ARAM Doesn't FEEL Random

JVP15··3 votes·1,174 views

So I have been playing a lot of ARAM recently (not because of a lack of Solo Queue, which I honestly don't give a damn about) and I have started to notice something, I have gotten Kindred three or four times in the last few days. Whenever I can, I would re-roll her. However, I sometimes I can't, and I am forced to play her. What is the problem here? Well, I saw Kindred three (maybe four, I can't remember) times. To the human mind, that doesn't seem random. Similarly, I got Leona twice, and Volibear twice (though I think someone dodged that game). I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't true randomness because, lets face it. True randomness works in a similar way. True randomness, however, doesn't feel random. Our brains seek out any and every pattern it can find/create from nothing, and so randomness, even if it is true randomness, can be perceived as a pattern.

So, what does everything I have said above mean? It means that I want ARAM to feel more random. I don't want ARAM to actually be random, that isn't as fun. No, I want ARAM to be controlled so that it feels random, which basically means that you won't get the same champion every 7-8 games at least. Even if your champion pool isn't large, and mine isn't, I want it to feel about as random as possible, which means pretty much go through a large portion of the champion pool before coming back and picking the same champion. This would make ARAM feel more random because, in game design, it is often better to make the player feel that a system is randomized than it is for the system to be truly randomized.

7 Comments

EMeta2 votes

Yeah, humans area really really bad at detecting randomness. We have this idea it should mean vaguely even distribution, but it's far more likely you get one champ 5 times in 10 games than to not.

It's like if you have a classroom of 30 kids, there's about a 50-50 chance someone will share a birthday. There's numbers behind it, but on its surface it doesn't make sense.

CerealBoxOfDoom1 votes

{quoted}

Yeah, humans area really really bad at detecting randomness. We have this idea it should mean vaguely even distribution, but it's far more likely you get one champ 5 times in 10 games than to not.

It's like if you have a classroom of 30 kids, there's about a 50-50 chance someone will share a birthday. There's numbers behind it, but on its surface it doesn't make sense.

when you roll 1 out of the minimum 8 champs you have access to 4 times in a row that's a little strange and should not feel random to you

EMeta2 votes

There are enough games being played that I'm sure that happens to multiple players every day.

DrDiaga2 votes

{quoted}

Yeah, humans area really really bad at detecting randomness. We have this idea it should mean vaguely even distribution, but it's far more likely you get one champ 5 times in 10 games than to not.

It's like if you have a classroom of 30 kids, there's about a 50-50 chance someone will share a birthday. There's numbers behind it, but on its surface it doesn't make sense.

I've nearly every champ minus about 10 of them. There are some I've gotten many times and many I've never seen.

I see the same champs on both teams quite often (as in overall not neccesarily same time)

Doesn't mean its not really random, but I agree with op it doesn't feel random.

EMeta2 votes

{quoted}

I've nearly every champ minus about 10 of them. There are some I've gotten many times and many I've never seen.

I see the same champs on both teams quite often (as in overall not neccesarily same time)

Doesn't mean its not really random, but I agree with op it doesn't feel random.

If you play ARAMs a lot, you run into accounts of people who mostly play ARAMs and have ARAM-centered champ pools. I'd love to see a lesser chance of getting champs you don't own (and not on free week) to help deal with those, but in the mean time that certainly is an issue.

Sylverblitz1 votes

I've started to refer to ARAM as All Ranged Against Melee because of how it works out against me a lot of the time. Then there are the times where I'm given melee and both rerolls give me melee. Those are the times where I just quit in champion select to avoid saltiness and go do something else.

Caítlyn1 votes

It cant be perfectly random because not everyone has the same champions owned. If youre the only guy out of 10 who owns Kindred youre going to get Kindred a lot.

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