Well, you should say this to Tim Cain then.
Unpopular opinion: Tim Cain is retarded. Devs think they know everything, but they don't. Especially those who talk about game mechanics.
I'm not convinced by your comparison at all. Here is one of Arcanum's character system screens.
Yes. Really basic. "Race gives you extra points here here and there". The issue with this screen is that the Initial Stats don't display the modifiers, as:
- ST: 9 (+1)
- CN: 9 (+1)
For instance, which would be very helpful. One way or another, nothing particularly complicated: different races have different bonuses and drawbacks.
now compare this with Skyrim character screen in this part
Yeah. The barebones of the barebones. More character appearance customization than character skill customization, the diametrical opposite of Baldur's Gate II.
Players select race at this point looking for the appareance. They don't care what it says about their advantages or disadvantages.
Because the races don't really have disadvantages (IIRC the only race that is different to others in stats is the Altmer race, which gives you an extra 50 points in Magicka). There's nothing to worry about in Skyrim, from the get go. On the other hand, like I said, you are given a shitload of options to change the appearance of your character. cRPG players spend hours building a character. Bethesda players spend hours sculpting their character's face.
Really packed with stuff, and each one of those little buttons has some dozens of techiniques and spells. Stuff like this
and this
Saying that they are similar because they are both one player games is a understatement. They feel as completely different games. The first one you have lots of packed information from the get go, in the second you have less information sliced in even smaller parts between gameplay and narrative. That's why players don't like these games.
Arcanum is more complex than Fallout, it's true. Being able to use magic has a lot to do with it (as crafting is just crafting, and even Bethesda games have it). But you are ignoring something which, I feel, is not minimal. In Baldur's Gate, you can unlock many spells AT A TIME when you level up. It's not even your choice, you simply unlock them as you level up. By comparison, you can't unlock that many shit in Arcanum. You can increase one of your stats, a skill, or unlock a degree, one at a time, and two points every 5 levels if I'm not mistaken. Baldur's Gate overwhelms you with skllls, abilities and magic spells. Especially because certain stats unlock certain classes, and certain races cannot be certain classes, and if you want to you can potentially multi class (but you need to be sure you know what you are doing because certain skills are only available at certain level, and, and...).
I will never not think the Infinity Engine games had
serious pacing problems for people not familiar with D&D. You just get too many tools before most people know what to do with them. I, for one, relied a lot on the web spell and haste.
