Simplicity

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

I recently bought two games. One of them was the highly anticipated and acclaimed upon it's release Batman: Arkham City and the other one was a game in a series which I had never tried before, Resident Evil 5. Due to the amount of praise that Arkham City garnered after it's release, I thought I would only get around to playing Resident Evil after I finished up with AC. But surprisingly, I got a bit bored with AC after a while and started playing RE. Surprisingly, I got hooked onto it and now I mostly play RE while dabbling with AC once every three or four days.

The thing that got me hooked to RE was it's simplicity. In a way, it's like an old school NES game in 3-D. The bad guys come at you, you kill them, collect new types of ammo along the way and progress to a boss fight. In contrast something like Arkham City is much more painstaking. It's like an open world game and sometimes just getting to a particular location takes up a lot of time. Also I do feel that in the more complex games that come out today, there is very little to do. Look at the detective mode in Arkham City. It sounds impressive but all you have to do is press a key and locate some pieces of evidence by just turning the camera and the game does the deduction for you.

All this got me thinking, are simpler games more fun? When I play a game on an old school system, it certainly feels like just that, a game. I can immerse myself in it for a couple of hours and then never think of it again. A lot of the games today consist of very complex stuff that may take a lot of time to deduce and you may end up thinking about the game even much after you have finished playing it. Also there is way more action in games like RE and you would not find yourself bored when you are playing it, as compared to something like Arkham City where you may just end up roaming around the place in a gaming session just locating where your next fight will take place.

So what do you feel? Are simpler games more fun to play? Or does it depend on whether you are a casual or a hardcore gamer?

 

[Davi323]

I think it depends on the game itself. One of the most popular, most plagiarized game of all time, Tetris, is about as simple of a game as you can get. Pieces drop, you move them to fit into gaps. That's the entire game. Yet, it's incredibly addictive. What's the most popular game for iPhones and Android phones? Angry Birds. Another extremely simple premise, it's really just an adaptation of the old tanks/Scorched Earth concepts. Adjust angle and power, shoot, knock shit over. DONE.

Yet, at the same time, we also like realistic simulations. While I love the ease and ridiculous fun of Tecmo Super Bowl (greatest football game ever) I also love the fact that the Madden and NCAA Football series of games have realistic playbooks, defensive adjustments, audibles, free agency/recruiting, etc.

There are simple games I love, simple games I can't stand. Complex games that entertain the hell out of me, and complex games I get bored with and put it down after 10 minutes.

It really all depends on each individual game's concept, taken on a per-game basis. I can't say I prefer simple games or complex games as a generic statement. Each have their good examples, each has their poor ones.

 

[SorgFamily]

I thought I would only get around to playing Resident Evil after I finished up with AC. But surprisingly, I got a bit bored with AC after a while and started playing RE. Surprisingly, I got hooked onto it and now I mostly play RE while dabbling with AC once every three or four days.[/B]

First things first, RE5 is a F*ckin' awesome game. I played the hell out of it. Beat it in all the difficulty modes and still go back for more from time to time.

As for the actual topic, I have fun playing either type of game. GTA IV sucked a lot of time out of my life and the same thing with Red Dead Redemption and I won't even go into Skyrim. At the same time though, I still love playing Mario 1-3 which are just about as basic as it gets. Get from point A to point B, that's it. Super Meat Boy is another fairly simple game that I've burned a lot of time in. For me it's all about the mood I'm in. Sometimes I feel like going on an epic quest (cue Skyrim, Red Dead, etc.) while other times I got 15 minutes to burn before I gotta leave my house and that's plenty of time to beat probably the first 3 worlds in Mario. So for myself it's a tie depending on how I'm feeling. But for the average Joe who doesn't know squat about leveling up, could care less about saving the world and just wants their phone to make noises their gonna go with simplicity because let's face it, if the premise of the game takes more than 30 sec. to understand more and more people are turning away. Sad reality.