This way, both the player and his opponents may gain increasing resources throughout the game, so that the player always feels that he is progressing, but never feels that his opposition is effectively out of the game. A third way is to face the player with the problem of depleting resources. This increases tension as the clock ticks on. But the depleting resource need not be time. Another way is simply to increase the scope and complexity of the game as it progresses.
New technologies become available, or new rules come into play, or new magic items can be obtained.
As a consequence, Anderson's fiction has a sense of place and a feeling of sensory depth lacking in many other authors' work. It is especially important in the genres of science fiction and fantasy, because stories of both types take place in imaginary worlds which are often quite different from our own. The author of science fiction or fantasy cannot rely on the readers' shared experience of the world which allows fiction set in the present day to set a scene with a considerable economy of detail. A lot of science fiction and fantasy is, as a result, rather colorless, despite the exotic nature of the places it depicts. Plot and character are the primary requirements of fiction, and many authors concentrate on them to the virtual exclusion of narrative color.