Why Chance and Skill are important in Games

This was originally two readings that were set, but I have decided to kill two birds with one stone and put this post into one. So, this post will be about why chance and skill are important when it comes to games, I will also list the the tools that are available and how designers use them.


Let's begin with Chance. Games based on chance are games that are aimed at all the family, anyone at any skill level can play and it is fun. So games like Snakes and Ladders, Mouse Trap and so on are great examples of this as they are games that don't really need any skill involved and anybody can pick up and enjoy a good game or two.


Games with chance tend to be solvable, but at the same it is not always the case as it depends on the game space you have at your disposal. Which means once you've found the "winning formula" the game tends to lose it's appeal. Tic Tac Toe (or Naughts and Crosses depending) is a prime example, it only takes one player to find put that there is a way to guarantee a two way win and ofcourse after a while the game gets boring because eventually one is going to beat the other for not actually figuring out that there is a way to win. This is mainly due to the restriction of the game space the game takes place in, a 3x3 Grid. Whereas a game like Chess, even though it is another example of a solvable game has so many solutions to it (partly because of the bigger game space and the pieces on the board doing different things) that is does also add a bit of skill involved as the more skilled player out of the two will win. So in many ways, Chess, although solvable does indeed add Skill due to it's competitiveness of wanting to beat the other player. 


Dice an example for adding chance. Rolling one dice adds chance because the dice will land on a number that is 1 to x (x being the biggest number it goes up too). On the other hand, if the player has to roll two dice, then the whole thing of chance has gone out of the window as it is now all about probability: e.g. rolling two D6 dice, the number that has the most probability to come up will be a 7.


Cards can be included. Though more versatile of the game elements. They can be shuffled, randomizing in the order they come. They can either be played face-up or face-down (if face down, the player who put it face-down then has hidden information), which means players have their own previlledged information. The card game, Yu-Gi-Oh! is an example here. Players have cards in their hand only they can see, and when one player players a monster face down in defense mode - opposing player has no idea on how many defensive points that monster may have let alone if that face down monster has a special ability.


Hidden Information is when nonrandom information is concealed from both players. Cluedo can be used here as an example, as none of the players know who exactly committed the crime and have actually go through a series of queries before the information becomes visible to them.


That's covered Chance, now let move onto Skill. Skill allows players to choose, if a game is purely random then the game becomes unfair, which leads to boredom, fustration and no control.


One of the things I picked up on was Obvious Decisions, as im sure you all know, the obvious decision is - stating the obvious. And to show how it's used in an example....Highest Number Game, Player 1 says a number - Player 2 says a higher number - PLAYER 2 WINS! Moving on.


Meaningless Decisions is a choice that there is no right or wrong answer, so whatever one you pick doesn't affect the outcome of the game. One example that comes to mind comes from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, remember the part of the game where you first meet Princess Zelda for the first time, you realise that whatever happens, you have to answer yes to when she asks if you have the Kokiri Emerald and if you can keep this secret she is about to tell you. Answering with no will only get you the same questions being asked over and over until you oblige.


Blind Decisions - a bet. There is no obvious answer or a meaningless one.


Tradeoffs - when a player doesn't have enough resources to accomplish all of their goals. A player hasn't got enough money in the game to get the item they want in a game can be used as an example, to solve this they have to come up with a way to make the money.

Dilemmas is another component. In some ways they are similar to tradeoff, but occurs when all choices will harm the player. Legend of Zelda can be used as another example: player encounters a room where they had to pay money or permanently lower their health.


Well, that concludes the end of this blogpost. I actually found the articles interesting, but enjoyed the one on why chance is important, mainly because the points made were relevant, no disrespect to the article on why skill is important, it was enjoyable, but one example (the main gripe being Obvious Decision example) I just thought wasn't worth putting in. It's Obvious, it's in the name. Anyway, hope you enjoy the read, they'll be more to come soon.