Skyrim has fallen in line with the current trend of major gaming titles becoming streamlined/simplified. Do you think this is a good/bad thing and why?

1. Lets have a debate.
2. No tasteless pictures please/crude comments for the sake of being crude please.

The heart of this debate revolves around if you think simplicity is good for a game like skyrim. I think to fully debate this topic we need to make two clear distinctions: Streamlining vs Simplifying. Streamlining is about achieving the SAME results with less resources, be it time, steps, clicks, etc. Simplification is the reduction of something to fewer components.

I for one, am of the opinion that simplification in the gaming genre that is inherently complex is undesirable. It is very understandable for companies to expand to new consumer segments, and most of the time the conflict between complexity/simplicity lies in the tug of war between new and old players. But there are plenty of ways to do so and I think simplification is far from the best option.

Take player statistic for example.

Why would a hardcoe player find this desirable: In depth rubric for character construction. Systemic showcase of unique characteristics from leveling. Provide extensive options for displaying progress of role playing.

Why would a newer player find this undesirable: Care more about gameplay than stat tracking. Doesn't want to invest too much time into such a system.

This is a classic conflict. hardcoe players like the complex system, newer players prefer a simpler system, each with their own reasons.Just like any other problem, resolving this should not be to completely ignor one side. Removing stats mean that hardcoe players won't have the rubric to create/track/show off their character progress. Keeping the complex system would mean to completely ignor what new players find desirable. So what if instead we keep the complex stat system, and add an additional streamlined system that will answer the newer player's issues. Instead of displaying 20 sats, display 3 main categories with click to expand options. Group 20 stats into 3 categories. Leveling can be done two ways. Click on category, which will equally distribute points into each of its attributes. Or, expand category, manually upgrade attribute. I believe this solution addresses the presupposed issues that caused this conflict.

To summarize, I believe simplifying by removing features completely is perhaps the wrong way to go about bridging the conflict between hardcoe and mainstream players. There are plenty of other options available to developers that doesn't involve picking one faction of your fans over the other.

The last thread got closed for a reason, why would you make a new one? Nothing good will come of it.

That being said, I don't agree at all. Even COD is more complex than Doom. Skyrim is more complex than Diablo, etc. etc.

I've been playing games for years and Skyrim is NOT a casual gamers game. Yes they took out spell crafting, but guess what? Smithing was added in. A casual gamer won't even know how to play.

So let it die, stop making these threads.

The last thread had good points. I thought it got closed between of the obscene pictures.

The last thread was locked, do not make another without moderator permission to do so - and you are not getting it.