And I would argue, as one of the nerds, that folks who want to unwind with a cheesy game for fun have many other fantasy game options at their fingertips. Assassins Creed Vahalla, for example (which I played and enjoyed for something easy and button-mashy to pass the time). However, I came to rpgs from puzzle games like Myst snd Riven, and find complex systems and challenge to be very enjoyable. They give me a sense of nerdly success when I succeed, I reckon. I enjoy these types of games as much as boneheaded ones, but for very different reasons.. which are just as valid as yours.
I think that the folks in this forum have made excellent posts about the issues of designing a game around these cheese mechanics and how they break the balance completely. These options of barrels and shove snd surfaces are not just options…they fundamentally break the other systems.
But I am no expert on the details. Will leave to my fellow nerds who know more about it to explain the specifics. I only know from my playthroughs so far that 1)party composition does not matter in the slightest and 2) your character build does not matter either. You can win any battle with whatever. I find this to be unfun personally compared to deeper the role playing and strategic aspects these types of games normally have.
Also…if they wanted to design this type of laid back game for more “socially adept” non-nerds to play after beers with bros…then why 1) do a Baldurs Gate game and 2) do a DnD based game? They could have just made fantasy GTA or something.
