Analysis Paralysis Sufferer Takes 22 Minutes To Place First Worker

A board game player experiencing severe analysis paralysis took twenty-two minutes to place his first worker in a game with an estimated total play time of ninety minutes, effectively consuming a quarter of the game's duration on a single opening decision. The player, Ben Overthink, examined the board for the first available action space at the seven-minute mark. He then spent the next fifteen minutes evaluating the downstream consequences of each of the nine possible placements, factoring in what he described as "second-order effects" and "opponent response matrices." "It's the opening move," he explained. "Everything flows from here. If I place on the wood space, I'm committed to a building strategy. If I place on the market, I'm pivoting to trade. Each choice forecloses entire branches of possibility." The other three players, who had been waiting since minute two, responded with varying degrees of patience. Player one read the rulebook cover to cover. Player two went to the kitchen and made a sandwich. Player three began playing a different game on their phone. "I eventually chose the wood space," Ben reported. "It felt right. Or at least it felt like something, which after twenty-two minutes of deliberation was enough." Ben then spent fourteen minutes on his second turn. The game, which the box estimates at 60-90 minutes, was completed in three hours and forty-five minutes. Ben finished in last place. "I don't think time spent correlates with quality of decisions," he reflected afterward. "But I do think quality of decisions correlates with my enjoyment, and I enjoyed considering every option, even the ones I didn't take." The group has instituted a two-minute turn timer for future sessions.