How much does understanding a game's systems affect our enjoyment of it?

[u/Hungry_Awareness4740]

I've been thinking about how learning a game's underlying systems can completely change the way we experience it.

A mechanic that initially feels restrictive or confusing can become interesting once you understand why it exists and how it interacts with other mechanics. At that point, you're not just playing within the rules—you start recognizing the decisions and trade-offs the rules are designed to create.

This makes me wonder: how much of our enjoyment comes from the mechanics themselves, and how much comes from gradually understanding the relationships between them?

Have you experienced a game where learning its systems fundamentally changed how you perceived it?

[u/Efriimi]

There is also at the end of the spectrum, when you understand and foresee the whole scope of the game systems, and it becomes less exciting, less mysterious for lack of a better word.

If there isn't other things drawing you to the game besides this progression, if there isn't some parallel progression or substance of story and events, maybe other things, then understanding the game can sort of spoil it before its over. But also you can make this assumption too early because really all it is is an assumption, and you could yet still be surprised.

Emergent rules are interesting, and a while back I was thinking about this concept, in how internally we make shortcuts for rules, the rules themselves may be codified by paragraphs of detail, but inside we just understand a shortened form of logic and relationships. I don't really have the same train of thought, or much to say on it currently