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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 5495797" data-attributes="member: 22424">To be fair, very often video gaming isn't either.Ultimately, the system provides a means to get from "I want my character to do this", and have the game tell us, "okay, here's how it is done."If the system doesn't provide enough options, it will inevitably feel limited. (This also applies if it has loads of 'options', but a small set of optimal choices, btw.) Similarly, if the resolution mechanic is too complex, playing the game will become a chore rather than a pleasure - every barrier the game puts between us and intuitive resolution of action is a bad thing.(This is why 'universal mechanics' are usually a good thing, by the way. After describing an action, in 4e I pretty much know I need to roll d20 and add mods. In 2nd Edition, I first have to remember which method is used for the check, and then roll.)To go to the video game controller analogy, then:Where the controller only has a few buttons, this allows only a few actions to be easily performed. Sure, you can add all sorts of sequences, but those require memorisation, and are often error-prone. Adding more buttons will allow more actions.However, sometimes, you can refine things not by simply adding more buttons, but by refining the interface. Replace the buttons for UP, DOWN, LEFT and RIGHT with a "four way" controller, and a lot of games suddenly become a lot more intuitive. And so on.Frankly, the described X-Box 360 controller sounds like a monstrosity - more buttons than I have fingers, many of which have different meanings based on the game (and often within a single game), and which can be combined in many different ways? No thanks! If I have to read a lengthy instruction manual just to try a game I may not like anyway, I think I'll not bother!(Analogies between the 800+ pages of the 3e/4e/Pathfinder core rules could be drawn here...)Once you get to that point, I have to ask if there isn't a better way to do this. Can we reduce the weight of options without 'dumbing down' the game?(In D&D terms, I think the move to stated At-Will, Encounter and Daily powers was a positive step, to give one example. Whereas 3e had loads of different powers, with lots of different frequencies, 4e mostly got down to just three. And I've already mentioned the move to a universal mechanic. I would submit that the next step is to try to unify the conditions, so that these aren't flying all over the place all the time, and possibly siloing the "numerical bonus" options away from the "doing stuff" options, so that players aren't constantly searching for the "perfect build".)</blockquote>

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