>>33736670>Simple is only for indie games. Would you consider Breath of the Wild simple?Its story goal is. Kill Ganon. That's it. Period. Everything else is an optional subquest that either nets you more resources to do that, or makes Ganon weaker.
RBY could have been that, but instead they stuck in a bunch of gating.
Beat the champ. Gotcha senpai.
But before you beat the champ you gotta beat the E4 to prove your worth. Okay, tolerable.
And before you challenge them you gotta beat 8 gyms to prove your worth. More annoying but still reasonable.
And in order to get to certain gyms you have to take down local installations of a national criminal organization. Getting grating.
And before you get to the next town you gotta find an old man's teeth, or get a guard a drink, or go talk to a guy on a boat, or find a key. These are just irrelevant hoops to jump through, with no bearing on the main goal. Getting him tea doesn't let me beat the champ, other than it's an unrelated barrier that I have to clear or I'm not allowed to continue.
HOWEVER rather than fixing what little they had, the gating has only gotten worse. Pokemon hasn't quite hit it's skyward sword moment, so they haven't realized they're going the wrong direction yet.
What players want is a goal and free reign, and optional goals that make that main goal easier and let them experience the cool things about the world. Not a guided tour through what the devs want them to notice and countless arbitrary red tape to complete because the devs say so. That's not a game, it's a ride. Or because it usually seeks to inform, either about mechanics or world, and the tasks are there to verify you were successfully informed, a school/tutorial.
But people don't NEED schools, except for things not readily apparent. They learn through expirementation and observation just fine. Old games relied solely on those because they didn't have room for longwinded text tutorials. And well-designed games still rely primarily on this.
