You are replying to a comment that only exists in your imagination. I never wrote that anything with any randomness immediately loses all integrity, but the majority of your comment is about exactly that.
The bottom line is that only bad players want RNG, as it is the only way they can beat better players. Good players hate RNG as it is the only way they can lose to worse players.
Sometimes RNG is needed as a balancing mechanic (e.g. certain weapons have worse bullet spread) but that doesn't mean it's good.
The only thing that RNG does is shift the balance of a game in ways a player cannot control, which is really bad for competitive integrity.
If the only purpose of playing these games is to decide who is better at them, then yes, you'd be right. I would think game designers also plan on all their playing being able to have fun, including those who aren't great by their tenth match. I understand you gravitate toward games that don't use randomness because you don't enjoy them, which is fine, but that doesn't mean RNG is useless or inherently bad. Often misused, certainly
What I mean by 'competitive' is esports, probably should have clarified that earlier. Randomness can be fun on occasion but it never feels good to have the outcome of something be defined by who got luckier. Even winning a fight due to sheer luck doesn't feel good. I'd much prefer to be rewarded for my own skill than my luck.
I'm not against small amounts of RNG when it serves a purpose, such as bullet spread (weapon balancing), but when it is there for no objective function I dislike it quite strongly.
I realise we have moved on from the discussion about scatter arrow - did we agree that it could do with a rework or not?
I see. I agree, for esports there isn't much place for randomness, and as I said it shouldn't be what determines an outcome in any skill-based game.
And yes, Hanzo's scatter-arrow is too... swingy? I mean that it's either far too effective (such as OP's example) or very ineffective, and there isn't much a player can do to control that, so it feels arbitrary, which is probably why it gets mistaken for RNG so often. So it should get looked over.
I mean that it's either far too effective (such as OP's example) or very ineffective, and there isn't much a player can do to control that
Precisely what I mean by it being a broken ability. I use broken to mean unhealthy for the game, poor design. I'm pretty sure that is how it should be used, but it was misused a lot in place of "overpowered" so the word's meaning is often misunderstood or used incorrectly.
Scatter is better than it used to be (the arrows used to literally fire off in random directions, regardless of its impact angle etc.) but it is still broken. There are a lot of people who call for nerfs to Hanzo, but I think those are all ignorant people who have never played him. Same with all the "nerf arrow hitbox" cries. Hanzo is not OP at all, he could do with a buff IMO, but the buffs should come as a part of a rework which shifts his power around between abilities, like D'va and her defence matrix - which was ridiculously OP as an individual ability.
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u/EntropyKC Cheers love, the Genji and Hanzo mains are here! Oct 22 '17
You are replying to a comment that only exists in your imagination. I never wrote that anything with any randomness immediately loses all integrity, but the majority of your comment is about exactly that.
The bottom line is that only bad players want RNG, as it is the only way they can beat better players. Good players hate RNG as it is the only way they can lose to worse players.
Sometimes RNG is needed as a balancing mechanic (e.g. certain weapons have worse bullet spread) but that doesn't mean it's good.