You DON'T Need A "State Machine"

State machines are an important part of game design, and they pave the way for some extremely complex and dynamic AI and game systems. However, there are many conceptions about state machines passed around that make it seem like all state machines need to be complex. When, in reality, the systems that perform actions within a given state are often more complex than the state machine itself, leading to confusion about what is the state machine, and what is the behavior.