Great tool / sleazy company
Endeavor OTC has helped me a great deal before and after I started taking ADD medication . It is fast paced and really forces you to multitask which is great exercise for an ADD brain.
Not a big fan of the company. Occasionally you have to re-sign in and agree to another user agreement. There you agree to giving up a greater amount of you privacy and data. This is happening on an app that you already paid for and you are only halfway through the contract.
Just this week I had to re-sign in and it treated me like a newcomer showing my different packages. I still had 3 months left. I emailed customer service, they emailed me back saying “maybe you used the wrong password”. I went to the app again and I was already logged in. Couldn’t they just admit to the glitch and apologize for the inconvenience?
Not a big fan of the company. Occasionally you have to re-sign in and agree to another user agreement. There you agree to giving up a greater amount of you privacy and data. This is happening on an app that you already paid for and you are only halfway through the contract.
Just this week I had to re-sign in and it treated me like a newcomer showing my different packages. I still had 3 months left. I emailed customer service, they emailed me back saying “maybe you used the wrong password”. I went to the app again and I was already logged in. Couldn’t they just admit to the glitch and apologize for the inconvenience?
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Great tool / sleazy company
Endeavor OTC has helped me a great deal before and after I started taking ADD medication . It is fast paced and really forces you to multitask which is great exercise for an ADD brain.
Not a big fan of the company. Occasionally you have to re-sign in and agree to another user agreement. There you agree to giving up a greater amount of you privacy and data. This is happening on an app that you already paid for and you are only halfway through the contract.
Just this week I had to re-sign in and it treated me like a newcomer showing my different packages. I still had 3 months left. I emailed customer service, they emailed me back saying “maybe you used the wrong password”. I went to the app again and I was already logged in. Couldn’t they just admit to the glitch and apologize for the inconvenience?
Not a big fan of the company. Occasionally you have to re-sign in and agree to another user agreement. There you agree to giving up a greater amount of you privacy and data. This is happening on an app that you already paid for and you are only halfway through the contract.
Just this week I had to re-sign in and it treated me like a newcomer showing my different packages. I still had 3 months left. I emailed customer service, they emailed me back saying “maybe you used the wrong password”. I went to the app again and I was already logged in. Couldn’t they just admit to the glitch and apologize for the inconvenience?
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Jury is still out on if it works, but product needs to be more frictionless
Cost aside, not sure if this works long-term. Regardless, they need to fix their persistent login issues— I understand some of it is outside their control, but minimizing friction will really go a long way.
I wrote the below to their support team:
“Just some feedback from a long-time supporter and user and also as someone with a Ph.D. in Psychology and currently works in tech-- simplifying the login process and ensuring that there is as little friction as possible (e.g., not requiring iOS users to log in multiple times) would go a very, very long way towards user consistency and satisfaction, especially since this product is geared towards those of us with ADHD and other executive functioning challenges that make sticking to a product sometimes difficult. I understand that some of these technical issues are likely outside of your control, but ensuring that there is a robust way to minimize them as well as a quick way to address them head-on would greatly improve your product and user experience.”
I wrote the below to their support team:
“Just some feedback from a long-time supporter and user and also as someone with a Ph.D. in Psychology and currently works in tech-- simplifying the login process and ensuring that there is as little friction as possible (e.g., not requiring iOS users to log in multiple times) would go a very, very long way towards user consistency and satisfaction, especially since this product is geared towards those of us with ADHD and other executive functioning challenges that make sticking to a product sometimes difficult. I understand that some of these technical issues are likely outside of your control, but ensuring that there is a robust way to minimize them as well as a quick way to address them head-on would greatly improve your product and user experience.”
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I notice an improvement in my ability to focus…
At first I couldn’t really tell if this treatment/game was helping, and then I leveled up and it was getting more difficult to to both navigate and target. I persevered and continued on. I leveled up again, though I noticed it took longer. This level of treatment interaction was way more difficult! I found myself not as interested in playing as frequently or for as long in a single session and my daily interaction totals. At this point, I found myself not really participating in treatment. Then I returned to treatment and I the game seemed a little easier. When my scores would come up, it would typically be at least good and up. Now I am consistently participating in treatment nearly every day again and I feel like it is easier for me to focus on a tasks while I am at work. Hasn’t really improved my focus out of work, but then again, it is a different structure, specifically with timelines, milestones and goals which does not have such parameters at this time. Overall great.
