Usually CTFs / wargames / whatever are the only way you ever get to work with stuff like radio or telephony protocols, credit cards, homegrown crypto...
Also you can probably expect things dealing with custom VMs, file formats or networking. Say for instance one of the challenges involves a machine with a broken TCP/IP stack, so you have to write your custom client that can talk to it, how often do you do that in real life? Yet it can translate into useful skills.
Thank you. Exactly this. Try to make a list of interesting stuff you'd like a chance to play around with, in a highly structured environment that handholds you just long enough, and that eliminates all the nonsense required to get dev environments working, or expensive subscription fees, or bankrolls, or laboratories... those are all places we want to be.
Part of the problem I had earlier today was with the words "fun" and "player". I think the words I was looking for were "participant" and "rewarding".
I think the gaming analogies make sense. If you invest time and effort in it, it sure will be more useful in your CV than "Level 80 Paladin" under "Other Achievements"; if not, no hiring manager will ever pass on an otherwise great candidate for not being a part of it.
And it allows outliers to get potentially amazing job offers from your partners.
It's exciting to think that with today's easy access to cheap cloud computing and good process isolation you can have instanced "raids" in the same way as an MMO so I can get my very own version of a challenge that can be as realistic as possible.
Also you can probably expect things dealing with custom VMs, file formats or networking. Say for instance one of the challenges involves a machine with a broken TCP/IP stack, so you have to write your custom client that can talk to it, how often do you do that in real life? Yet it can translate into useful skills.