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<blockquote data-quote="Janx" data-source="post: 6227938" data-attributes="member: 8835">That's well put.Back then, there was no such thing as a degree in Game Design.&nbsp; Now there is.While I suspect game designers had some inklings as to what made a good game, they did not have the principals as clearly defined as occurs nowadays.Consider the 2E concept of THAC0 (actually I hear it evolved in the WSG or some other AD&amp;D add-on book).&nbsp; While we deride the concept of THAC0 now, consider how elegant it was back then.&nbsp; Especially when you consider that though the math is identical in pre-THAC0 times, the original game made players use a table to perform the look-up.Meaning, game design was so ill-presented, that they couldn't simplify the explanation down to a simple A minus B compared to a dice roll concept even though that is exactly what was occurring mechanically.So part of the evolution of game design is identifying the functional components of the game mechanic and simplifying how it is presented.I have no doubt, we could take the AD&amp;D 1E rules and re-write them so it operates statistically and mechanically the same, but is presented in a far clearer way.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Janx, post: 6227938, member: 8835"] That's well put. Back then, there was no such thing as a degree in Game Design. Now there is. While I suspect game designers had some inklings as to what made a good game, they did not have the principals as clearly defined as occurs nowadays. Consider the 2E concept of THAC0 (actually I hear it evolved in the WSG or some other AD&D add-on book). While we deride the concept of THAC0 now, consider how elegant it was back then. Especially when you consider that though the math is identical in pre-THAC0 times, the original game made players use a table to perform the look-up. Meaning, game design was so ill-presented, that they couldn't simplify the explanation down to a simple A minus B compared to a dice roll concept even though that is exactly what was occurring mechanically. So part of the evolution of game design is identifying the functional components of the game mechanic and simplifying how it is presented. I have no doubt, we could take the AD&D 1E rules and re-write them so it operates statistically and mechanically the same, but is presented in a far clearer way. [/QUOTE]

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