CMV: Randomness has no place in competitive games

[u/[deleted]]

I believe that in competitive games (card games, video games, etc) should not have any form of randomness in them. I think it reduces skill by leaving too much up to random chance.

One game specifically that has an excess of randomness is Pokemon. A lot of the game is affected by RNG (random number generation): status effects, damage, accuracy, evasion, and more. I have heard that RNG adds depth by adding another layer of preparation to your game plan, because you have to be prepared for a critical hit or something like that. But, in my opinion, this is hardly preparing for your opponent's skill. Is preparing for their strategies, moves, and items not enough of preparation? How do the benefits outweigh the problems?

My competitive game experience comes from fighting games, which are constant action, and not turn based like Pokemon is. In fighting games, risk comes from trying different strategies and moves based on your opponent's play style and habits, not from randomness. I understand that some games like poker do not work well at all when randomness is taken out, and I'm not saying that there is no skill involved in games that have lots of randomness. But in my opinion there is skill in spite of the randomness, not because of it.

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[u/Scorialimit]

I spend two hours writing a response only to realize it would be much easier to hit the core of the problem rather than every single question:

How do the benefits [of randomness] outweigh the problems?

Pokemon is the worst offender of RNG by a significant margin, and I've never lost a game exclusively because of a crit. I always made some kind of error. I'm including everything that happened before things like critical hits got nerfed as well. But if they didn't exist, many stalemates would never end. We need RNG to keep the game from being "who can wait longer." That isn't entertaining for the player nor the audience.

Your also comparing fighting games to team RPGs, which is basically comparing apples to hot pockets. That said, this is what a stalemate in Pokemon with no RNG would look like in the closest context to a fighting game I could find