The theme for India United this week is "Game On Hive: What Keeps You Coming Back?" For me, the answer is HiveGroove, even though I have only played it once......stay with me.
I will be honest, when I first heard about HiveGroove, I thought it would be boring...... I have seen games on Hive that are very competitive and stressful. I thought this would be another game where you have to be online every hour, fight, and have a lot of money to start. I was not interested.
But one day I decided to try it because I saw someone's post about watering trees. I was curious.
My first time was confusing. I opened the game and I saw a small trees and timers saying "Watering in: 20:46" and "Watering in: 19:46". I did not understand what to do.....(yeah) I thought, is this all? Just watering? I watered my trees, then I saw I could help others water their trees, and they can help me back. That part was new to me. I am used to games where you compete against others, not help them.....
At first I did not get the point.....(at all) Why would I keep coming back just to water a tree? But after I watered, I felt somehow relaxed. It was peaceful. There was no pressure, no one attacking me, no leaderboard shouting at me. I was just watching my little trees grow slowly. And I saw my progress. Slow progress, but progress.
That is what makes it different from other Hive games for me. Many Hive games are about speed, strategy, battles, earning fast. HiveGroove is slow. You check it, you water, you help someone, you leaveee. Then you come back later. It gives me a break from my regular routine. After spending several hours with family and daily life, sitting on the sofa for a few minutes to play somethingg that is calm can be veryyyyy therapeutic.
Of course rewards are nice. Nobody will say no to rewards. But if a game is boring, rewards alone will not make me play for long. HiveGroove is not boring for me because it is peaceful. I like the feeling of slowly building things up.
What keeps me coming back? It is not the competition. I don't think of myself as the best competitive player in Hive.... I enjoy taking my time and playing at my own pace. It is the simple joy of playing, and the small communityy of peoplee helpingg each other water trees. It feels friendlyy, not toxic.
I only played once so far because it was confusing at first, but that one time was enough to make me want to tryy againn. I want to understand it better, grow my trees bigger, and see what happeens nexxt.
For me, gaming on Hive is fun when the game is good, not just when the reward is goooood. And HiveGroove is good in its own quiet way.
IMAGE IS AI GENERATED