by teg2
Amazing thread.FWIW, I do believe that more elegant complexity is certainly always preferable to bland simplicity.
The balance point here is subjective, of course.
Sometimes, house rules and expansions try to adjust the complexity of a game to match the players preferences. The popularity and/or success of these may be a good measure of the need of such adjustments.
Another thought, couldn't "theme" be considered "superfluous" complexity added to a game ? Or maybe, the theme masks the complexity of the game, making it simpler to learn and play ?
Where does taste come into the picture here ? What if I do enjoy more complex games, welcome the challenge and overall find the experience more rewarding ? How can anyone say that certain additional complexity is detrimental to the game ?
Adding spices to about any food seems to be a requirement for some people. Knowing my simpler food taste, an Indian co-worker asked me what type of food should he have available for a bring-your-family event he was hosting. The hostess gave my wife what she defined as the most plain/simple version of a traditional dish from her country, even calling it the "kid's version of this dish". My wife had never ever tasted anything as spicy in her life. I didn't even attempt to try it out after seeing my wife's reaction.
So, as you can see, complexity, as with anything else in life, is greatly a matter of taste (acquired or not).
Some people think that Warhammer Quest is ridiculously complex and not worth the time investment, yet some other people consider it a very simple game, just a pointless dungeon-crawler.
Now, for irony, I just do not understand how people can come across as not understanding that these differences exist, that people have different tastes, different preferences, etc, however, when asked, they are the first to say that, by no means, they see and appreciate these differences. Yeah, right.
(Edited for clarity and readability)