[daesthai]

I have to agree with what Zen said. I like knowing things in general terms. I have no interest in learning or trying to decipher complex formulae. ie - I'm fine knowing that having a particular sword will roughly double the damage of my creature, or that a target is carrying a shield that could negate the effects of my fire spells. I do not need to know that damage = (str/7*bonus)+3 - (target defense/2.5 + level). (completely made up stats, of course.)

For what it's worth, to draw from Gandalf's post, I play about half and half multi and single play. I usually use single play as a sort of sandbox to try out new ideas or strategies, and then play "for real" in MP. Though I also admit, that the VAST majority of my MP games are with the same small group of people I work with, since we can get together and discuss the game once in a while. I *do* step out every so often to get into a public MP game, but perfer to stay closer to home, so to speak.