Chance vs Skill (The Ultimate Standoff!)

The week 6 readings (Brenda Braithwaite & Ian Schreiber (2008) Challenges for Games Designers, Chapters 5 & 6) present us with an age old (game design) question: Do we want to create a game that is skill-based, chance-based or a mixture of the two? The outcome and success of this game will greatly be affected by the choice made from these three, the target audience is drastically influenced by this decision. So lets take a look into both Chance and Skill and see how they really affect games, whilst considering the following questions:

Why is chance an important component in games and what tools does the designer have at their disposal to deploy this element?


Why is skill an important component in games and what tools does the designer have at their disposal to deploy this element? 

Chance is an important core element in many games, it allows the game to receive a much wider audience than that of Skill-based games and can help to make a lot of games much more fun! Chance pops its ugly head up in many places that we would not expect; making boring, monotonous decisions more much more interesting to the players!

Chance appears in many roles in games, examples of which are:

• Delaying Solvability - Solvability influences how compelling a game can be. When a game is easily solvable players can see the outcome, so if a player can see that they are going to lose down te line they will simply walk away.

• Making Play Competitive for All Players - Many games need to be made 'fair' or equal for the players, by adding an element of Chance into the game it has now become less about skill and gives the weaker players a better chance of winning (or at least not feeling 'cheated' by the game mechanics).

• Increasing Variety - When an element of Chance is introduced, a large number of situations that can emerge at any time come into play. This will aid in re-playability.

• Creating Dynamic Moments - Waiting to see whether a plan has succeeded or failed can create huge amounts of tension. Even without strategy random events playing out can be just as interesting.

• Enhancing Decision Making - When there is a random aspect within a game, there is never a tactic that will always prevail. Some moves in games like Chess are minor but safe, whereas others can be incredibly risky but reward massively.

There are also many different Mechanics of Chance such as:

• Dice - Rolling a die is about as random as you can get. However, when a second die is brought into play, the outcome is not nearly as random. The more dice rolled at once, the less random the outcome.

• Cards - Cards are an incredibly versatile game element. They can be shuffled, played face-down or even be used to track game information.

• Hidden Information - When non-random information is hidden, it's still random from the perspective of the player. In games such as Go Fish, each player knows what cards they have obtained, but the opponents begin by making wild guesses as they have no clue to the cards you are holding.

• Other Game Bits - Lots of other forms of randomness are simply adaptations of the Mechanics above. Spinners for example are very similar to dice, flipping a coin is like a two sided die, and Scrabble tiles are like a deck of cards.

Skill is also a core element in many games. It enhances the choice the player has allowing them to know whats going to happen when they make a move. Chance can make a game feel unfair and frustrating, or even boring! The player has literally no control over what happens during the game. Chance has no interesting decision making, it's purely left up to 'the dice'.

Decision Making is a crucial aspect of skill, allowing the player to choose his or her own 'destiny' as it were - the right decision leads to a reward, the wrong decision leads to punishment, but it's not as simple as that...

• Obvious Decisions - If a decision has an obvious positive outcome without any need for thought, this sort of decision should be automatic as to not distract the player from more interesting and much larger decisions.

• Blind Decision - A decision which has not given any information, so no matter what the choice there is no control over the outcome by the player. A completely random decision.

• Meaningless Decision - A decision with no correct or false outcome, it does not affect the game in any way. Whichever decision is made the outcome will be the same.

• Trade-Offs - These decisions are when you pick one path, but whatever was involved in choosing another path is no longer achievable. For example during Call Of Duty you can choose to bring a riot shield (melee) or a gun (ranged), there is no right or wrong answer in this decision, just tactics. There are also Risk vs Reward Trade-Offs which involve higher risk for a higher reward, lower risk for a lower reward.

Decisions are crucial to keeping a player locked into the game. By causing them to constantly make new and risky decisions they will not get bored with the game quickly; however throwing too many confusing and unrelated decisions at the player may cause confusion and frustration leading to boredom. 

The key mechanics of skill are:

• Auctions - Auctions allow players a brief window of opportunity  to get something for cheap, at a bargain price! But it also creates tension in the player, making them believe that they may have to spend more for an item in the future. Auctions allow you to freely change supply and demand items. Closed Auctions are when different players take turns to bid on an item, whoever gives the final bid and others refuse to call is the winner. Open Auctions are when anyone can bid on the item, allowing people to drop in and leave a bid for an item at any time and for any amount. Both of these types of Auctions create tension because players have different reasons for bidding on that specific item, for example one player may bid a ridiculously high price because if they receive that item they will 'win' the game - should you still go against them in the bid? (Skill)

• Abilities - Objects which can give you limited opportunities so they must be used wisely and with the right timing.

After reading these chapters I realise the huge amount of influence Skill and Chance have on the success and overall fun of a game. As a Games Designer it is crucial to decide from the beginning whether your game will be skill-based, chance-based or a mixture of the two! It affects the gameplay in a way that your target audience could drastically change based on this decision.

There are many ways to utilise Skill and Chance when designing a game, but it seems incredibly hard to find a perfect balance between the two. When we were iterating a skill game it was hard to introduce a chance aspect without making the game to easy; and similarly when trying to apply skill to a game of chance it became much too hard! Very challenging to get a good balance. 

After these readings I feel that I have received a better understanding of the roles of Chance and Skill, as well as some mechanics that can be used to achieve them effectively.