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Originally Posted by Monolith I really can't understand why some of you have such trouble with the combat-system or the controls in general. It took me about five minutes to get along with it. I know many people who like Gothic and Gothic 2, none of them have problems with the controls. Those who aren't into it simply don't like RPGs in general. |
A little generalizing without cause? I've played plenty of RPGs since roughly 1980, and began reviewing them (and other, non-game software) for various national magazines starting in 1987. So I certainly enjoy RPGs; but I found the combat system in the original Gothic annoyingly counter-intuitive. It eventually caused me to give up playing.
Nor do I think that my 1) like of RPGs and 2) problems with the combat interface were only true to me, and that everybody else who tried the game was a diehard FPS fan. If anything, it should alert you to the fact that a significant number of people were having difficulties. It certainly doesn't reveal any information about their likes or dislikes among game genres.
But German games are often critizised for being too complex - according to controls and gameplay. Perhaps we're just more tolerant. That would explain why complex games like...for instance Jagged Alliance 2 were more successful in Germany than in the USA. There is still a huge community here.
I don't know where you're getting your conclusions about the US market from, but Jagged Alliance II was a huge hit in the US, both critically and in stores. The idea that US gamers are morons is nonsense. It isn't that they lack intelligence, but rather, that the gaming market here stretches to a very young age, and quite a few large corporations who now produce games want to make "one size fits all" titles. Hence, the dumbing down of RPGs in such products as the KotoR series--but that doesn't define the US RPG market, and never has. Remember, it was American developers that produced Planescape: Torment, and King of Dragon Pass, arguably the two most complex computerized RPG titles ever made.