Some thoughts on RNG

RNG, random number generation... it seems to haunt me whereever I go. Especially now, when playing Pokémon, I realize how extremely annoying it can be. And yet it seems to be a standard feature of alot of games. Why is that so?

One easy answer would be that RNG is the easiest way to simulate what we usually call "chance" or "accident", depending on whether it's good or bad or actually rather whether it is truly random or based on fixed numbers. I'll get to that. In swedish we call it "slump", it's a good word. But for all you non-swedish speakers out there I will call it "hap".

So it is probably supposed to simulate hap, but there are two major differences between hap and rng. Rng isn't affected by anything around it, while hap is affected by everything around it. Let's see if I can explain it somewhat.

If someone is struck by lightning we say "wow, that's unlucky. Pure chance!". But actually it's not chance at all. All the events that lead up to that person being struck by that lightning are in theory measurable, they're just so damn many we wouldn't be able to collect them all. Ever heard of the "Butterfly Effect"? No not the movie silly, but the idea that everything that happens everywhere sooner or later will have an effect on everything that exists. One says that the fluttering of a butterflies wings on one side of the earth might turn into a tornado on the other side of the earth. Although that is a simplified metaphor, it is a take on trying to make chaos theory a little more understandable. And after people have been struck by lightning a couple of times we can say that "the chance to be struck by lightning is 0.001%" (or whatever it is), although it's really about being at the wrong place at the wrong time. In essence, you can affect hap.

Chance on the other hand, isn't affectable in the same way. We say that people are "lucky", but there is really no way to make yourself more likely to win at a lottery. Lotteries aren't about -pure- chance, since there is a limited amount of tickets. If you buy them all you have a 100% chance to win something of course. This isn't true with real chance, that occurrs in games. In games you can have say 80% chance to acquire an item when killing a certain mob. Since data isn't limited in the way physical objects are, the game could just keep on producing mobs for you to kill. There is no end to them and therefore in theory it is possible for you to never ever get that certain item, and there is really nothing you can do about it. In essence, you can't affect real chance.

If you think about it, it makes sense. People call odd happenings in "the real world" destiny, or someone is having psychic powers or what have you. But you'd hardly call getting that hard to get pet drop "destiny" in a game, unless joking of course. That is because we have a grasp about "destiny", haps in the real world, being affectable in some mysterious way, like I have explained above, but chance isn't. What some dude does in Dalaran will have no affect whatsoever on whether you get that drop or not (game developers have been trying to implement this kind of "Butterfly Effect" system since forever, but they're still far off). You can grind your ass off, but when that drop finally comes it was just luck. Some people do an instance 50 times for an item, some get it at their first try. That isn't destiny or hap, it's really just pure luck.

So where does that leave us? Well, chance can work to our advantage or disadvantage of course. Problem is, although we get happy when we're lucky, we usually get more unhappy when we're unlucky. If we do get that special drop at our first try, we won't be as happy as we're going to be angry about not getting another drop until our tenth try. If something had 50/50 chance of being good or bad, we'd be angrier about it turning out bad, than happy about it turning out good. Chance tends to make people more cranky than happy.

So why is it there? Many introductory books on psychology will offer a good explanation as to why chance is something better than fixed numbers.

An experiment performed on mice was testing in what way chance and fixed results affects our behavior. They had a button supply the mice with treats at different intervalls. If the treat was given to the mice at every button press, the mice only pressed once in a while. Whenever they felt the need for a treat. If the treat was supplied with fixed intervalls, like every tenth press or every 40th press, the mice would press slowly at first and then more intensively whenever they knew they were getting closer to the treat.

But when the treat was given randomly, on chance, intervalls when pressing the button, the mice just kept pressing it over and over. Since they didn't know when they would get the treat, they barely did anything but press that button. For all they new they might have to stand there all day to get a treat, but that didn't discourage them at all. Quite the opposite. Because they new it might take all day, they pressed more frantically than with any other intervall (well I don't think the mice actually -thought- anything about it, but that is how they behaved anyway). Most importantly, the mice pressed for more treats when there only was a chance to get them, than when it was definite. The treats had become more interesting.

This very type of behavior is what Blizzard is using "against" us in WoW too. And most other games around use this chance method to keep us interested in collecting, gathering and grinding. Think about it, if you knew you'd get a gear piece on your first kill, you'd only do that kill when you needed that gear, and then be done with it. That would make the game end way too fast. And even if they made it so that you had to kill the boss ten times before getting your gear (and they do it that way sometimes, by having you collect certain items), it would make it too easy to have the game work like that overall. Nothing will keep people interested long enough like chance. Nothing will make people do tedious grinding for hours like chance. Although they know there is a chance they'll be there for 5 hours without result, they still do it.

Chance has no end and no way to be affected (by us players). It's an eternal system of providing satisfacton.

