I personally like the option of choosing to view stats or play without them when I feel like it. The bottom line is we are all different and like different things. Sometimes I like to target the largest audience I possibly can, most of the time I am the die-hard artist who would rather go out in style than conform to what everyone likes. Basically, I'm pretty sure you'll want to stay somewhere inside the "bell shaped curve". If you have too little stats you're probably going to target, say, preschoolers and Kindergartners, but if you have too many stats maybe you'd target only the few who actually get more into char developement than playing the game itself. My own style is this "If you really want a great game give the player the choice, the more options the better". That way, essentially everyone gets the game they want. And, as far as difficulty or interest being an issue, you'd be surprised how often people will chose not to spoil the game for themselves. Good Luck...

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Original post by StaticVoid Drop all stats and have your abilities described in relation to other characters. You select someone to attack and the game will tell you "This guy will sqish you like a bug" or "You could kick his arse all the way to Tim-buck-Too". The idea is that you don't know exactly how many hits you can take, but you know you can take more than a 8 stone weakling and less than a champion wrestler. It doesn't have to be just strength either. Comments could be made on your speed, intelligence, looks. I do like having lots of stats in a game. I just think there should be a bit more mystery about what they are.

Personally, I would hate a game like that. I want to know what my abilities are in any game I play, and all that the example given would do is make me reload a bunch of times trying each weapon and attack until I figure out what my stats actually are.

I think there are people who like the stats to be available, and maybe some that don't want them available. But I get this feeling that the only people who really love the idea of not being able to see your own stats are game DESIGNERS, and that almost all game PLAYERS would just be annoyed by it, or wouldn't even notice because they don't look at stat screens in games anyway.

I think in any game where the combat is supposed to allow tactical or strategic gameplay, the stats and abilities need to be available. Otherwise it's like challenging someone to a game of poker, and when they ask, "Which rules?" you say "I'm not telling until I beat you."