendency to feel bored or drowsy when watching Dota 2 videos. So while a Dota 2 match may have a similar or even shorter duration compared to war3, I can remain focused on war3 videos for a longer period of time.
Curiosity and small rewards are my observations of this phenomenon. They may not be complete, and there may be other factors that I have overlooked, leading to this level of focus or addiction. The only way to verify it is to see if I can achieve the same level of focus during the process of reviewing or working on my thesis. My plan is simple - adjust my state during my pre-work routine, clarify the questions that interest me, and actively capture any sense of achievement and reward that I gain throughout the process.
Let's try it out, and I'll update in a week to see if this observation is complete (or complete enough to guide my own actions).