1. Games That Don't Require Luck
2. Games That Require Lucky Charms
3. Games That Require No Luck
4. Games With No Luck

In my experience, Monopoly has more to do with luck than with skill. I define skill as the ability to make correct decisions. A decision is correct if it maximizes the odds of you winning. It is possible to play Monopoly poorly (unlike, say, the card game War which is a game of pure luck and no decisions). Sim Pen and Paper Game. You need two different colors to play this two-player game, but we have included it here as it is so much fun. Draw six dots in a hexagon (a six-sided geometric shape). Take turns drawing lines between each dot. You can either use two different colored pens or a pen and a pencil. The object is to avoid making a triangle.

The other day a player, gameshark, complained to me that he did not like the new Rocket Arena map because it required no skill to play. His main criticism was this: whoever shoots the most rockets wins – just find a good place to stand and spam them. Now obviously this is not entirely correct because if the Rocket Arena map required no skill to play then it is a game of luck. One person is just about as lucky as another, so everyone should be equally good at Rocket Arena. If you visit the Rocket Arena map for 5 minutes, you will notice this is not the case.

The distinction between Rocket Arena and another map, like Crossroads, is not that the former requires less skill to play, but that it is a deadlier map. I know players who have no problem racking up twenty KOs in Crossroads without dying once. In Rocket Arena, the best ratio I have ever seen anyone achieve is around 4:1. It’s pretty much impossible to go 20-0 in the Rocket Arena. Even if you are awesome, you’re going to sometimes get hit from above, caught in a crossfire, or flipped off a bridge into the lava. Rocket Arena is a deadly map.

I’m going to argue that deadly maps are not only fun (who here likes explosions?) but also good for Roblox. In a recent issue of Game Developer, Richard Garfield wrote an article about luck vs. skill in games. His theory was basically this: for a group with large differences in skill level, games with an element of luck involved are more engaging because even the least skilled players have a chance. Roblox has thousands of players, with a vast spread of skill levels. However, there is not actually that much luck in a game of Roblox. The only random element in the official maps is where you spawn. All damage, motion, physical response, ect ect are completely deterministic. Network latency might affect the game at a critical time, and this could either be lucky or unlucky – but even in this case some people have better internet connections than others. Connection speed is more or less a constant advantage and thus in a gross argument we can lump such advantages in with a player’s skill. Therefore we have a game that is almost entirely skill-based, played by a community of players with vastly different skill levels. If we believe Richard, this is a recipe for disaster.

Enter Chaos. In the last twenty years mathematicians have developed Chaos Theory, which is less of a theory than it an observation of the behavior of complex deterministic systems. In short, they can act randomly. The Rocket Arena is such a system. It is more complex than Crossroads in the number of player-to-player interactions that happen per unit time. Put nine players in that map and they have to fight to even have room to stand. If they all fire continuously, you’ll see 270 rockets per minute being launched at players and bridges. That’s absolute chaos. Chaos makes Rocket Arena deadly and introduces an element of chance into Roblox. So gameshark was essentially correct – there is more luck involved when playing in the Rocket Arena vs. the other levels.

This makes things more interesting. I’ve been playing Roblox for six months. I know all the tricks. If I’m playing for serious in Crossroads, I almost never suffer a wipeout. It’s not really fun unless someone good happens to be online. If I see the Rocket Arena has 8 people in it, I join knowing I’ll get a good game no matter who is playing. I’m going to have to fight for every single KO.

I think games involving some amount of luck is a good thing for Roblox, and I think deadly maps are crazy fun. What do you guys think?

– Telamon

Basic Rules

The game is played by two players with a standard 52-card deck. The cards have their standard value, with the king being the highest and the ace the lowest. The point of the game, to put it simply is to organise your cards in melds, and try to eliminate any deadwood. There are two ways in which the cards can be grouped in melds:

·By rank – If you have three or four cards of the same value/rank, for example 3 7s, then you have a meld;

·In a sequence – Three or more cards that are aligned in a sequence (e.g. 4-5-6-7) all in the same suit.

The dealer deals to the opponent and him/herself 10 cards. The next card is then placed face up. That is the first card of the discard pile. The rest of the cards form the stock pile. Then players take turns in drawing cards from the pile of their choice, leaving one of their current cards in the discard pile.

Winning at Gin

There are three ways in which a hand may finish:

Games That Don't Require Luck

·One of the players may knock;

·One of the players may go gin;

·There are only two cards left in the stock pile.

If one of the players collects 100 or more points, then s/he may knock the other player. In the standard version of the game, the player who knocks isn’t allowed to have more than 10 deadwood points.

If the player is able to knock and s/he doesn’t have any deadwood, then that player is going gin. If the players keep drawing until there are only two cards in the stock pile the game ends in a draw and nobody wins any points.

Other Versions of the Game

In addition to standard Gin, or Gin rummy, there several other variants of the game.

·Mahjong Gin – In this version of the game, the players have to win by going gin, as knocking isn’t allowed. However, it is possible to draw more than one card simultaneously.

Games That Require Lucky Charms

·Straight Gin – Again, players may only win by going gin. The other rules are the same as standard Gin.

Games That Require No Luck

Games With No Luck