“Cutting down the role of chance” is one of the more overlooked of my 10 Points for the MMORPG Revolution, so I will tackle it first.
The first step towards cutting down the role of chance is to understand the role of chance. Randomness is a root preconception that players have in MMORPGs, and, to seasoned RPG players, it seems absolutely necessary. In actuality, this assumption need not hold. In this post, I will review the roles of chance and why we want to reduce its role in upcoming MMORPGs. In a later post I will offer suggestions as to how to cut down the role of chance in specific instances of each of these roles.
(As a thought experiment, I encourage you to think about how you’d design an MMORPG that does not use a random number generator. We’ll see if our ideas match up when I get to the second part of this discussion later on.)
Here are the three roles chance plays in MMORPGs. (If you can think of more, please comment! I want to make this article as complete as possible without getting overly concrete and nitpicky.)
Random Numbers Simulate Character Ability
In role playing games of all kinds, random numbers are used to determine the outcome of events because they can resolve actions independently of player skill. If a character needs to roll a 15 or more on a 20-sided die to successfully perform an action, that character has less skill than the character who can roll a 10 or more and succeed. No level of player planning can overcome his characters limitations without some luck—this is appropriate, because ability gating and character growth are important, fundamental parts of RPGs.
Random Numbers Model Unforeseen Factors
Random numbers model the effects of actions that are outside of our scope of observation. In real life, we notice events that seem to occur randomly, but this is just a symptom of our subjective viewpoint. Because we don’t see the causes of certain events, we assume that they’re random. Under further analysis, we find that human-level events have complex cause-and-effect relationships that, if followed prior to the “random” event, make the event an obvious effect. As individuals, we can perceive so few of these strands of cause-and-effect that it is impossible to get our heads around most of the complex activities that we are subject to in a given day. Hence, the idea of "randomness" or "chance" in human-level interactions and one of the roles that chance plays in RPG systems.
Random Numbers Provide Variety
Random Numbers are used in generating loot and monster spawns and can be used for determining the behavior of enemies (if there are multiple equally viable AI strategies). This randomness provides variety in the game world and is partially responsible for how addictive loot-heavy games are, Diablo II especially.
Entire dungeons can be generated on the fly using random numbers. Diablo II did this, but there are more interesting procedurally generated maps in roguelike games. Much replayability in roguelikes is due to the ever-different dungeons and maps that present the play with a seemingly endless number of interesting tactical situations and fiendishly difficult dungeon levels.
There’s a lot of work done in procedurally generated content, as well. Most of this stuff is rather technical, but goes to show that there are a lot of people working on effective ways to use random numbers to generate content in games.
Motivation For Reducing the Role of Chance
Why do we want to get rid of as many random number-determined actions as possible? With few exceptions this mechanic has been the core of RPGs for as long as RPGs have existed.
If we want to give the player the ability to change the world and affect other characters in meaningful ways, we need to make decision-making the central process. We need to allow decision-making to determine the outcome of events, not chance. If we provide the player with appropriate information about the decision they are going to make, there’s no reason to build into the game a chance of that decision failing outright due to a bad die roll (something that’s completely out of any player’s hands). I’m not suggesting that we remove failure from MMOs, but instead that we remove unavoidable failure from individual player’s actions.
In a system that allows player success to the best decision-makers, players can easily see what they have done wrong and accept their losses as lessons for the future. If the dice screw you, you’re going to be upset at the game—nothing is learned. If you plan poorly or make a bad decision, you can identify that without the obscuring power of dice rolls and make intelligent decisions using that input in the future, leading to player skill and player learning being the most important facets of the game, not time invested and luck.
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4 comments:
I find it interesting that many of the most popular and well-designed mechanics in Magic the Gathering are explicitly designed to reduce the effect of chance and randomness in the game. Player choice (and concurrent skill and learning demonstration and development) does indeed need to be the key for making a game interesting in my book.
Been slow catching up on your site, so pardon a fairly late reply.
I think you were more correct originally: a good design will minimize the influence of random. But, I don't think you want to eliminate it in games for a few reasons.
1. It's better than the alternatives. The main alternative is twitch style gameplay. We already have FPSes. If I wanted to play an FPS, I'd fire up TF2 (and I do!). When I play an RPG, I don't want twitch. I suspect most people who play them don't want it, either.
2. It provides some unpredictability. With absolutely no random, a certain choice will always lead to a specific result. Imagine a game where you have 80 hit points and do 10 damage per hit, but a monster has 150 hit points and does 8 damage per hit. Can you ever win that battle? Now, you can say "we'll add in other factors like positioning, and chain combos, and stuff like that!" The problem is that when you add too many options, you bring this game beyond the control of some players and it's no better than randomness when it gets to that point.
3. It allows for awesome gameplay. Remember the time when everything seemed hopeless in the game, then you rolled a critical hit and absolutely savaged the enemy? I was then able to take a chance and press the attack to finish him off. Thanks that bit of luck which allowed for my brilliant response, we were able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Randomness can provide the events that become the stuff of legends.
4. It provides a scapegoat. Sometimes we just suck at playing for whatever reason. Maybe we're a bit tired, or off our game, or we just don't care. It's nice to blame the random number generator (RNG) instead of taking blame for our own fuckups.
