Via Zen of Design, a post on the Signal vs. Noise blog about complexity causing product returns. Damion brings up the topic, of course, on the basis of MMOG gameplay fundamentals.

In Ultima Online, I watched as an entire focus group couldn’t figure out how to chop down a tree (you had to click on the axe, then the tree). In Shadowbane, players had a hard time finding their first batch of monsters to kill. In DDO, I recently watched someone spend 10 minutes trying to figure out how to use a healing kit before quitting in disgust. In City of Heroes, I watched numerous new players stumble with the instanced city concept, while trying to get together and group with their friends.