Baldur’s Gate dev: “Games are often dumbed down to Chimp Factor Five”

Discussing their Enhanced Edition, Trent Oster reveals he doesn’t believe in changing the fundamentals of Baldur’s Gate in order to broaden its appeal as “the game industry in general doesn’t give enough credit to gamers.”

[Majin-vegeta]

*coughFPScough* for the cod crowd.

[Anon1974]

I remember sitting down for coffee once and he hit me with the Chimp Factor Five reference when talking about the demo for our first game that I had shown him. Great guy and I'm still thankful that he took the time to meet with me to discuss our project. At least a couple of his recommendations made it into our final version.

But at the time, Chimp Factor Five wasn't a criticism, it was one of his recommendations. With our control scheme he noted it seemed overly complicated and we should design it as simple as possible, and he was right. Testing on others we found quickly that what seemed a simple mechanic just confused people despite having them complete the tutorial.

Game companies dumb down games for the masses but is it really because they don't give the average gamer enough credit or is it because experience has taught them that to appeal to the masses they have to dumb things down?

[IIC0mPLeXII]

I realized the second I fired up the first final fantasy how dumbed down games got. You literally walk out of the first town and the games like, ok dick head good luck. No quest markers, objective log, nothing. Still trying to beat it.

[Lokai]

I'm glad they aren't going to try to modernize the game, merely make it easier to understand the rules.