Choices

Over the years, one of the ways the D&D game has changed a lot is in the number of choices players have to make in order to construct and level up their characters.  In the classic "Basic" D&D I started with you basically had to choose a class out of seven choices.  The rest of your choices were basically what equipment to buy and use and what spells to learn and memorize if you were a spellcaster.  The ability scores were random, the thief skill progression was fixed, there were no proficiencies or skills, you didn't multiclass.  Starting with 3E in particular, the number of choices grew greatly as you not only could pick skills and feats but had to choose what class you wanted each level with a large class and race combo option.  I confess that for me, sometimes I like it simple and sometimes I like to have a lot of choices to make when creating a PC.  It depends kind of on the mood.  The one thing I've found to watch out for with the later versions though is that not all choices are equal.  Sure it may cost the same to improve your spot skill versus your craft(pottery) skill, but which will get used more in play?  Sometimes it's fun to pick oddball choices though.  I gets it depends.