Jumping off my earlier post; as a result of recent MMOs largely expanding their mechanical/technical limits, the burden of knowledge required for newbies has become extraordinary; the sheer amount of information to process often shy new players away from many of these more mechanically-complex games.
Fighting games have traditionally been one of the more technical of gaming genres and notorious for being unfriendly to new players, but with new games such as Arcana Heart’s homing dash mechanic, UMVC3’s character swaps and damage scaling, Melty Blood and UniB’s air zoning, etc. the hurdle for new players are becoming ever higher (not only their familiarity with the game, but also specific in-game mechanics and their descriptions).
Strategy games too, face this issue. MOBAs (arguably) started the trend with detailed character abilities, game-specific creatures and attack patterns and items and their interactions between one another — all of which takes new players at least 100+ games before they’re able to become a literate player in the game’s mechanics (what’s the difference between a knockdown and a knockup? Why is a knockback better than a pull? What is the interaction between unstoppable, true damage, and clones?)
However, this issue isn’t restricted only to games — long-time running franchises such as DC, Marvel, Gundam, Star Trek, Doctor Who etc. with their spinoffs and parodies all present similar difficulties for a newcomer into the genre.
Is this expansive burden of knowledge necessary? Is it healthy, and is there a way to lessen its impact yet have the overarching franchise still be enjoyable?
