{"id":1127,"date":"2026-08-07T01:09:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T01:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mycours.es\/egd\/?p=1127"},"modified":"2026-08-07T01:50:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T01:50:22","slug":"meaningful-choices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mycours.es\/egd\/2026\/08\/07\/meaningful-choices\/","title":{"rendered":"Meaningful Choices"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the book Rules of Play, Eric Zimmerman and Katie Salen introduced the concept of Meaningful play<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“Meaningful play occurs when the relationships between actions and outcomes in a game are both discernible and integrated into the larger context of the game.”<\/em>
\n– Salen & Zimmerman, Rules of Play (2003), p. 34<\/p>\n

It’s not enough let the player interact, the interactions have to be:
\nDiscernible:<\/strong> the player can perceive the relationship between what they do and what happens. Feedback, outcomes.
\nIntegrated:<\/strong> the outcome of the action matters in the larger trajectory of the game.<\/p>\n

A meaningful choice is a decision that changes the state of the game in a way that the player understands and cares about.<\/em><\/p>\n

For a choice to be meaningful it should also NOT be a null choice: <\/strong>a choice that is predetermined, random, irrelevant, or dominated by an obvious option.
\n
\n<\/strong>To avoid null choices. Think in terms of trade-offs like:
\n-short term vs long term goals.
\n-certainty vs uncertainty, pushing your luck vs playing safe, flexibility vs rigidity
\n-accommodating different play styles, tactics, and strategies (there are multiple paths to victory).
\n-multiple resources and multiple powers to manage (eg. strength and magic, defense and attack) instead of one stat to grow like money or xp.<\/p>\n

Some exaggerated examples of non-meaningful choices:<\/h3>\n

>Choose between a Red Sword 10 hit points vs Blue Sword with 20 hit points
\nBlue sword is objectively better, it’s a no-brainer.<\/p>\n

Counter-example:
\nThe Red Sword is fast and weak, the blue sword is slow and strong.<\/p>\n

>If you enter a red door you die, if you enter the blue door you continue.
\nThe player doesn’t have enough information to make an informed choice. It feels unfair, you have to proceed by trial and error.<\/p>\n

Counter-example:
\nThere are two doors and a riddle that tells you which one is the right one<\/p>\n

>In order to open the red door you have to press the red button first.
\nIt’s a straightforward operation that makes sense only if you are teaching about doors and buttons, otherwise it’s a nuisance.<\/p>\n

Counter-example:
\nIn order to reach the red button you have to move a box and jump on it, then you have and to move the box again to use it as a bridge to reach the door. The order of operation matters. You have to think about it.<\/p>\n

>In a city builder you build a red building and after 10 minutes it silently reduces the crime in your city.
\nThe feedback is not associated to the action, it’s not explained or visualized, the player doesn’t understand which action caused the effects.<\/p>\n

Counter-example:
\nThere is a countdown that shows you how long the effect takes. A message and\/or UI element informs you when the effect took place.<\/p>\n

>You draw 3 cards that inflict 3, 5, and 1 damage points to an enemy.
\nThere is no reason to NOT play all of them. The order doesn’t matter. You didn’t make any choice, the game just randomized 9 damage.<\/p>\n

Counter-example:
\nYou can only play 2 out of 3 cards. Each card has a cost and you can choose to save your resources for later. Some cards have random damage and you can choose between risky high damage or sure low damage. One card makes the following cards stronger (the order matters).<\/p>\n

>In a platformer or adventure you have to crawl to enter a narrow passage.
\nThe game is just asking me to press a button to advance, it’s not a choice nor a test of my skills.<\/p>\n

Counter-examples:
\nWhen I’m ducking I can’t use my weapon so I have to wait until the enemy on the other side moves away.<\/p>\n

>In a narrative game I talk to an NPC guarding a door and I can be nice or rude, but the NPC always opens the door regardless of my choice.
\nThis can be an expressive, role playing choice, it doesn’t change anything in the game system but changes your experience of it, what’s happening in your mind. However some players might feel like choices don’t matter and may stop caring about them and just select the first one they see.<\/p>\n

Counter-example:
\nThe character opens the door but responds differently and relates to you differently later in the game.
\nIt asks you for money if you are rude.
\nIt asks you for money if you are nice, taking advantage of your weakness.
\nBeing rude changes a character stat like karma, which has other effects in the game.
\nThe NPC is not a stranger but a character you encountered before so you care more about them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the book Rules of Play, Eric Zimmerman and Katie Salen introduced the concept of Meaningful play: “Meaningful play occurs when the relationships between actions and outcomes in a game are both discernible and integrated into the larger context of the game.” – Salen & Zimmerman, Rules of Play (2003), p. 34 It’s not enough … Continue reading “Meaningful Choices”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycours.es\/egd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycours.es\/egd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycours.es\/egd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycours.es\/egd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycours.es\/egd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1127"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mycours.es\/egd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1133,"href":"https:\/\/mycours.es\/egd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1127\/revisions\/1133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycours.es\/egd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycours.es\/egd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycours.es\/egd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}