Options

You can never please everyone.  The first thing I do in every game I play is go into the options and turn on subtitles.  Some people like super challenging games.  No matter how many times I insist no one likes it, I keep finding fans of Monopoly.  Maybe players have gotten bored of the base game and what to add in a new twist.  All of these encourage the need for options, whether in your game settings, game rules, or game cupboard.

Having designed a number of tools and editors for various projects, I have learned over and over again that the more options you have (even the ones that seem like super easy and simple options), the more complex the software.  Whether this means it's complex to setup and use or the code internally is extra complicated due to all the flags that needed to be added and checked throughout the code, it doesn't matter; the system has gotten complicated.  Not to mention that that's one more variable that needs to be tested and who knows if a certain combination of seemingly unrelated options can interfere with each other?

It's not much easier on the board game side of things for adding optional rules.  You have to playtest each one of those optional rules to make sure the game stays balanced.  And each rule you add only makes things worse since you have to test all possible combinations of play using the various optional rules.

One reason I'm bringing this up is to illustrate one way that game design/development can be work rather than fun.  The other reason is that you should think about these things early and often throughout development.  For the software options, write a list of definite options you want in the game (difficulty, subtitles, etc) and make accessing these settings easy from anywhere in the code, while also making sure to keep your checks for these settings from exploding all over the code.  For the board game options, one way to come up with possible optional rules is while you are playtesting the game.  Did some rule you tested not work out, but not completely break the game?  Maybe with a little tweaking, that could be an option.  Did some players want to eliminate each other from the game even though you know that shouldn't be how your game determines winners?  Make it an optional play style and stick it in your rule book.