Analysis paralysis

Analysis Paralysis (AP) is downtime caused by other players having to think extensively about their next move, considered a problem when other players tire of waiting. Contributing factors include:

• Difficulty considering all of the possible moves.
• Difficulty choosing the best move.
• Difficulty understanding the consequences of various moves.

Game issues that can induce AP include:

• Insufficient game information to make an easy decision.
• Too much game information, making it difficult to eliminate possibilities.
• Inability to understand the likely actions of other players, necessitating consideration of every possible move they might make.

Perhaps the core challenge to resolving an analysis paralysis problem is one of balance, making decisions easy but not too easy, hard but not too hard.

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