“Games are a series of interesting decisions,” says Firaxis’ Sid Meier. It’s a statement he’s made in the past – and he’s noticed (by Googling himself) that viewpoint of his has been a source of some debate. ... If a player always chooses the first from among a set of three choices, it’s probably not an interesting choice; nor ... at Gamedeveloper.com

A game is a series of interesting choices. (about early 1980s video game programming); The irony is we thought we were behind the curve, that the industry had already pe SimCity inspired Civilization in a way. The first prototype of Civilization that I did was a real-time game like SimCity, in that you placed cities and moved things around, but cities grew without you. at En.wikiquote.org

As a design principle, Meier's quote should be telling you to do two things: give the player choices and then make them interesting. Choices can be interesting for different reasons. A strategy game, like Civilization which he was talking about back in 1989, becomes an excellent game when the questions are many and answers are non-obvious. at Reddit.com

Snakes has no choices, Arkham as lots (sort of). But maybe it isn't about choices. Maybe a game is a series of interesting results. The best games have things happen that get you to add meaning to outcome. Whether you choose or not. A lot of Arkham involves rolling dice to determine success. at Onlyagame.typepad.com

Interesting choices. According to Sid Meier, a [good] game is a series of interesting choices. In an interesting choice, no single option is clearly better than the other options, the options are not equally attractive, and the player must be able to make an informed choice. (Rollings & Morris 2000, p. 38.) See fun. Iterative game design at Half-real.net

His panel at GDC 2012 “Interesting Decisions” started off by referencing a quote he made at GDC all the way back in 1989: “A game is a series of interesting decisions.” at Escapistmagazine.com

"A game is a series of interesting choices" -Sid Meier My short breakdown of this definition is that it actually describes the role that the game presents to the player. It leaves out some very important parts to what a game is, such as the context and motivation for making those choices-- what actually makes them interesting. While elegant and ... at Thegameruler.blogspot.com

Sid Meier, the designer behind the incredibly popular and influential Civilization series, once described games as “a series of interesting decisions”. In fact, it is the ability to make choices that is the core of what separates a game from a less interactive form of media, such as a book or a film. Whether it… at Remptongames.com

• a series of interesting choices (Meier) • a closed formal system that represents a subset of reality (Crawford) • a structured or semi-structured, contrived activity (Wikipedia) These are just some of many formal definitions. (Computer) Games Game Theory at Nccastaff.bournemouth.ac.uk

"A game is a series of interesting choices." -- Sid Meier. There has been some disagreement over the comprehensiveness of this definition. I do think that there are plenty of games that it doesn't cover, but since I work primarily on strategic games, it's perfect for my purposes. This blog will be an exploration of my experiences and knowledge ... at Interestingchoices.com