Randomness and what it adds to the game.

Randomness, while it seems like something that should not be in games that revolve around thinking more than anything else, is actually a concept that adds large amounts of depth to the game. Real time strategy games are good based on how much depth they have, making it so that there is more to think about and keep track, and randomness adds a lot more things for someone to consider, and act around.

• What randomness does with regards to being unable to be calculated According to Dictionary.com randomness is defined as “proceeding, made, or occurring without definite aim, reason, or pattern.” This means that it is something that no matter what we do we can not influence the outcome of it, thus making the game not able to be figured out with calculations. For example, if two characters fight each other, and one does X amount of damage per second and has M health points, and the other does Y damage per second and has N health points, then it is calculable which one wins. If you were to give one of them 10% chance of dealing double damage, and give the other one 10% chance of negating all damage, then it is not calculable as to which one wins. Randomness means you can calculate the chance of something happening, but you can not actually predict what the outcome will be completely, thus adding more things for someone to consider when they are playing.

• Randomness means you have to react to unforeseen situations Randomness encourages the ability to think on the fly, which is what real time strategy games are all about. When something happens that it is impossible to tell was going to happen, then the person who reacts and changes their strategy first will be the one who gains the advantage from it happening. Being flexible is what makes someone good at a real time strategy game, randomness tests the limits of flexibility by creating situations that you can not plan for and forcing you to react to it.

• Randomness adds depth to the game
  According to Ben Brode, Senior game designer at Blizzard Entertainment, “We’ve all had a moment when we felt like we played masterfully, only to have victory snatched away by a single moment of bad luck. It’s easy to feel like the existence of any randomness in a game means that skill matters less.” However, Ben Brode also stated, “A player must act and react to changing circumstances turn after turn to make the most of what is happening in a match and set up a victory. In this case, randomness actually increases the amount of skill required to perform well, precisely because it can throw a wrench in our plans and forces us to think on our feet.” This means that randomness increases the amount of strategy it requires to do well in a game by causing someone to be able to react quickly to right a situation. There are so many other factors in games that the amount of times that a game is won solely because of randomness is abysmally small compared to the number of times that someone won because they thought faster and played more skillfully than the other.

     Randomness, while it can be a frustrating thing to deal with in the rare chance it actually does manage to cause you to lose, is a good thing for a game as it increases the amount of strategy you must use to always be one step ahead of your opponent. So the next time you are playing a game, and it seems like randomness is causing an issue, instead of complaining about it, find innovative ways to play around it and use it as a chance to improve your game instead.