http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/JamesCox/20141103/229306/There_is_No_5_Sword_in_Lancelot.php
The author has some thesis about telling stories instead of burying the player under a bunch of numbers.
To this I say... Hogwash! I want to see the numbers in an RPG, and know exactly what they mean. My games do the same, to the best of my ability. Here's a lovely screenshot from Temple of the Abyssal Winds:
Not shown is that almost every field in that screenshot can be clicked on to get even more information about the field. It's not all the way there yet, there's still some stuff that you have to look at the manual to figure out:
http://www.prankster.com/totaw/manual/rules.htm
But my ideal game, you can tell exactly what's going on with the numbers. Hopefully there are some others like me out there!
Geoff
Hogwash, indeed. Personally, I'm not at all in favor of this whole "narrative first, then gameplay" wave that seems to be sweeping the nation, all the rage with the kids these days. Those kids can get the hell off my heavily-numeric and flagrantly-absentl-story lawn. If I want narrative, I read a book. Games scratch a wholly different itch for me.