Travis from Grumpy Wizard has a guest post up at Welcome to the Deathtrap on how over-thinking the design of a gaming experience can affect the gaming experience.
People are unique and varied beyond the ability of even powerful computers to comprehend. You have had unique experiences. You have different parents. You have different friends. What I want from a game experience is going to be different than what you want even if we are similar. These models of game design have given some designers massive delusions about how game design actually works.
He is absolutely right, people need to play the game to see if it works. Some ideas look great on paper…
Read the whole thing: Just Play
