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Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast

Drive to Work #299 - Choices vs. Options

Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast

Wizards of the Coast

Games, Duels Of The Planeswalkers, Leisure, Game Design, Mtg, Mark Rosewater, Ccg, Magic The Gathering

4.7802 Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2016

⏱️ 41 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Mark talks about the decisions that game designers set up for players to make.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

I'm pulling my driveway.

0:03.0

We don't know what that means.

0:04.4

It's time for the drive to work.

0:07.0

Okay.

0:08.1

So today I'm going to talk about a very important distinction in games

0:12.1

and talk about all the ramifications of what it means and how it affects magic.

0:16.3

So today I'm going to talk about the difference between choices and options.

0:21.6

So let me first explain my terms and then I'll talk about the importance.

0:24.6

Okay, so if you look up in a dictionary, choices and options are synonyms of each other.

0:29.6

So be aware, I'm going to give some definitions to separate the two to talk about a concept and how it's slightly different.

0:39.4

So bear in mind, I'm loading these words with meaning that are not necessarily found in the

0:45.8

normal dictionary. Okay, so from a game standpoint, here's the difference between choices and

0:50.9

options. A choice means you have to choose between something.

0:57.3

An option is you can choose things that are additive.

1:01.8

So let me explain what that means.

1:02.8

So for example, an option is like when you buy a car, you have options.

1:09.9

You could get air conditioning. You could get air conditioning.

1:11.7

You could get power steering.

1:13.6

You get power windows.

1:15.5

You could get, you know, you have things that the car can have.

1:19.2

But those things do not negate one another.

1:21.5

That if I want to get power steering, it doesn't have any impact on whether I get power windows or I get a heater or, you know, air conditioning or whatever.

...

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