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Truly life changing
Don’t rely on the negative reviews from people who forgot how the App Store works with free trials and automatic subscriptions, or the people complaining that the game isn’t the most fun. It’s definitely fun for treatment and I noticed a difference after my very first session. It gets harder as you improve to keep challenging you, the harder the game gets the easier my life gets. One of my biggest struggles with ADHD is executive disfunction and all the extra time it takes me to start and complete tasks due to all my dilly dallying, committing to this treatment plan has cut down that time DRASTICALLY as well as all of the anxiety and depression that used to result from the struggle. Now I just plan something and I do the thing? I feel so efficient and my confidence has significantly improved. Bonus tip: if you meditate or have a brief period of non-sleep deep rest within four hours of a session (or any kind of study session) it helps your brain to really rewire all of those changes in your brain aka it makes your brain a better sponge for everything you are learning.
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Response from developer
Hi Rachel - this is amazing! We are so happy you are seeing great results with EndeavorOTC. We would love to hear more about your story and experience. If you're open to speaking more with us, please contact support@endeavorotc.com. Keep it up and we are here if you need anything. Thank you for sharing!
Fun and engaging
The game is fun and I appreciate the accessibility of being OTC.
I think there’s also room to explore other games, but I think the baseline gameplay challenge needs to be super smooth. Like Super Mario is popular for both casual players and speed running because the gameplay is both accessible but also *feels* nice to play so you can grind away at it. My impression is EndeavorOTC works by getting me into flow state playing a continuous attention/motion game, while still requiring me to pay attention for quick visual pattern recognition. I think the pattern matching challenge is fine, except it’s hard to watch for patterns on a tiny screen while I’m physically shaking my phone around and need to also keep my thumbs off the screen to avoid false inputs. (Games like DDR address this by being edge-triggered rather than level-triggered; you don’t get penalized for continuing to stand on a button after activating it, and high skill players rely on this.)
I’d like to be able to play with a video game controller though. For example, let me play on tvOS using a PS5 controller. I’d have a much easier time looking at a stable screen, using a joystick to pilot, and multiple available physical buttons to press whichever is most convenient (or make it an extra difficulty at higher levels that there are separate buttons to press for different obstacles )
I think there’s also room to explore other games, but I think the baseline gameplay challenge needs to be super smooth. Like Super Mario is popular for both casual players and speed running because the gameplay is both accessible but also *feels* nice to play so you can grind away at it. My impression is EndeavorOTC works by getting me into flow state playing a continuous attention/motion game, while still requiring me to pay attention for quick visual pattern recognition. I think the pattern matching challenge is fine, except it’s hard to watch for patterns on a tiny screen while I’m physically shaking my phone around and need to also keep my thumbs off the screen to avoid false inputs. (Games like DDR address this by being edge-triggered rather than level-triggered; you don’t get penalized for continuing to stand on a button after activating it, and high skill players rely on this.)
I’d like to be able to play with a video game controller though. For example, let me play on tvOS using a PS5 controller. I’d have a much easier time looking at a stable screen, using a joystick to pilot, and multiple available physical buttons to press whichever is most convenient (or make it an extra difficulty at higher levels that there are separate buttons to press for different obstacles )
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Response from developer
Hi hew, thank you so much for the excellent feedback - we'll share this with the team. If you'd like to continue to give us more detailed feedback, please reach out to support@endeavorotc.com. Thank you so much for the review!
Good and bad
First of all, I do feel like this game has improved my focus. I haven’t ever been diagnosed with ADHD but I have had my struggles with focus, and I’ve noticed some little improvements over the last month of playing this.
My main issue with this game is ergonomics.
I’ve always been a decent gamer but I’ve never had great wrists, and the repetitive wrist motion of this phone based game has led to some carpal-tunnel-like soreness which has the unpleasant side effect of effecting my workouts at the gym and skiing.
Unfortunately the game seems to rely on more physical movement as you progress through it, so eventually your “focus score” seems like it will directly correlate to how well you can physically perform the steering motion, which doesn’t seem to be in line with the clinical efficacy we are going for with this.
You’ll eventually get to a point where the steering targets are basically staggered on opposite sides of the track, so you’re just constantly banking L R L R L R L for a good chunk of the time you spend on the game, and it’s far more physically taxing than mentally.
Even aside from the wrists, I haven’t really found an effective ergonomic posture for playing the game, it seems like you have to be hunched over, with arms supported on a table or something which allows the wide wrist movement required to hit the targets. I think there’s a lot of room for improvement in this area.
My main issue with this game is ergonomics.
