One big difference between abstract games and non-abstract ones

[Queen Michael]

One thing I've noticed as I've been exploring the different games available here on the site is that, on the whole, abstract games are generally much simpler than the other ones. The more abstract a game is, the simpler the rules.

(For those who don't know: Abstract games are the ones where the board and pieces aren't meant to represent other things. For instance, quoridor is abstract, while Stone Age is not.)

it works as a spectrum, too. Chess is a bit less abstract than Cinco, and is also a bit less simple.

Why is that? Is it just fluke, or is there some reason that can explain that this keeps happening?

[Liallan]

It's not about this site or the choice of games here. Abstracts overall as a general rule tend to have easier rules, sometimes extremely easy, but can have very difficult strategy.

I've never tried to analyze why - I just know that's the case. Possibly because there isn't a lot of "stuff" going on, that is, you don't have this deck of cards over here with 300 markings on them to figure out, and workers going over there, and tiles placed all over, and gazillions of chits flying everywhere, and a million conditions for everything and 7 choices of what you can do on a move. You just have a basic thing you're trying to accomplish, usually requiring just a few steps or even one simple move, and those steps get repeated over and over again each turn.

I'm sure someone could explain that a lot better.