Strategic decisions that express user preferences and creativity
Core Idea: Meaningful Choices provide users with strategic options that have distinct advantages and disadvantages, allowing for personal expression and multiple viable approaches to achieving goals.
Key Elements
- Options are balanced with no single "correct" choice
- Choices reflect different styles, preferences, or strategies
- Each option has unique strengths and weaknesses
- Decisions create tangible differences in the experience
Contrast with Poison Pickers
- Meaningful Choices: Multiple viable options with different strategic implications
- Poison Pickers: Imbalanced options where some choices are clearly superior to others
Implementation Approaches
- Strategic Tradeoffs: Choices between short-term gains and long-term advantages
- Style Expression: Options that allow users to express their personal approach
- Resource Allocation: Decisions about how to distribute limited resources
- Risk vs. Reward: Choices between safer, smaller rewards and riskier, larger ones
Example: Plants vs Zombies Strategy
Players can choose from multiple viable strategies: focusing on economy with sun-gathering plants, using basic shooters, saving for powerful plants, focusing on explosives, or herding zombies with specific plants. Each strategy works well but creates a different play experience.
Additional Connections
- Broader Context: Core Drive 3 - Empowerment of Creativity and Feedback (meaningful choices are central to creative empowerment)
- Applications: Game Balance (creating equally viable but distinct strategic options)
- See Also: Plant Picker (similar concept focused on preference-based selection)
References
- Yu-Kai Chou, "Actionable Gamification: Beyond Points, Badges, and Leaderboards"
- Raph Koster, "A Theory of Fun for Game Design"
- Jesse Schell, "The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses"
#gamification #gamedesign #playeragency #strategy
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