Enough with simplification already, Simplification in game systems Options

[Wounded Ronin]

I'm annoyed that everyone who puts out a game of some kind nowadays seems to think that simplifying things makes it better. Deus Ex 2 was a simplified version of Deus Ex 1. Daggerfall > Morrowind > Oblivion. 1st edition D&D with all the trimmings > 2nd edition D&D > 3rd edition D&D. Rogue Spear > FPS style Rainbow Six where it's both very possible and expected for Ding Chavez to Rambo the whole level himself.

The way I see it if you simplify a game you're providing less stuff for the player to explore and work with...you're providing less game. There's less to think about, there's less replay value, and the game world seems less real.

There are some games from the 80s and 90s which I can go back and play even today because they're really complex. There's lots of ways to win, lots of ways to lose, lots to think about. Midwinter is one example. That game had lots of world-level strategy with military units, supply lines, and logistical problems the player would have to overcome. It also had arcade-style combat which needed to be engaged in only when strategically sensible. Finally, it had role playing elements where certain characters could only recruit other characters with whom they had good relations and where individual characters needed to deal with food, rest, morale, and injury levels. Go and read up on it at Underdogs if you're not familiar: http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?gameid=721

Nowadays, most prominent strategy games are Dune 2 style with the emphasis on clicking really fast to mass produce the most units and you have a lot of attention paid to graphics and sound effects. In effect, the strategy is simplified. When you're playing Warcraft you don't sit around scratching your head wondering *what* to do. That's obvious; instead it's about your ability to just make it happen through your gameplay ability.

When I look back and see just how glorious earlier titles were in all their complexity I really wonder why the paradigm today seems to be towards simplification and dumbing down. I hear the word "accessible" thrown around a lot. To me, that just sounds like a cop out. It seems like it lets a game designer put less work into the planning the product by making the excuse that a game with less meat is automatically going to sell more copies because most peoples' brains explode if they try to think.