There's another kind of options though, the kind that lives in the Options section of the Main Menu. Usually just below "Return to Game" and just above "Quit", this is a menu area many rarely visit more than once, depending on the game. Sometimes, people don't return for good reasons, but often the reason is bad: there are too few options that don't change enough necessary things.
This area seems neglected by developers a lot. Sometimes, it's just plain left out. On the PC, this usually isn't as much of a problem. That's because PCs need to have a lot of options for display. The hardware is not immediately known to the game. On the consoles however, this is largely unnecessary because the hardware is (well, should be) immediately known.
That all however is the Graphics and Audio section of the Options, but what about the Gameplay section? Some games are excused from having a section to alter gameplay, namely online games that always involve multiple players. But then there's the single player only games, they don't have much of an excuse. Maybe there's a difficulty slider to add or remove challenge from the game. Maybe there's things that aren't really gameplay related, like disabling public chat in private areas (from Dungeons and Dragons Online, which could be excused from this). But there's some options that I'd like to see that I never have: Always show the short attack animations, Disable speaking in combat, Left or right handed character, and Don't confirm when selling items (seen this, but not anywhere near enough).
One reason this doesn't happen is to avoid showing too many options. Not to pick on DDO again, but the User Interface section is insane. There are (in order) 32 check boxes, 1 slider bar, 2 drop down menus, 14 color selection panels, 18 more check boxes, 29 more color selection panels, and one last drop down menu. That's 97 options in a single non-sortable list. In counting just now, I found several options I never knew existed, and noticed several that apply to only one very specific character type. What's worse, your choices do not carry to your other characters, you have to make your selections for each and every character. The opposite of this is Vanguard, where all options were shared between all your characters. My favorite was a cut down the middle, Everquest 2 where each character had their own set but you could choose another characters set to use or at least start from.
Having too many options in a fashion that more directly affects gameplay also comes forward in DDO, as well as Neverwinter Nights. Being based on Dungeons and Dragons, a character can level up in multiple classes. Might not sound like much at first, but it has a profound impact on the number of possible characters. There are so many different combinations to try. This is why I like these two games so much, but it's also why I'm bored with them. I keep trying so many different characters that I never get beyond the first few areas.
But the second, and probably more prevalent reason we don't see so many options, is that each and every one of those options not only has to be made, but made correctly and tested. Options eat up test time like almost nothing else. Multiple endings probably eat more time, but it's expensive to make options. I love options very much, but I probably won't see many more than are already there sadly.
This whole discussion doesn't even touch Controls at all. I'll visit that topic another time.
How many options do you like?
A Prime Piece of the DDO UI Options Section.
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