An amusing story: at 3DO the tools programmer group had a random number generating library they affectionately called "clumpy". In one game that had roulette, the winning strategy was to bet on whatever number that just came up. I told my friends this, and we often bitch about "clumpy" making an appearance in other games, especially when it comes to loot rolls. :P
5. It's not as bad as it seems. If you want to see interesting randoms in action, go play a hex-based war game that uses dice. The whole point is to stack the odds in your favor so that the dice are almost guaranteed to come out in your favor. But, there's that slight chance that things may not work in your favor, and that gives your opponent a chance to come back from behind....
All that said, game developers often don't understand randomness very well. I've actually posted quite a bit on my blog about dealing with randomness. The problem is that a developer who sets the drop rate at 50% just fills in "that will be two kills" mentally. They don't quite understand that it really means anywhere between 1 and an infinite number of kills. Infinity is unlikely, but still possible under a "roll with replacement" system.
Likewise, I think game mechanics that have a random element should be clear to a player. The decision I should make, as I pointed out in the hex-based war games example above, is how to stack the randoms in my favor. A great example of this is hit rating in WoW; few people really understood what it did until they started to reverse-engineer the combat system. Once people figured it out, it became a very important stat, indeed. But, there is no in-game indication of how potent (and what the limits are) for this stat.
There's some stuff to chew on. :)
1. It's better than the alternatives. The main alternative is twitch style gameplay. We already have FPSes. If I wanted to play an FPS, I'd fire up TF2 (and I do!). When I play an RPG, I don't want twitch. I suspect most people who play them don't want it, either.
I don't think the alternative to random numbers is twitch game play. Have you played the Advance Wars games for the GBA and Nintendo DS? They are turn-based strategy titles that have very little randomness (if any?). What prevents this from becoming boring? There are varied environments and unit types that keep the game interesting and provide enough variability to successfully dispatch with randomness.
2. It provides some unpredictability. With absolutely no random, a certain choice will always lead to a specific result. Imagine a game where you have 80 hit points and do 10 damage per hit, but a monster has 150 hit points and does 8 damage per hit. Can you ever win that battle? Now, you can say "we'll add in other factors like positioning, and chain combos, and stuff like that!" The problem is that when you add too many options, you bring this game beyond the control of some players and it's no better than randomness when it gets to that point.
Once again, you assume that the game presents traditional banal MMORPG mechanics to its players. Mechanics where most of the items of tactical importance that affect real life combat are entirely missing if not contradicted by mechanics like hate systems. If you present the player with a complex though intuitive system, players won't run into a situation where it's 8 dps vs. 12 dps and they are FORCED to lose unless they've already blundered either strategically in setting up the encounter or tactically in the encounter itself.
3. It allows for awesome gameplay. Remember the time when everything seemed hopeless in the game, then you rolled a critical hit and absolutely savaged the enemy? I was then able to take a chance and press the attack to finish him off. Thanks that bit of luck which allowed for my brilliant response, we were able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Randomness can provide the events that become the stuff of legends.
I don't find deus ex machinas to be a great plot device. I don't think we need the dice to act as such a device in our games for similar reasons.
4. It provides a scapegoat. Sometimes we just suck at playing for whatever reason. Maybe we're a bit tired, or off our game, or we just don't care. It's nice to blame the random number generator (RNG) instead of taking blame for our own fuckups.
I would rather have the game make it clear that I suck at playing and why I suck than have my suckage washed out by randomness. I'd rather learn than make excuses. I think that if you don't give people excuses and you allow them to take complete control, they'll learn and grow from being beaten instead of blaming it on the RNG regardless.
First, note that I'm not against reducing the influence of randomness. Rather, I'm against eliminating randomness from games. With this in mind...
Have you played the Advance Wars games for the GBA and Nintendo DS?
Yes, but this isn't an RPG, it's a strategy game. I believe there is some randomness to the game, otherwise the game would be deterministic and performing the same maneuvers would result in the same results, so computer tactics probably have a random elements. There may be some randomness in the results of each combat, I don't remember right now.
The reason why strategy games work with less randomness is because of the variety of options. Even in the Advance Wars games, which are pretty simple as far as strategy games go, you have different units, different options, and even the CO powers contributing to the experience. The turn-based nature of the game allows you to move at your own pace, so the wide variety of options don't overwhelm a slower player.
Once again, you assume that the game presents traditional banal MMORPG mechanics to its players.
I assume nothing, I used that as an example. Give me any mechanics and I'll show you how a bit of randomness can make it more interesting. And, as I said, adding complexity (even if it's "intuitive") doesn't solve the problem, you're changing the basic nature of the game.
I don't think we need the dice to act as such a device in our games for similar reasons.
Ah, but my scenario was not a deus ex machina situation because it did rely on player behavior. Notice I said that your critical attack allowed me to press the attack. My reaction is what saved the day, it was the dice that provided the avenue. And, in a good game you should be able to control the critical success chance, so part of this scenario assumed that pre-planning was an important part. Even with randomness, player input is still the more important element.
I would rather have the game make it clear that I suck at playing and why I suck than have my suckage washed out by randomness.
So, you'll pay me money for me to tell you how much you suck? Expect an email with my home address so you can send the check. Is a blog posting fine? Or do you prefer your abuse in a private phone call.
Sadly, when I make that type of offer, people don't take me up on it. :P
Anyway, note that I didn't say the RNG was always blamed. I said it was nice as an occasional salve to a wounded ego. If the RNG is always "screwing me over" in the game, perhaps eventually I'll consider it may not be just the RNG. The type of people who routinely blame the RNG for their own incompetence aren't the type of people who want to be told how much they suck. Especially not for $15/month.
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