I wonder if luck makes us happier about getting something than hard work? If we knew we could get someting after 10 hours of hard work, or an unknown amount of time trying to be lucky... which would we prefer? It's really about 10 hours fixed vs 10 hours -average- grind. That means you could get it sooner, but also way later. Considering how popular WoW is, luck seems to be a very motivating factor. It seems like we are very motivated to engage in risk behavior.

And although we get cranky when we're unlucky, maybe it's still worth it in the end. For the joy we feel over being lucky enough to have gotten our hands on that special thing.

A-o-R: AutoScreenshot

In case anyone didn't know, I love addons. One might not believe it since I've only written about actual addons three times ever on over 200 posts. I've mentioned Grid, Xperl, Rankwatch, Breaktime and Twenty Twenty (which you might notice is actually 5 addons, but written over 3 posts).

I don't know why I haven't written more about addons before, maybe because everyone does, or because I just get stuck on another idea all the time, that has to be written about first. I still have a bunch of those ideas laying around (I haven't forgotten about the Demoralizing Shout test, just need to find a good way to collect data), but I thought since addons make up such a huge and important factor in my gaming, maybe I should tell you which ones I use, and why. First I thought I'd just write about some addons I really love, but I like all my addons, that is why I use them afterall.
To make it easy I'll go through them in alphabetical order. And since they're quite many I won't mention them all in one go (I'll be sitting here till next summer in that case). And don't worry, you won't just get to read about addons for the next weeks, I'll definitely throw in other stuff. My warrior will ding 80 any day now and that will have to be covered in some posts.

Oh and "A-o-R" stands for Addon-o-Rama. That is what this is going to be. I've decided to categorise the addons by three different factors; Overall Category, Class/Role and Necessity Level. "Category" basically means which area its supposed to be used in, aka healing, tanking, ui, info, and these can also be combined to for example info-tanking. I hope you'll get it :P. "Class/Role" is in case it is class or role specific aka priest, warrior, dps etc. "Necessity Level" is how important I value it to be to increase overall gaming experience, which means if I could play the way I do with or without it.
(EDIT 31/7: If you want to find all my other posts in the subject, simply click the "Addons" label, or type "aor" in the search window.)

AutoScreenshot
Category - Gaming Utility
Necessity Level - Low
Class/Role - Any

First out is a really small and specific addon called AutoScreenshot. I bet you can't guess what it does. Ok so you guessed it, it will automatically do screenshots. It's difficult to show this in a screenshot, since it basically is a screenshot. It will notify in chat how many screenshots it has taken during that game session, as you can see in the picture below. Default is set to 30 minutes, but you can set it to anything you like. And that is essentially what it does!


The good thing about it is that if you want to screenshot something that you probably won't have mind capacity to remember to do once you're there, like say a really intense boss fight, this will do the job for you. Also it is a good way to keep a "scrap book" of your progress on some char, if you like to. If you want to play a new main and would like to keep record of its way from hobo geared newb killing kobolds/plainstriders to full fledged epic geared killing arthas, this will definitely do the trick.

If you want to track a boss fight I recommend setting down the screenshot time frame though, since doing a screenshot every 30 minutes mostly just ends up in alot of wipe-res-rebuff shots.

The drawbacks of this addon are two. First of all this will really cram your screenshot folder, faster than you think. That isn't much of a problem though if you remember to either turn the addon off on the chars you don't want to record (five screenshots of your bankchar standing around by the postbox isn't as thrilling as it sounds) or just clear your screenshot folder every other day (depending on how much you play of course). But like I said that is a small problem. The other thing usually isn't a problem, but could turn disastrous if you're unlucky. AutoScreenshot will freeze your frame for half a second when it is screenshotting, just like when doing a regular screenshot. Since you probably won't keep track of every 30 minute mark (or whatever you set it to) this usually comes as a suprise as in "oh right, the screenshot addon is doing its thing". Normally this doesn't bother at all, but if you're in a really intense boss fight where every split second could make a difference... well it could turn out bad. It hasn't for me, so far! But be warned.

Overall this addon's really brought me alot of joy. I've used it alot for getting screenshots to put in posts here for example. I would never ever remember to screenshot interesting stuff, so this has been a life saver for me.

So this addon definitely does its job, and if you have any wants to record your gaming through screenshots I couldn't see any reason not to recommend it. It hasn't been updated for ages, but since it's an addon that only affects such a small area (that Blizzard hasn't changed yet), it still works perfectly.
And it can be found here -> AutoScreenshot at WoWInterface

Leveling it together

So you decided to level a char together with a friend? Or maybe you haven't decided on it yet, but just had the thought. Or maybe you don't have any friends to level with, oh well that's tough. In any case, here are some pointers as to what to think about when leveling with another person, because no matter how much you love/like eachother, problems will arise (if they don't, you're freaks). I've leveled alot of chars with Love, druid-druid, hunter-hunter, lock(me)-priest(him), lock(him)-rogue(me) and now most recently a rogue(me)-boomkin(him). None of these have made it to 80 together, for various reasons.

