IdleMind
BANNED FOREVER
d3v pretty much covered what I wanted to say with regard to creator intent/emergent complexity. I have some choice bits about Tekken and why it's poorly designed, but I'll spoiler tag it for the sake of sanity.
The upswell against pure creator intent being a motivation for change is slowly creeping into 3d games as well, Tekken is pretty much as stale as a game can be, so I will extrapolate on that point as an example.
In Tekken, the "differences" in characters are all reliant on minutae that require so much grinding and bookwork, and is less about playing the opponent until the tip-top level of play. The amount of esoteric bullshit you have to learn is frankly just plain insane. This is because universal mechanics like KBDC are so strong and universal, every character now plays like a mishmash of a bad mishima. Just because one uses d/f2 and one uses EWGF doesn't make as much of a difference as one not having a NH launcher and one not. KBDC ensures almost all characters will optimize towards spacing and whiff punishing, with inducement pokes throw in for good measure. 60 characters, and the only difference you have is what kind of shine they put on their juggles.
The designers realized that Mishimas were the best characters, and slowly but surely, have been optimizing all the characters towards that. King's are wrestlers and have lots of command throws... but throws can be broken on reaction. Now they juggle and wall carry like everyone else, with a splash of throws to see if someone is paying attention. Williams poke and harass, but one bad guess on a poke can lead to getting hit by a crush launcher for half your life. Now they poke a little, launch and wall carry like everyone else. Paul can turn a match around with a CH Deathfist, always giving him an ace, but when juggles do comparable damage for less risk, you will find Paul launching and wall carrying like everyone else.
This is because of the fact that universal options are more important than character specific ones, and that began because the designers made a choice to move the game more in that direction because that is easier than making them all different and basing a game around the interplay of those differences. In my opinion, this is because the designers made a poor choice and ran with it.
In Tekken, the "differences" in characters are all reliant on minutae that require so much grinding and bookwork, and is less about playing the opponent until the tip-top level of play. The amount of esoteric bullshit you have to learn is frankly just plain insane. This is because universal mechanics like KBDC are so strong and universal, every character now plays like a mishmash of a bad mishima. Just because one uses d/f2 and one uses EWGF doesn't make as much of a difference as one not having a NH launcher and one not. KBDC ensures almost all characters will optimize towards spacing and whiff punishing, with inducement pokes throw in for good measure. 60 characters, and the only difference you have is what kind of shine they put on their juggles.
The designers realized that Mishimas were the best characters, and slowly but surely, have been optimizing all the characters towards that. King's are wrestlers and have lots of command throws... but throws can be broken on reaction. Now they juggle and wall carry like everyone else, with a splash of throws to see if someone is paying attention. Williams poke and harass, but one bad guess on a poke can lead to getting hit by a crush launcher for half your life. Now they poke a little, launch and wall carry like everyone else. Paul can turn a match around with a CH Deathfist, always giving him an ace, but when juggles do comparable damage for less risk, you will find Paul launching and wall carrying like everyone else.
This is because of the fact that universal options are more important than character specific ones, and that began because the designers made a choice to move the game more in that direction because that is easier than making them all different and basing a game around the interplay of those differences. In my opinion, this is because the designers made a poor choice and ran with it.
