Role-Playing Games: Simplicity to Complexity
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Diablo lowered the entry barrier for role-playing games, and it made it easier for new players like me to actually grasp the complexities offered by role-playing games and embrace them. It was as if a whole new world had opened up to me.
Once I'd played and mastered Diablo, it wasn't too long before I picked up Baldur's Gate. Well versed in the four simple stats in Diablo, and only a few steps above in difficulty, Baldur's Gate was a breeze for me to play and I didn't even have time to read the manual before I was well on my way to the town of Beregost with a full fledged party of adventurers to aid me in my quest. Much of the game's ease of accessibility can well be attributed to Bioware's affinity for simple user interfaces and straightforward design. Some elitists might call this a "dumbing down" of the traditional RPG, but I would call it for what it is: accessibility.
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Arguably, complex RPGs offer a lot of freedom to the player that would otherwise be unavailable in games like Baldur's Gate, Fallout and Planescape: Torment, but they would also pose what Warren Spector would term as a "tyranny of choice". When there are too many choices to make, the choice becomes impossible, and the player suffers from what could very well be termed an existential moment.
Since then, game designers have sought to deliver compelling experiences in the role-playing genre, borrowing the simplicity of games like Diablo or Quake while delivering complex and enjoyable experiences.
But with that said, there can be such a thing as making a game too simple. A game like Deus Ex: Invisible War certainly suffers from a severe case of "dumbing down" of its much superior predecessor. Being rid of its RPG elements while doing little to improve its FPS gameplay, Invisible War did little to endear itself to fans looking forward to a sequel. Other games like Space Siege attempt to simplify the already simplistic gameplay of Diablo, and fail miserably as they come off feeling like little more than expensive screensavers.
