This is something I found interesting about the types of games that I really enjoy and if I'm honest the games that I find myself keep coming back to are those games that are easy to learn and hard to master. Or if they do have complexity it's more to do with story choices and interesting level design etc. than whatever stats you pick for your character at the beginning.
Particularly with RPGs, A great example of this comparison would be Fable 1 and Diablo 2. There are enough options in the game to keep you occupied gameplay wise and find a style you like. However it's not so overwhelming and pants on head retarded that you could be an autist and end up making an excel spreadsheet comparing all the miniscule amounts of stats to find out which is the 'best' class or stats setup.
I'm also thinking about this in terms of appearance customisation and all that nonsense. I wonder if the RPG development cycle overall for an indie dev especially wouldn't end up benefiting by deliberately restricting the options you're going to have so that you can focus more on the depth of the classes you have and the gameplay. As opposed to having 30+ different builds with nothing to show for it which is what most modern RPGs are now.
As an example instead of the usual 'le modern RPG' setup where you've inevitably got 30+ options in the character selection I'd potentially just have Warrior/Thief/Mage/Cleric. Something I really appreciated for example even though BG2 has quite a few class options is stuff like class oriented storylines and quests.
Complexity in game is very relative, I like Path of Exile for instance and I disliked Diablo 3. In part this was do to how simple Diablo 3 is and how fun it was in POE to do builds.
What other games do you think are complex? I remember finding some of my favorite games a bit complex at first and then they were just normal. Total War: Warhammer, Divinity Original Sin and POE.
Is a car engine complex? At first it seems so but after a while it is very basic and you feel accomplish for now having the knowledge.
In the end it is about having some difficulty to overcome. For what ever reason difficulty in itself seems to make people enjoy games, complexity is just one way to achieve that.
Simplifying a game mechanics for the sake of story is how we got to the movie game meta we have today. I hate it.
However you also have a good point, make a game to difficult and to many will just not give it a shot. There is also the time people are willing to put in to a game, I have a job and a family, I don't have the time to start a game over and over again until I get that perfect build I wanted - I do miss those days but it is what it is.
The question should be where to draw the line, what is the balance? Should games be targeted to the most basic player? Someone with very low attention spam that just wants a quick dopamine hit? For profit alone it makes sense to do that. People here may not like it but the time where games were made by and for nerds is over, gaming is now mainstream and there is no going back.
It's always a massive balancing act, it does depend on my mood what game I choose. Sometimes I like complexity but even when I'm in the mood I can find it way too overwhelming and annoying to deal with if there are just options vomited in my face constantly. There's also sometimes no way for you to skip it even if you find the game fairly enjoyable. You're expected to trawl through through the options you're given or gtfo.
The post below I pointed to BG2 as an example of a game that's complex and it's one of my favourite RPG. However it is a pain in the arse to get through the myriad of options thanks to it's D&D ruleset. As an example of what I think is done right Fallout New Vegas handles the skills and levelling up well but I think part of that is the way it presents the options you pick to you. There's not as much hidden rules going on in the background compared to BG2 as well.
To be honest, BG2 and NWN2 had great balance. BG2 however becomes way to easy after the first run.
Did you play DOS2? I found that one to be overwhelming first time and I ended up restarting it a few times and then it was kind of simplistic.
Funny you call DOS2 overwhelming, yeah I played that game to death, for me that was the exact sort of balance I look for in an RPG. It was it's own whole system for PC so it didn't have a ton of tabletop nonsense maths shoved into it for the sake of making it more like tabletop. Combat was very straightforward.
Having so many things to put points in was the part that was overwhelming and I wanted to have the best build :) Combat was turned based and I like that but I also like the pseudo turn based from BG1 and 2.