While faceroll is always a derogatory term, I would argue that it's a necessary mechanic to any game. Faceroll lowers the ceiling for players, creating a good entry-level decision for those who may not yet be skilled (or confident) enough to pilot something more complex. The gap between "faceroll" and "the rest" varies game by game, but it exists almost everywhere.
- In Magic, it would be aggro or Red Deck Wins (RDW). You get your cards, you play your cards, and when applicable you swing with creatures.
- When I played League of Legends, one of the easiest characters I ever played was very similar to a WoW hunter. Her name escapes me, but she was so straightforward that there was only 1 skilled-based attack I had to worry about with her, and that was a giant arrow that shot across the entire map. If you look at the LoL forums, there's always someone asking about the easiest character, and the same 5 are always mentioned.
- In Warmachine I would dub my very own Khador as the most "faceroll" army. Your plan can consist of nothing more than "walk forward, apply axe to face" and still put up a decent fight.
- In first-person shooters, facerolling would be using a gun or class with the best stats. In Call of Duty, there's always that one gun that everyone complains about as being too good (accurate, high damage, low recoil, etc), and anyone who uses it is dubbed a "noob."
- In most RPGs, a fighter-esque class would get this honor. They usually have no magic or special abilities, and their basic game plan is very similar to Khador's: walk forward, apply axe to face. There's usually a fair amount of damage mitigation involved in the class as well, making them easier to keep alive.
Before anyone takes offense, let me clarify one thing - I think it's awesome that these things exist. These classes being the more "faceroll" of their game in no way makes them bad, and those who use them are in no way worse players than those who play "real classes." These easier choices merely make sure that skilled players don't keep new players out of the game.
[I would like to make one caveat before moving on, and it's the same thing I always say when comparing different games. In order for a faceroll option to be viable, it needs to make the game easier to play, not easier to win. A game needs to be designed around the skill of the player, and not simply how imbalancingly powerful their class or army is. If a game's outcome is determined by what you bring and not how you play, the game is too flawed to discuss.]
The beautiful thing about faceroll classes is that they still allow a skilled player to make himself known. In Magic, a RDW player still needs to know the decks of both himself and his opponent. Does he have the speed to outpace his opponent, or do some burn spells need to be used for creature removal? In Warmachine, how you react to your opponent is key. Bringing a smashy list won't do you much good if you don't know which faces you should be applying axe to!
One term I heard on the Muse On Minis podcast seems applicable, if slightly offensive. Faceroll options are like "turd polishers" - they can take something that's not quite up-to-par, in this case a new or unskilled player, and gives them the tools necessary to at least participate in the game. It won't make them good players, and they may still lose frequently, but at least they can still say "good game." They can still enjoy the more casual aspect of a game they love without feeling like they should quite because they'll never be good enough.
The usual marker of a faceroll option is that it lets game mechanics pick up the slack. In shooters, the guns give players room to have poor accuracy. In card games, they alleviate a player's need to worry about advanced strategies because the deck simply doesn't have the capacity to worry about them. In wargames, models are solid right out of the box and don't require a lot of extra support or careful plays to make them work. All of this doesn't win the game, but it lets the player focus more on the bigger picture and less on the smaller details.
However, faceroll options also have a very balanced downside. While easier to pick up, it's usually harder to make them work at a higher level of competition. Take Khador for example. While the army has some pieces that require more finesse, on average their models lack the intricacy that is much more prevalent in many more armies. If a brand new player was given 3 minutes to study Khador army tactics, they'd fare much better than someone who was given 3 minutes to study Cryx or Circle Orboros tactics. However, give those same players a year of hardcore play and the Khador player will likely hit the ceiling on the army's strategy long before the other player.
Again, that's not a bad thing. I love Khador because they're straightforward. I don't have to worry about pulling off an elaborate strategy, I don't have a linchpin that's easily removed, and what my opponent does has a bit less impact on what I'm trying to do.
While I sometimes like a bit of complexity, there are other times when I just want to sit down and play a game. I don't want to worry about clipping my warlock's DoT ticks in Warcraft. I don't want to deal with my Magic deck crumbling because I can't draw card #4 needed to make my combo deck work. And I really don't want to keep dying in CoD because my thumb-eye coordination is horrendous. Sometimes I just want to give my opponent a good game without a huge investment of brain power.
So for those of you who get comments about how your army is too easy, or your deck requires no skill, I say don't argue about it. It may be an easier choice, and it may be a choice that will never win a national tournament. Or maybe you play a game like CoD where the easy choice is the best, and people mock you for being a noob. But you know what? It's your game that you play for your enjoyment. Nuts to them if they're so petty that they actually worry that much about what someone else plays.
See you tomorrow!
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