Why, Why, Why?! #2: Games Need Randomness
Why, Why, Why?! #2: Games Need Randomness
Why, Why, Why?! #2: Games Need Randomness
By Jason Meyers
February 2014
Summary
Games Need Randomness - or "Do you feel lucky, punk?".
Post-impressionist artist Paul Cézanne once said, "We live in a rainbow of chaos." Well, when that rainbow splashes its vibrant colors upon our games, the hobby is better off for it! Now, by design games will always need structure and rules and formulas.
Games need randomness and here's Why, Why, Why?!
Games Don't Need Randomness - or "Truly, you have a dizzying intellect".
How well will I do on my skill check? How is the board going to be set up for this time? Which resources are going to be abundant and which will be rare? What terrible things are going to happen to me? Randomness is at odds with control, the more randomness there is the less control that players are going to have during a game.
People might find randomness to be exciting but it can also be frustrating so why put up with it? There are other ways, games don't need randomness and here's Why, Why, Why?!
There are players that have dedicated their lives to games with no chance at all, these are games like chess or Go. Lacking randomness has not diminished their long term playability because they have two important things: depth of strategy and player interaction.
Reference
Meyers, J. (2014, February 7). Why, why, why?! #2: Games need randomness. iSlaytheDragon. https://islaythedragon.com/featured/why-why-why-2-randomness-is-good/