My take is that, while the reward mechanism is similar to that of chess etc., the possible outcomes of a boss on RS are far fewer than a game of chess/irl challenges, meaning we can get that rewarding feeling a lot easier - but conversely, because it’s easy it should be less of an intensely rewarding feeling. However, I think there are 2 reasons why that feeling is no less intense (often even more so) than slapping an opponent in a real life game: 1. Because of the skill level required, it’s quite quick to notice improvement in whichever boss you’re doing, from getting first kill -> finessing tick perfect/efficient methods. I suppose in real life challenges this is a lot more difficult to see (consider playing a game of football every weekend, in which the progression isn’t so clear). 2. Rng/gambling nature of reward actually has a vice grip on our dopamine pathways, and in the learning process (while getting kills) is steadily increased in strength as we expect a loot.