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Complacent Gaming Syndrome: Difference between revisions
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== Tabletop Games ==
* In [[Tabletop Games]], most gamers tend to have a favorite race/class combination that they stick to
* The GM is just as vulnerable to Complacent Gaming Syndrome, and this can both kill game balance and fun. The GM may simply not know how to build a wide variety of encounters, may over-use his favorite monsters/clan/faction/powers while completely ignoring or even putting down his least favorites, may have too few personalities for the NPCs, may refuse to tailor the general thrust of his plots to the players' interests, may fail to take into account player experience when building encounters (either wiping out new players or leaving vets bored), may ignore the possibility for players to try diplomatic or sneaky solutions and just demand they fight his villain, or may just limit the scope of the setting to some corner of it he likes. This can occur in any game.▼
* The cost of buying new miniatures can mandate this in wargames, especially if "what you see is what you get" is in effect. Some players, however, will just insist on using their favorite side or always use the same builds even if they have the opportunity to do something new.▼
* Even in the 3rd and later editions of ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' which removed most restrictions (even after culling combinations commonly deemed "[[The Loonie|lolrandum]]").
** Furthermore, in ''3.5'' and earlier, many people (beginners especially) will demand to re-roll their character if there is even a hint of it being best suited to be a primary spellcaster. Who wants to read another two chapters of 8-point text just to be able to make a simple attack? Give me a Barbarian called Gnar or Blarg anyday.
** The fourth edition has released two books containing literally hundreds of magical items each; if the game's forums are any judge, only a handful of those items are actually "worth" playing with: a handful of those items are generally useful for a range of characters, a substantial amount of them are useful only to certain specific builds, and a disappointingly high number are nearly useless.
** Strongly encouraged in traditional high-level games when one of a [[Player Party|party]] is [[Killed Off for Real|dead beyond recovery]], in which case, the slot open is for a specific set of skills, and all the (suddenly available) [[Magic Wand|magic items]] that no-one else can use are specific to that particular class. Ergo: ''Sorry 'bout Alcor the Illusionist, Chuck...You should create a new character. We need another wizard.''
** Most of the criticism of ''3.5'' centers on how AC and [[Hit Points]] are meaningless, while [[Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards|spellcasters]] run rampant. These are only really problems at high level (level 9 or so, when clerics gain their [[One Hit KO|Slay Living]] spell), which is where many players seem to be complacent.
* Some rules systems take steps to prevent this. Whether or not they
** According to [[Word of God]] [[Chaotic Evil|the]] [[Eberron|Keeper]], the ridiculous dependence on the [[Random Number God]], the obsession with insane numbers of poorly thought out stats, and the general head-up-arseness of ''[[FATAL]]'' were intended to prevent this, because [[Honest Rolls Character|about the only thing you get to choose is gender]]
** Another terrible RPG, ''deadEarth'', tried the same thing except that ''everything'' was decided randomly. Up to and including if the character starts the game alive or dead (not zombified or something, '''dead''').
** In ''[[Maid RPG]]'', everything is randomly generated, but only the stats have an in-game effect, and you can wind up with something [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|ludicrous and fun]]. The amount of randomness in ''[[Maid RPG]]'' is such that you can have an albino with brown skin, or someone with both elf ears and cat ears. Of course, the sourcebook for ''[[Maid RPG]]'' also states that if you want, you can just choose character attributes.
* ''[[Munchkin (game)|Munchkin]]'' hangs a lampshade on this - when you die, you keep your race, class and level, but you lose all your items (only because the other players stole them).
* ''[[Exalted]]'' has [[Fan Nickname|Paranoia Combat.]] Sure, PC's have amazingly powerful and fun tricks to deal massive damage, but most artifact weapons have a reasonable expectation <ref>Somewhat, anyway. Damage is highly randomized in ''Exalted'', so it is entirely possible and not terribly unlikely to have a really powerful attack do barely any damage at all</ref> of being able to kill any character in a hit or two if they hit. This, of course, completely ignores the phenomenal cosmic powers of an elder Exalt, or the reality-warping powers of the Yozis. However, nearly any Exalt type has access to [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Perfect Defenses]], usually cheaply and without requiring a great deal of investment on behalf of the character. As a result, [[Boring but Practical|it's far more efficient to use normal attacks on a character and force him to perfectly defend,]] while he does the same. Some people dislike this as rendering most of the combat powers of the Exalted [[Awesome but Impractical|needlessly flashy]], others because it leads to long, drawn out slogfests while characters stunt back motes and try to break even, and then some people just adjust [[Cast from Hit Points|their paradigm.]]
* ''[[Paranoia (game)|Paranoia]]'', being a system in which death is frequent and expected, embraces an institutionalized form of this. Player characters come in six-packs of clones, and if you run out, you can buy another six-pack. Don't make a new character, just increment the number at the end of your name and keep playing.
** Unless the DM tells you no and hands you a randomly made character, yes this is a suggested way to play. Also a new six-pack cost a lot and adds new mutations (unless you pay more) making it only useful for Blue-class up.
* Tournament-level ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' usually gravitates towards the four or five best decks in the format at hand, each deck beating another good deck and being weak against another good deck in a sort of [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors]] form. Sometimes, a "rogue" deck can enter and completely wreck strategies (this is more likely to happen in low-level competitive Magic, though); usually, though, they're "rogue" decks for a reason (i.e. they're not good enough to hang with the best decks). However, the DCI is always vigilant about a format becoming ''too'' complacent (if the number of best decks whittles from four or five to two, with one of them more dominant; aka a "play this deck" or "play to beat this deck" scenario); when that happens, card bannings usually ensue.
▲* The GM is just as vulnerable to Complacent Gaming Syndrome, and this can both kill game balance and fun. The GM may simply not know how to build a wide variety of encounters, may over-use his favorite monsters/clan/faction/powers while completely ignoring or even putting down his least favorites, may have too few personalities for the NPCs, may refuse to tailor the general thrust of his plots to the players' interests, may fail to take into account player experience when building encounters (either wiping out new players or leaving vets bored), may ignore the possibility for players to try diplomatic or sneaky solutions and just demand they fight his villain, or may just limit the scope of the setting to some corner of it he likes. This can occur in any game.
▲* The cost of buying new miniatures can mandate this in wargames, especially if "what you see is what you get" is in effect. Some players, however, will just insist on using their favorite side or always use the same builds even if they have the opportunity to do something new.
== Video Games ==
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