A different way to think about it: if you play soccer (or any game) with too much empathy, you will make own goal after own goal to please your opponent. Nobody wants that, of course, so in reality you're not being empathic enough.

Being too empathic has different problems if it also makes you shy. Shy people are scary, because people can't read you. It is important to internalize this. Again, this makes shyness not just your problem: it's their problem too. So you have to be more empathic about it.