Expression of Skill
What separates activities that take skill from those that don't? I think it is just that there must be a significant difference from those who are beginners and those who have invested time and effort to improve themselves.
I argue that most of the worthwhile activities in life are those that involve skill—where consistent and sustained effort in self-improvement is important.
Decision-making is often the primary skill involved, which means that most activities in life would probably qualify under this definition, but not everything does. The choice must directly affect the outcome. For instance, poker counts as a skillful activity, but playing slots does not.
Whenever there is skill involved there a couple more factors that become relevant:
- Skill floor: The minimum amount of skill needed to not perform extremely poorly at the activity
- Skill ceiling: The upper bound to the amount of skill expression
- Slope: How fast one can improve in the skill
Personally, I'm drawn to disciplines and activities that have a strong element of skill expression. Especially those where the skill ceiling is high and highly visible.
I think it is very satisfying to improve at something. To achieve mastery. The grind is a very enjoyable part of life.
I have never really enjoyed games where too much is up to random chance (eg. gachas).
When I played League, I mained high skill ceiling champions like Riven, Camille, and Katarina. They're just more fun to play.