Is player creativity key?

[Frostmarrow]

A boxed boardgame is nowadays often a terrific product. When bought it hits my table somewhere between two to ten times. D&D on the other hand has become a life long passion. It's the only game I never grow tired of.

That is until they took a lot of the creativity out. In earlier editions there was a lot to do but nowadays much of it has been reduced to builds. For better or worse.

A beginner box contains premade characters, battlemats and tokens. Shouldn't a beginner box instead contain art, graph paper and pencils? Is this a generation thing?

Is creativity key to sustain a game over years? If this is true how can designers encourage creativity in the product?

 

[Nagol]

I think it comes down to expectation and achievable market segment.

Certainly, a highly creative hobby tends to consume a lot of time and be "sticky" for those who are interested in that hobby.

The question becomes what percentage of the population is willing to invest sufficient time up-front to determine if this is something they are interested in? And of those, what percentage will like the hobby sufficiently to continue?

Reducing initial investment (money and time) helps widen the initial audience for the product. The time reduction is particularly tricky as it comes in two flavours: up-front and engagement. Recent products increase the up-front investment for the hobbyist (character creation is much longer now with feats, skill assignment, and power selection) and try to undo that investment requirement in the beginner product.

Too much reduction in up-front time and key activities, like character creation, are eliminated. Too much reduction in engagment time and key activities, like roleplaying, obstacle negotiation, strategy and tactics, are removed from the experience.

My personal opinion is that the initial experience with the hobby should be reasonably reflective of the ongoing experience even if it reduces the size of the initial audience. I expect the absolute number that stick to the activity won't change appreciably. Some will be lost becasue they won't try it; others will be retained because the extra elements they get exposed to are attractive.