I’ve always been a decent gamer but I’ve never had great wrists, and the repetitive wrist motion of this phone based game has led to some carpal-tunnel-like soreness which has the unpleasant side effect of effecting my workouts at the gym and skiing.
Unfortunately the game seems to rely on more physical movement as you progress through it, so eventually your “focus score” seems like it will directly correlate to how well you can physically perform the steering motion, which doesn’t seem to be in line with the clinical efficacy we are going for with this.
You’ll eventually get to a point where the steering targets are basically staggered on opposite sides of the track, so you’re just constantly banking L R L R L R L for a good chunk of the time you spend on the game, and it’s far more physically taxing than mentally.
Even aside from the wrists, I haven’t really found an effective ergonomic posture for playing the game, it seems like you have to be hunched over, with arms supported on a table or something which allows the wide wrist movement required to hit the targets. I think there’s a lot of room for improvement in this area.
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Response from developer
Hi there, thank you so much for the incredibly detailed feedback you gave us! We'd love to hear more from you, if you could please reach out to support@endeavorotc.com, we'd really appreciate it
Helpful and eh
I have been using this app as suggested most days for the past 3 months. In general, I like it, and it is the only game that I am willing, and actually kind of prefer, to listen to the sound. It does seem that it has helped with focus on some things, others have noticed. The daily challenges keep it interesting, and some days they are impossible to meet. Which is good. The irritating part is customer service. Non-existent. Do not bother. Also, the game shuts down automatically for the day after you have played your 25 minutes, which is great. Other apps should do this. The problem is that it sometimes shuts down early when you know darned well that there were minutes remaining on the clock. I contacted them, but, crickets….
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Beyond Boring
I’m a 56-yo woman who was Dx with ADHD 13 yrs ago and still looking for an ideal treatment. I attended the Annual International ADHD Conference back in 2014, had lunch with Dr. Thomas Brown, participated in numerous webinars, tried self-help books/apps, different meds, etc., so my quest continues into 2024. I’m beyond frustrated and want to give up, but was BEYOND EXCITED when I saw your ad the other day and immediately signed up for 1 month. The price is super reasonable and I want to thank everyone who was involved in developing this from the ground up. You have given hope to many! After a few days I quickly became bored with it; you should already know that us ADHDers get bored and thrive off of our natural creativity. This app also feels very juvenile, like its for a kindergartner; in addition, turning my phone while playing is hard on my wrists. You seriously need to overhaul it. Good luck.
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Response from developer
Hi there mm, thanks so much for your feedback and support. If you could please give us more detailed feedback on what you'd like to see, we'd appreciate it! Please reach out to support@endeavorotc.com. We look forward to hearing from you!
Frustrating
I have a litany of complaints but I’ll stick to my main ones for brevity’s sake. Firstly, the controls are incredibly frustrating. You can’t even see the screen half the time because you have to move it back and forth so quickly. And even when you can see what’s going on, I swear there’s some lag or something, causing you to get a worse score than you should. It’s hard to improve your focus when the controls don’t work.
Second, it logs you out all the time. If you’re using iPhone’s “hide my email” feature, good luck. I subscribed for the month, they logged me out, it didn’t save my credentials, and now I can’t get back in. So that was a fun waste of money.
Lastly, my focus score jumped by double digits within just a few days. That’s a massive leap, but I didn’t see any improvement in my real life. In fact, I think I’m more addicted to my phone than ever. So take that with a grain of salt, because it’s purely anecdotal. But how can I try to go back and improve my score when I can’t log in? And even if I could, I can barely use the game because of the awful controls.
All in all, it sounded promising, but in practice it has a long way to go before it can be considered viable and scalable. I hope whoever their up and coming competition is does their homework and uses this info for their competitive audit, because I’d like to use a product like this. I just want it to work.
Second, it logs you out all the time. If you’re using iPhone’s “hide my email” feature, good luck. I subscribed for the month, they logged me out, it didn’t save my credentials, and now I can’t get back in. So that was a fun waste of money.
Lastly, my focus score jumped by double digits within just a few days. That’s a massive leap, but I didn’t see any improvement in my real life. In fact, I think I’m more addicted to my phone than ever. So take that with a grain of salt, because it’s purely anecdotal. But how can I try to go back and improve my score when I can’t log in? And even if I could, I can barely use the game because of the awful controls.
All in all, it sounded promising, but in practice it has a long way to go before it can be considered viable and scalable. I hope whoever their up and coming competition is does their homework and uses this info for their competitive audit, because I’d like to use a product like this. I just want it to work.
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