A short comment on luck in games

I have a feeling that in the next few months we’re going to get a lot of articles on the internet “defending” luck in games, as if the received knowledge is that it is always a bad thing.  I don’t have time to really comment on this in full, but I will say the following: the “luck/skill balance” of a game is one of if not the most important aspect of a game’s design, and one that game designers have known about and been playing with for millenia.  It really is as fundamental as the choice of which colours to use in a painting.

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 28th, 2009 at 1:28 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “A short comment on luck in games”

1. Xeno:

   § September 28th, 2009 at 10:16 pm

   I agree that luck in games is important. It really depends on the game. I like strategy games and I play one that is very much skill but has some luck for unit rolls, and I have rediscovered chess (so it’s not a video game, who cares. It still applies). Chess is all skill, no luck. I like both games and I think there is room for games with both. I do like games that err on the side of less luck as opposed to more luck, though.