[Shadowstar]

There is a difference between gamey and skill. Skill is legit and fun, gamey is lame and no fun.

Gamey is when the rules are set up so as to limit variety in play by having one combination that works so well that everyone uses it. That may be fine for some who consider the whole race design part to be just some annoying part you have to go through to get to the actual game, but for many it's part of the gaming experience.

Some factors of race creation have a much more significant effect on the game than others, and yet they are treated the same when it comes thier cost in points. As such, you have people minimizing the least effective stats and then putting those points into the areas that are most effective. 9 out of 10 players will end up essentially playing the same race, with very few or very superficial differences between them. The result is a stale game experience.

This has nothing to do with skill, and it amazes me how many people seem to be completely oblivious to this. This whole discussion is about how certain flaws in the game rules can eliminate or at least severely hamper the possibilites of creativity and variety in the game. Anyone who tries to be different or creative is squashed because they didn't copy everyone else and create an uber-race.

And the "you're better off because your score is lower and nobody considers you a threat" argument is crap, trust me. I've played enough games to know this. If people don't consider you a threat because your race sucks, the fact of the matter is, your race sucks and you might as well give up now and not even waste your time.