ThoughtFiddleRatio

Ray_Petersen? nicely summed up what you want in a game; loosely: "You want as much thought as possible, and hardly any fiddling with bits."

The particular domain at hand was TrickTaking games, but this seems to cut right to the heart of what game designers are trying to achieve. There, are of course people who seem to like fiddling with bits; it may be that this is a particular statement of opinion, but the present author wholeheartedly agrees with it.

This may ultimately fall under the domain of some other rule. Some likely suspects:

• SimpleAsPossible (less fiddling is more simplicity.)
• MeaningfulChoices (if choices are what make a game enjoyable, we should maximize them relative to other factors.)
• Immersion is related (fiddling may break concentration on the game.)

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