TBM: Ep 19 EXTRAS

I'm not a fan of dismissing player behavior as "that's a player problem," because design shapes behavior. If we create the right conditions for AP, of course players will have it. Examining what is driving player behavior is an important step when playtesting. Usually, some form of loss aversion is at play. 

I'm going to keep pounding this drum: good rules design and graphic design lower the difficulty (and perceived complexity level) of your game. The more work you do for players the less they have to do. I love BGG forums, but they really shouldn't be needed to learn how to play. Look at Root. Easing players' way into the game did not dumb it down. What it did was make the game more welcoming to a wider audience than your average COIN game. Friendly art, parsable graphics, rule guides. It only helps. Confusion is not the good kind of complexity. 

Feast for Odin is the counterpoint to reducing action options. But FFO is very parsable, so it makes up for having a lot going on. If you have a LOT going on, you have to do MORE to make your game accessible. 

There is a difference between "I don't know what to do because I don't understand which actions are good" and "I don't know what to do because I need to math out every action before I take my turn." Admittedly, I care more about helping the confused people than solving the overly competitive people. Because better visual design and more clarity in rules helps all players. Solving my game for that one guy only helps groups who play with him. 

I really, really struggle with mathy games. I don't want my dislike of math-forward games to color my points that in-turn computation contributes to AP and math often detracts from theme. On the other hand, math heavy games are an important sub genre that should continue to be designed. This is a case of knowing the pitfalls and making choices accordingly. 

Between the extremes of "you can't design for player behavior" and "any instance of a certain behavior is evidence of bad design" lies the truth: design influences behaviors and player behaviors inform design. But designers don't need to throw out the baby with the bath water due to rare instances of a given behavior. We influence player behavior; we cannot control it.