Sure, you have a sprawling empire with thriving cities with all kinds of amenities possible… but why take any pride in any of it, when achieving it was literally as simple as clicking on the construction command? Therefore, when a strategy game effectively nullifies the opportunity cost, victories begin to feel slightly empty and hollow. In the case of strategy games, and especially turn based 4X strategy games such as Age of Wonders, opportunity cost has long been the basis of gameplay- if, for example, you want your empire to specialize in military strength, you will have to forego developing an effective and powerful culture, because time and resources are limited, and you’re locked in a race with others, and you need to get ahead in whatever it is that you can get ahead in. What happens if you pick the alternatives? Impossible to tell unless you play again. Opportunity cost is the basis for the predicament of choice, that so many games so effectively utilize- if you pick that one dialog option, or that one dungeon, or that building to prioritize, you forego all the alternatives. It’s a very basic concept, really- because time and resources are limited, if you want to do one thing, you must forego doing another thing. There is a concept in economics called the opportunity cost.
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