What are the elements of playabilty?

[clawrenc at cup.hp.com]

I just pulled the following quote off r.g.design (great group BTW
Travis).  Its a good line, a fairly decent test I think of the ongoing
playability of any game system (ie how well does it keep the player
intrigued with the process of play as versus the goal of play):

>From: Darren Reid <shokwave at nbnet.nb.ca>
>Newsgroups: rec.games.design
>Subject: Re: What are the elements of playabilty?
>Date: Wed, 18 Jun 1997 11:21:34 -0300

>Mark Thomas wrote:

>> I would refine this a bit and say freedom to do things that *matter*.
>> Nothing is more frustrating than having to make a bunch of choices 
>> that don't have an effect on the game as a whole.

>I held off for as long as I could because I often post this quote in
>reply to questions of this nature, but it seems like a good time to
>pass on the words from the master again:
>
>"A good game is a series of interesting decisions. The decisions must
>be both frequent and meaningful." -Sid Meier

>-Darren


--
J C Lawrence                           Internet: claw at null.net
(Contractor)                           Internet: coder at ibm.net
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