Kingmaker

A kingmaker is a player in a multiplayer game who cannot win, but can choose which of two or more other players wins.

This situation sometimes arises near the end of war simulation board games like Risk. It is an anticlimax, since the outcome of the game doesn't depend on the winner's skill, or indeed on any in-game factor, but on the whim of a third party. The tendency to give rise to a kingmaker is therefore considered a hallmark of bad game design.

Examples

• Many multiplayer chess variants have this problem. A player can be effectively eliminated as a contender early in the game, while he or she still has enough pieces to attack and cripple one of the other players.
• Games where points are scored mainly through negotiation can suffer from this problem. It can be more or less avoided simply by hiding the players' scores, as in Sid Sackson's It's A Deal and Reiner Knizia's Quo Vadis?. (These games are cited in an article about open and closed information.)
• Manhattan is said to have a kingmaker problem. (Review.)
• The United States presidential election system is often said to have this problem. One gamer's review: http://www.defectiveyeti.com/articles/prez_election.html

Kingmaker is also a game published by Avalon Hill.