16th July 2007, 2:38 PM
I'll agree about the complexity of things like parrying, counter parrying, and so on.
My disagreement is that making it harder to pull off a move because you have to press a ridiculous button combo makes the game better somehow. I consider that fake or forced complexity for it's own sake rather than something that actually genuinly seperates a player base. It's akin to games that create fake difficulty by using random elements you can't predict to determine a winner. If I lose a battle because my strategy sucked or I'm just not very quick on the draw, I consider that perfectly fair. Reaction speed and strategy are legitimate to me. If I lose because I forgot how to perform some controller move or in the middle of it my thumb slipped and so I couldn't pull off that pile driver, that's just stupid to me. Hardly a legitimate means of determining actual skill.
For my part, I can see a lot of fun even in a game like Pikmin. Sure it's rather simple, but you work within that simplistic system and you can get some pretty nice methods going, and you do have to do a lot of planning out of your next moves. I enjoyed that. Pathing took precedense over something like resource management or troop morale. I didn't need to worry about building a museum to keep up citizen spirits so I could raise the taxes I needed to afford researching the next military upgrade. I just needed to worry about using that 24 hour period to send troops in EXACTLY the perfect formations and spread to both get those great food pellets over there, two different ship parts, and also build a bridge and tear down two walls (true story). That means I'll be resetting the level like 20 times, but it's fun, and as with pokemon, there can be a level of depth hidden in what appears to be a simplistic system.
I do enjoy complicated games though. Let it not be said I don't enjoy having to get my surfs to harvest all their wheat by the end of the 4th grain season and so on and so forth. I just enjoy a simple game (when done right) as well.
My disagreement is that making it harder to pull off a move because you have to press a ridiculous button combo makes the game better somehow. I consider that fake or forced complexity for it's own sake rather than something that actually genuinly seperates a player base. It's akin to games that create fake difficulty by using random elements you can't predict to determine a winner. If I lose a battle because my strategy sucked or I'm just not very quick on the draw, I consider that perfectly fair. Reaction speed and strategy are legitimate to me. If I lose because I forgot how to perform some controller move or in the middle of it my thumb slipped and so I couldn't pull off that pile driver, that's just stupid to me. Hardly a legitimate means of determining actual skill.
For my part, I can see a lot of fun even in a game like Pikmin. Sure it's rather simple, but you work within that simplistic system and you can get some pretty nice methods going, and you do have to do a lot of planning out of your next moves. I enjoyed that. Pathing took precedense over something like resource management or troop morale. I didn't need to worry about building a museum to keep up citizen spirits so I could raise the taxes I needed to afford researching the next military upgrade. I just needed to worry about using that 24 hour period to send troops in EXACTLY the perfect formations and spread to both get those great food pellets over there, two different ship parts, and also build a bridge and tear down two walls (true story). That means I'll be resetting the level like 20 times, but it's fun, and as with pokemon, there can be a level of depth hidden in what appears to be a simplistic system.
I do enjoy complicated games though. Let it not be said I don't enjoy having to get my surfs to harvest all their wheat by the end of the 4th grain season and so on and so forth. I just enjoy a simple game (when done right) as well.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)