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Rich Stanton on: Skill and the random element

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  • Rich Stanton on: Skill and the random element

    After winning a game of Hearthstone, you sometimes receive a friend request. It is always a Trojan Horse. The game is designed to limit communication between players to a small number of pre-canned phrases, and this frustrates the eloquence of certain individuals who want to ensure that their conqueror knows it was all down to luck. Accept the request and some variation of this will follow: lucky ******, they'll tell you, that ******* draw was ******* ******* you lucky ****.
    The most interesting of these types napalm the chat box and finish up with a devastating flourish about how Hearthstone is broken. This is an extreme version of a not-uncommon view within certain communities that random chance is a bad mechanic, punishing 'skill players' and rewarding 'casuals.' Hearthstone's mechanics do involve plenty of luck, and it can be frustrating when you get a poor draw or a losing opponent top-decks just the card they need (though I somehow avoid berating them for it). Randomness as a design principle, however, is about so much more than this - and to me it makes rather than breaks games.
    Randomness can refer to a lot of design choices and mechanics. The appeal of a great procedurally-generated game like the Binding of Isaac is obvious: the elements stay the same, but no two playthroughs are alike. The randomised loot drops in Monster Hunter are always exciting to receive, and when you score a Ruby or a Mantle it's like hitting the jackpot. And then there's what are usually referred to as Random Number Generator (RNG) mechanics like Hearthstone cards which deal out randomised damage, critical hit percentages in RPGs, or board layouts in puzzle games.
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