Chris Crawford on Game Design

Directness of Conflict

Conflict can be prosecuted with varying degrees of directness. The most direct conflict places the two combatants face to face at arm's length; whether they are punching each other or insulting each other, their conflict is about as direct as it can get. But conflict need not be so simple; recourse to indirection can often yield more interesting possibilities.

The simplest step here is to increase the physical distance between the two combatants. Guns do this admirably well; but there are plenty of so-called “indirect weapons” that project an explosive to a distant location. I still recall the great satisfaction I felt while playing Doom, sending a rocket into a distant target. The bad guys were just a few moving pixels. ...