How do mid-game statistics work?

[JonChambers]

If my title doesn't make any sense, I'll ask the same question a different way:

Hypothetically, let's assume I've made two identical games.

The first game, all statistics are initialised during setup and updated every turn as the game progresses.

The second game, all statistics are initialised right before moving to gameEnd state, setting the final values as the default values.

Of course, depending on the game, one may result in easier code to read for outsiders than the other, but is that the only difference?

How will things be different for the player?

Will the experience of playing with or without statistics initialised change anything?

Is there even a way for a player to know if statistics are initialised yet or not?

Thanks in advance

[Tisaac]

I dont think there is a difference for the players but doing it at the end might just be impossible for some games/stats (think of a stat "number of times action X was Taken")

[JonChambers]

I dont think there is a difference for the players but doing it at the end might just be impossible for some games/stats (think of a stat "number of times action X was Taken")

Yes, some stats are much easier to calculate at the end if I'm already tracking them, and some stats are much easier to calculate mid way through if I'm not already tracking them.

Okay, if that's the only difference, I'll keep it in mind.