Delaying or Preventing Solvability:
"A game is "solvable" if the entire possibility space is known ahead of time and can be exploited such that a specific player, playing correctly, can always win (or draw)."
"Solvable games are not automatically bad. Chess is solvable, but the possibility of space is to large that it continues to entertain."
Games with small possibility spaces need an extra something to keep the game fresh, such as adding a "random" element.
Making play "competitive" for all players:
"Random elements that occasionally allow a less experienced player to win (or at lest offer an advantage) keep these players interested for longer in two ways. First, there is always the chance of victory. Secondly, the sting of defeat is lessened when a player can blame her own bad luck"
Random elements can cause a game to be more fair is the players aren't of equal skill levels.
Increasing Variety:
"Adding random elements in the right ways can increase the variety of a player's experience, thus increasing the replay value" Meaning if chance or an element of chance is added games do not become tedious or repetitive.
Creating Dramatic Moments:
"The level of excitement or tension created by chance increases in direct proportion to how much one has riding on the results" Meaning chance is a great tool for creating drama in games especially when a lot is on the line depending on chance i.e. die roll or spin of a roulette wheel.
Enhancing Decision Making:
"When random elements exist in a game, there is no longer strategy that is always right. Some moves might have a high chance of failure but also a big potential pay off, making them a risky choice, other moves might be safe but with a small gain."
"Since there are unknown elements, the decisions become more complicated and thus more compelling."
Mechanics of Chance:
When creating games there are a lot of ways to add randomness to it. Here are a few examples.
Dice:
Depending on the number of dice and dice faces increases the degree of randomness. I.e. rolling a six sided dice you have a 1 out of 6 chance of getting a 2 for example. If you have 2, 6 sided dice the chance is increased.
"The more dice involved, the more heavily the result skews towards the centre (Thus randomness is decreased). The greater the number of faces on each die, the greater the range (Thus randomness is increased)"
Gamblers often ignore the fact that say if a 5 is rolled there is an equal chance a 5 will be rolled on the next throw on a 6 sided dice as well as all of the other numbers. This is a "Fallacy game designers cannot afford to make"
Cards:
Cards have multiple ways of making games more and more random, for example they can be shuffled, randomising their order. They can be played face down on the table, making their information hidden from all players. They can also be dealt to players who can only look at their own cards and no one else's, giving each player privileged information. "All of these are great on their own as well as combined altogether making it very random but with this, a there are a set number of cards, upon each reveal of cards the probability and chance decreases as the players know where that card is e.g.if a card is picked up/revealed to the whole table the probability of players choice of cards is decreased from 1 out of 52 to 1 out of 51 as well as reducing the cards in their hand."
Pseudo - Random Number Generators:
Pseudo-random number computers are not able to truly generate random numbers but Pseudo-random numbers are essentially algorithms of which are near enough random and will work well within computer games. "It is technically not random, but that it is close enough for the purpose of most games."
Pseudo-random numbers can be applied to every game type imaginable "Making them extremely versatile if a designer wants to include defined amounts of chance to a game"
Hidden Information:
"When non-random information is concealed from the players, it is still random from the players perspective. For example, in the children's card game Go Fish, a player must ask another player for a card of a chosen type." This appears random but isn't in the opponents perspective as they know their own hands and what the other player needs and doesn't have.
Fog of War:
Fog of war is another example where nothing is altered only the players visibility and from this each player is responding to what they cannot see, only what they think their opponent is doing creating random dynamics.
When incorporating random elements the "players should be able to understand the consequences of their actions and be able to form some degree of strategy that takes into account the random elements of the game." If they do not understand the systems because they are hidden "Their task of understanding the game is much more difficult.
Other Game Bits:
Spinners - behave like dice
Flipping a coin - same randomness as rolling a two sided dice 50/50.
Dreidel - same as four sided die
Cardboard tiles in a bad - Similar to a deck of cards
All randomness is not created equal:
"Is poker a game of luck or a game of skill?" What is meant by this is the fact that the lower the amount of players there is more of a chance of a player to get more winning hands compared to the others. Whereas if the amount of players increases the amount of winning hands dealt out is more even and then depends on player skill I.e. if they bet high at a key point or don't risk it. "Each individual hand (or die roll or spin of the wheel) may be random, but with a sufficiently large number of them, the randomness is decreased."
Completely Random Games:
Most games, with some exceptions, have at least a small amount of skill involved even if the game is purely chance based.
Generally speaking their are only two types of games that are just random, children's games and gambling games, not saying all of them are random as some include skills but games that are purely random will most likely be a child's game or a gambling game.
Children's games:
In most games for children, who have not yet grown enough to develop skill within games, the game tells them what to do by the random outcomes produced by the game.
Most kids games incorporate a lot of tension and drama normally caused by a random event. For example random changes in fortune "such as the special spaces in Chutes and Ladders that cause a player to advance or full back suddenly."
"These games allow possibility of always coming from behind and winning so that the end result is never certain."
This is key in Chutes and Ladders/ Snakes and Ladders where the player has to land on the last space exactly which causes a high amount of tension as the person is in the lead but after each throw the loser/s are getting closer and closer, unless they land on another random event, a chute/snake making the gap wider. Tension is key and crucial in these games.
Gambling Games:
"The defining mechanic of gambling games is that real money is won or lost in the process. Without money at stake, pure-luck gambling games lose their appeal."
"The game may still be completely random, but the element of choice (amount of coins, how much to bet, what to bet on etc.) gives the players the illusion of control, since different choices lead to different outcomes"
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