In reference to some posts, ooc case of intelligence and fighting skills were often disputed in the tabletop communities, I believe.
There were those who believed it should all depend on character skills and there were those who believed character skills should be greatly controlled by the player.
Personally, I've been always supporter of the latter.
Why? The creativity.
The former case often led to situations when playing a tabletop would be all about rolling dice. Boring, and that can be compared to the limitating game mechanics. As a GM I never allowed situation when Intelligence roll would give the player a solution to a problem. Intelligence rolls were reserved for such cases as perception or fields of knowledge not possessed by the player. Bribing and lying? You first had to come up with some swift talk before you were even allowed a Charisma roll. Yes, much was depending on the player, but that was the beauty of the tabletop games. About combat, it was generally rewarded when you came up with a good strategy. If GM was in a good mood, describing how you attack could give you some advantage over the enemy. Battlecries and role-playing intimidating was good too.
So yeah, I can say I'm all for player's involvement in the character.
But this having been said, some of the suggestions here are really... how should I say it, faulty.
Mad strafing and other keyboard combinations aren't the only way to make combat entertaining. They won't enrich role-play either. From what I've seen it looks much more like some circus show, rather than actual duel. Pardon the expression, but it simply looks downright stupid.
So let me go this way:
Let's start with duel that is all about standing face to face. Boring, right? Even more boring when the fight looks like a repetetive exchange of blows.
I'd keep the former, but kick out the latter. Basically standing face to face and characters not doing anything, unless commanded by the players.
Now about the commands:
Replace defensive/normal/bloody with actual combat actions. Strong attack, fast attack, normal attack, faked attack, prepare to dodge, prepare to parry/block.
Some bar ashould go down with extend depending on how much effort it takes to perform particular action (and no action should be allowed until the bar is regained to some point). This should be balanced (slow) enough to make it depend less on the lag or ability to make fast decisions. Additionally prepare to parry should be the action of choice if player hasn't chosen anything by himself. It should only allow the player to create some tactics and enjoy involvement in the fight. It shouldn't allow the player to take superiority thanks to the personal player skills.
And it should be enjoyable to watch.
Obviously, casting magic would take up the bar in a similar way.
So to sum up:
Player involvement? Yes.
Player skills? No.
