Allowing players to make choices when playing video games adds to replayability and player involvement. However, the ways that game designers implement choices range in quality. In some games choices are shallow, unimportant, and ultimately boring or distracting. In others choices are character (or player) defining, captivating, and rewarding. I’ve been thinking about three rules that make choices in video games crunchy and delicious.

In AI War, player choices are incredibly important at the strategic level.

The Rules

The following are three non-exclusive rules of including awesome choices in videogames

1. Choices must be meaningful
2. Outcomes must be obvious
3. Wrong options must be prohibited

I will explore these rules over the next few entries.

Do any of you feel I’m missing any key rules? Am I wrong?

Your homework for this post is to play AI War by Arcen Games.