[dfc]

Based on my own personal opinion and experiences? Fischer random creates a lot of uncertainty in my mind when I play. Regardless of what obscure opening is played in a traditional game I still have a sense of what spaces are likely to be controlled by rooks, where I can anticipate a knight showing up and so forth.

As far as your statement regarding branching factor increase can you point me to some references? Its not that I do not believe you I'm curious at what point the complexity begins to take off.

[billforsternz]

As a serious player with a reasonable amount of experience with both variants I have to say I disagree with you profoundly on this. FischerRandom/Chess960 is just chess with a twist (familiar openings and opening setups aren't available). Bughouse/Transfer is a completely different game that's based on chess rules and conventions. It's major characteristic is a massive injection of chaos that's quite foreign to the game of chess.