Show HN: I built a site that turns your Steam gaming hours into a RL skill tree
alternatelife.xyzHey,
A bit of context..
So I think last week was my last straw, I hit 8k hours with dota and holy ** It finally hit me how much time I wasted on that game.
I'm a software developer, I always wanted to develop something and put it out but was scared shitless to do so, I was kinda afraid to get bad traction, to fail or even worse to be completely ignored.
so I decided to address two of these issues at once, stop playing dota and spend the weekend building a website that let you see what you could've done with your gaming hours.
As an avid gamer for the last 20+ years, I know that it's only theoretical, cause sometimes, after a long day u just wanna chill infront of a game and you wouldn't go get a pilot license, obviously.
but, a lot of other times, I would spend my days off, weekend, just gaming 10 hours straight like a mad man.
In any case, hope u like it and maybe it sparks something in u! > It finally hit me how much time I wasted on that game. I don't agree that leisure is inherently wasting time, which I think is a pretty common belief across North America in general and within Tech specifically. I don't know if that's what you're asserting, but it does seem to be the thesis of the backing site ("if you spent all this time that you spent on a leisure activity elsewhere, you could have XYZ 'better' skill!") Of course, all things in balance; gaming addiction is a thing, and I've absolutely been guilty of using Titanfall 2 to farm dopamine rather than taking my dog for a walk or tidying my room. I'm glad this helped you, but I already feel like my life is under enough pressure to be more efficient, more productive, have more of an impact, when I'd really just like to slow down and enjoy things more. (I'm also a little sad, I originally thought this would map time spent in a game to a _corresponding_ skill, e.g. "400 hours in space engineers" -> "level 5 systems architect," or something. That's on me, it's not a criticism, but it's influencing my disappointment.) Fair points honestly, and ones thats been going through my mind constantly,
and like Alan Watts says, we are human-beings not human-doings, and I dig that. I think that for me, creating this site was about making myself uncomfortable to the point of, if I game, it's about relaxation and lesiure, and not something I do because I have no way other way to spend the weekend, going out and making friends gives me anxiety so I'll just spend the entire weekend at home gaming all day for 2 days. I still game with my kids, but we play coach none addictive games on nintendo, over the course of years I realised I can't really balance stuff like dota. as for your last point, that's actually a really really cool idea! might add it =] Thank you for your feedback!! Your middle point is great and very relatable; I've had the same frustration/argument with myself before: Am I playing this game because I actually want to, or because it's "easier" than anything else I could be doing? Props to you for pushing yourself to confront the uncomfortable! I also struggle with this concept of how I personally enjoy my 'off' time versus if I were working on something else... But this is a neat idea and I'm happy it sparked something for you. Thanks for your comment =] >I'm a software developer And the whole site is coded by claude Such a weak argument. What software devs should not use today's tools?
You can make the same point for using an LSP lol okay, and what is your point? I mentioned my profession, didn't claim to have written the code. Also, I did spend a week time on building this and trying to make a nice experience to inspire at least one other person, if you like it I'm glad, and if not, then what about it? It's not like I'm charing money, placing ads, or collecting your data. Question is, what do you do now? back to dota or another project? Lol, currently off dota, I actually have 2 projects in mind, 1. is just for fun, "Tower of violence", basically a tower of stacking cats, represeting how many violent/aggresive tweet a persona has ever tweeted. scaling to real world objects. maybe adding a "chill scale or certificate" for people with 0 violent tweets. 2. I call it SensAi, I want to build an open source sensei,
equipped with a persona(of a fictional character for example),
persistent memory and research capabilities,
let's say you wanna learn to produce house music,
It would evaluate your current level, your goal, research and build a roadmap, with quality reading/listening/watch materials,
will give you assignment, evaluate your progress, and give feedback until you reach your goal. For a long time I was thinking about building side projects to make extra cash, but it always made the building process a chore and daunting, so now, I'm building free stuff that I enjoy and hoping other would too.