D&D 3.5 on the other hand seems to be written like a technical bible for programmers who use it as a reference to code software. In addition, the designers have the benefit of hindsight as they have shaken the kookiest parts of AD&D out of the system.

Where AD&D said things like, "The DM should make the encounters challenging but not too challenging." D&D 3.5 specifies a numeric Challenge Rating and the actual number of encounters between levels. In other words, I personally don't take that "10 to 13 encounters per level" literally, I read that as tech-speak for a programmer.

Combat is a much more integral part of a computer game simply because combat is the only part of the game that a computer does at least as well, if not better than, an actual DM. For me as DM, calculating XPs are about as much fun as managing my properties in Quickbooks.
~~~~ Will Nesbitt