personally dislike the approach of games like skyrim, that tend to pack an amazing amount of repetitive content without particularly polishing anything or really thinking of the gameplay implications (as to give you "freedom"). There is an important distinction in sports and other similar activities, since the variety of functional actions is way smaller than the variety of possible strategic and theoretical actions, and the process for facing obstacles can vary greatly. Like chess, the physical game doesn't change at all, but as you point out the experience, expertise and process factor comes in. In the case of basketball, obviously bouncing the ball, then passing the ball and then running, can lead to a completely different outcome than running then bouncing the ball and then passing. And details go down to very precise bounces, steps, and speeds. This is a repetitive activity, but not necessarily a repetitive action. A lot of skyrim's challenges can be handled differently, although the problem I see in it is that for example to kill a dragon, there is a pretty established linear structure. In a way killing a dragon in skyrim feels like a repetitious chore UNLIKE when you face a witch in Left for dead. The witch although it never really changes its behaviour, it enforces players to change the playstyle drastically. It is not an "original enemy" but it triggers an original response from the players. This is a Repetitive -activity-, that can be deconstructed and requires original (non repetitive) -action-. Dragons