Fun Problems podcast - Structure vs Content

Every once in a while I read an article, or listen to a podcast, and I come across something that's basically always been on my mind, only I hadn't formally thought about it, or didn't have useful vocabulary to express the ideas. A good example is this twitter thread by Jessica Price about Tropes vs Clichés:

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1093196276974276608.html

Another example I just came by the other day was on a game design podcast called Fun Problems. On episode 19, Peter and A.J. discuss the difference between Structure and Content. I think they did a pretty good job defining each of those terms and explaining the difference between them:

Structure: rules that form the basis of the game, that apply every time you play, such as the turn structure or main mechanism

Content: rules that you don't need to start playing, that may or may not come up in any given game, such as cards in a deck

This isn't necessarily something I've talked about before, but that podcast resonated with me. I tend to think about the structure of a game to start with, before I get into the content. As a matter of fact, with Apotheosis I had the structure all worked out for ages, but stalled out creating content until Rick agreed to join the project!

One thing from the podcast that I didn't wholly agree with though was the idea that balance of content is completely unimportant while you're working on the structure of the game. I mean, I get the idea... until the structure is locked down, all of the content could just be considered stand-in. However, while I agree in principle with that notion, I tend to think that if the content is too unbalanced or unrealistic, it'll skew playtest results, and could run the risk of tainting your perception of the state of the game's structure.

Maybe I'm fooling myself, or making excuses for paying more attention to content before fully figuring out the structure sometimes. And as with Apotheosis, sometimes I can't even come up with content until I've got a really good handle on the structure anyway. But to the extent that I have a playable early prototype, I do tend to like my content to be at least realistic, even if not perfectly balanced.