[jvvw]

I'm Master level at Geoguessr - it's a rank where you have to definitely know what you are doing but it isn't as high as it probably sounds from the headline.

Masters is about 800-1200 ELO whereas the pros are 1900-2000ish. I'll know the country straight away on 95% of rounds but I can still have no idea where I am in Russia or Brazil sometimes if there's no info. Scripters can definitely beat me!

[SamPatt]

Yeah I added a "My skill level" section to talk through that. I'm far from a professional.

But I know enough to be able to determine if the chain of thought it outputs is nonsense or comparable to a good human player. I found it remarkable!

[jvvw]

Sorry I skimmed through a bit too quickly when I first looked - I do totally agree you know enough to be able to evaluate this stuff btw. Although pro players are better, I don't think what they do is that qualitatively different on the whole - at Masters you are going to know meta, you are going to be able to vibe guess and you are e.g. going to know some specific roads.

[paulcole]

Gotta learn your Brazilian soil!

[jvvw]

Haha, I do still need to get better at my different shades of red!

(Actually I can actually recognise some areas from soil/vegetation but I can still have rounds where the area that seems feasible seems huge to me).

[windowshopping]

Was it worth it?

[jvvw]

I've learned a massive about the world in the process - before I started playing I wouldn't have had a proper image in my head for what certain parts of the world were like really. And there's lots of weird and curious things you learn along the way - it's an interesting mix of so many different things.

And it's just fun which is the main reason for playing. I probably spend about half an hour a day playing and I don't intentionally spend time learning stuff like car meta - I try and mostly go on what places actually look like. I have learned a few things that are fairly useless but nothing that has been too arduous to learn, and e.g. when I was learning the names of provinces of different countries, I was trying to learn stuff about the province at the same time so I know something about the culture, food etc. too.

[windowshopping]

Thanks for the interesting reply!

[rosstex]

I have 2000+ hours in Team Fortress 2. Was it worth it?

[Cyph0n]

Yes, it was. Granted, I probably have more than that.

[make3]

it's a game, that's like asking why a public service is not profitable

[HaZeust]

Is any of this worth it?

[650REDHAIR]

Yes? It’s fun.