Something I mentioned briefly in my last article was the tendency of players to want to play the whole game. Players like drawing cards because the more cards they play, the more game they play. But this is an issue outside of cards.

Theoretically Optional

Have you ever been playing a game and been giving an option to do seomthing and want to say no? While sometimes they are clearly meant to be worst case scenarios, like discarding your hand to draw a new one, but if they seem at all beneficial, players will feel compelled to do it. If you have three actions, but one is optional, then only doing two feels like a waste. Getting that optional action is increasing the amount of actions you get by 50%, doesn’t that matter? Depending on the game, it might! And if it doesn’t, players might not care. Players want to play the whole game, every turn. It’s about maximizing value.

Why Not Both

Games are based around choice. A lot of games are based around very important choices. Some games specifically want you to make choices that eliminate other choices. While this leads to some incredible gameplay most of the time, players hate it. While a lot of this is just loss aversion (let me know if you’d like me to write about that), some of it is just that players want to play the whole game. If you tell them they can only do one thing, they will refuse. If you make it at all possible to do multiple options, they will try their hardest to do both. This really tends to slow down the game, since players end up doing two players worth of actions, and usually half of it is nearly redundant. This is why you see so much multiclassing in RPGs, or why players will go back to search areas that they haven’t been to even when they have everything they need.

Every Phase

If you’re familiar with RPGs, you may also be familiar with the common complaints of fighter archetypes. Characters that do the fighting and nothing else. Why do people complain about them? Because if you play as one, you don’t get access to the whole game. In Warhammer 40K, I’ve once heard that Space Marines is a good faction to play because you get to use every phase of the game. Even if these choices are equally balanced with others, players will lean towards the one that lets you play “more” of the game. They could all have the same impact or the same amount of options, but if one just feels more complete it feels better to play.

The Enemy of Downtime

The problem with playing more of the game is that other players aren’t. If one player is doing every possible thing they can, the other players (usually) just have to watch. In many players’ minds, taking longer to take your turn is a good thing. It means you are doing more. It is your job as a designer to discourage that. You want to reduce the downtime between turns so other players don’t get bored.

Conclusion

This is more just something I want to bring to everyone’s attention more than state a solution. If you think players are taking too long, perchance look at how much of the game people assume is necessary. Find some ways to discourage players from doing everything they are allowed to do. Or, if that’s not an issue, make sure players get to have access to the whole game no matter what they’re playing. Don’t lock a player you of something unless you are very sure they won’t miss it or attempt to double back and get that option as well.