Another article from BoardMindWarReindeer discussing something I am familiar with, elements of randomness. In it, the author discusses the different ways game designers can implement randomness such as through dice, cards, or random number generators.
Even more interesting though is the dissection of the emotions that randomness can cause. Losing to a random element can feel like you are being punished despite doing everything right while winning because of randomness takes out some of the accomplishment. If a random element is not handled right, the entire game experience can be sullied forever. However, on the bright side randomness done right adds a huge variety to the possible game moves, creating a much larger experience while keeping the rules simple.
“Chess may be brought up as a counterexample, a low variance game with a large possibility space. This is true, but Chess’s depth is not without a cost. It’s a consequence of its truly monstrous complexity. Consider that there are twenty possible opening moves, and that the number of possible moves can often increase from there as the more mobile pieces are deployed. Variance replicates this possibility space without the complexity burden.”
