competitive games are my personal specialty, they’re what I’ve been involved in for uh, over a dozen years at this point, as a competitor and as, um, as an editor and a journalist and so on. Um, the nature of that fun has changed as I kind of mature, right? I first started competing in fighting games when I was about 15, and then it was, uh, it was still, I-I would say like, weight leg- I’d-I’d still describe it as like, competitive problem solving, basically. Um, but uh, my immediate, my immediate interest was just in beating my friends, and then finding new people nearby, and beating them, right? Like it’s very, very kind of like, you know, Hero’s Journey, like, I want to be the best in my region, and after that, I want to be the best in wherever I can be the best, right? Um, and then, since then, uh, things have changed, like, I’m still competitive, but the desire for me has been more to just, to get better at the game, right? Um, where before, competatio-competition and competitive success was the end goal, not competition and competitive sec-success has become the uh, a validation that I actually, I do understand the problems I’m solving, right? Um, it’s-it’s developing mastery for its own sake, and then letting that mastery be validated by competitive success.
