Member-only story
Why Randomness in Games Should be Embraced — By Design
Pray to the RNG gods for a good pull, a critical hit, or a generously-laid dungeon — as the designers intended.
When you woke up this morning, you most likely had a plan for your day. Whether its working your 9-to-5, or gaming in your underwear all day, humans are adjusted to follow pre-scripted flows that help them understand and hold the reigns in their daily life. Games, most of the time, don’t allow for this — they have a degree of randomness. It can be monster placement, or randomized rewards, but almost every game has some level of randomness, no matter how small.
Randomness in games is a good thing. Period. It’s time to re-invigorate this understanding, amidst the claims of negative effects of randomness in games (which we will get to, don’t worry!). Let’s discuss a few points that will give you a better understanding of how uncertainty drives fun and fulfilling gaming experiences.
Your Brain is Wired to Enjoy Spontaneity
Humans are inherently wired to enjoy random games of chance. Think about how social media has been engineered to keep you clicking on the next recommended video, scrolling down your feed, and hungering for the latest Story update. Randomness is…