Level of Dedication
First of all, and probably most importantly, decide before you start out how dedicated you are about this business. If one intends to level the char as their next 80 or even main, and the other just feels like it could be a fun hobby on the side, you're already in trouble. The first problem that arises is namely that of different engagement levels. One wants you to go level that char, so you can both keep on doing it together, because he had some spare time and just accidentally dinged 10 levels ahead of you. As soon as your levels start spreading too far away from eachother, risk is big that you'll end the project all together. The less dedicated will definitely not feel like its worth the time to just grind levels alone to catch up, and the more dedicated will feel like you're spending to little time with your char whatever you do. Well I hope I have made my point clear. Make sure you both intend to spend the same amount of time and dedication on your chars, otherwise the whole "doing-it-together"-thing will soon be but a memory.

Class Combinations
The second step should be to choose a nice class-combination. Not because some are better than others, but because different combinations will actually determine how easy it will be to get a group, succeed with difficult quests and etc and therefore change your playing experience. First of all, you should both play a class you enjoy to play of course. Don't force yourself to play something boring just because it's a nice combo like "I know, you tank and I heal and we'll get groups all the time!" "Yeah but I wanna dps...". If you intend to get these chars to 80 as new alts, maybe a good combination is less important. You'll have to go with whatever you want as your new alt.

Overall you can have three different setups;
Active-Active aka Dps-Dps
Active-Passive aka Dps-Healer/Tank
Passive-Passive aka Healer-Tank

Any of these setups work ok and are good and bad at different things. To this comes that different classes are faster and slower. Combining a slow and a fast dps hasn't proven to turn out good in my experience, but it all depends on if one of you is content on doing most of the work and the other is content with mostly being boosted (at least for the first 70 levels). Casters are generally slow dpsers until level 50ish, and melee are fast. Tanks are also generally fast, and healers slow (at dpsing that is). Casters can outperform melee at about level 60, but generally melee stay the "better" dpser until 70+ (the exception is rogue that suck until level 75 because of the lack of aoe). Combining two non-healers or non-tanks also means you have to be better at cc and stuff to survive. At low levels most classes can do some tanking though, or have pets who can. The only classes that can't tank or heal at all are rogues and mages (they have to use their magic cooldowns to survive).

There will also be a big decision to whether you two (or more!) are going to play the same class or not (or rather the same gear class or not). I do recommend that you play different gear classes, unless you're both fully equipped in BoA- gear by which the rest of ones gear matters less. Otherwise there will be grumpy faces when your friend gets that really nice gear piece that you would've killed to get your hands on (and still can since your friend probably is close to you). If you're in different gear classes you can both be genuinely happy for eachother when gear drops, which fosters good spirits and less throwing of things.

Because some classes are easier to level than others, I'd say that the best combination is paladin-paladin or druid-druid and the least good probably is mage-mage (because of the constant downtime). As paladin-paladin you'll both need plate, but one can need tank/healer plate and the other dps plate. Or with druids one can use caster-gear and the other one melee-gear.

Level of Equalness
Equalness includes several factors. But generally I'd described as; make sure you both have the same opportunity to get money and gear. If you're having your friend over from another server just for this, and you happen to have your main on this server, you have a greater opportunity to equip yourself with boa-gear and pimp yourself with nice boe-gear (and get boosts from friends etc). Make sure whatever you have comes your friends way as well. And the other way around of course.
This is especially true when it comes to gear. If the one has full boa-gear and the other doesn't, not only will you gain an uneven amount of exp, one will suck and the other won't. Feeling like the sucky, limp leg in a partnership definitely isn't fun. And I've already mentioned the necessity to have somewhat equal classes. If one for example plays a mage and the other a paladin/hunter, one will do all the killing and the other will do all the drinking (and water conjuring).

Have you ever had any good/bad co-leveling experiences?

Tracing Playstyles

When summer offers a cold and rainy day (and swedish summers often do) there are few better ways to spend it than playing some Pokémon. Although there are some spin-offs that are enjoyable (like Mystery Dungeon) I've always preferred the core-series and have played Blue, Crystal and Sapphire multiple times so far. I intend to buy Pearl as soon as I get home.

So I've set out for another playthrough of Pokémon Sapphire, and love it as much as anytime so far. Unfortunately, my Pokémon all suck. They usually do. The reason for this is simple. I want to level all my pokémon at once, which means none of them are any good. My pokémon are often lower leveled than the roaming pokémon I encounter in the grass, which means I have to run back and heal my Pokémon at the center after every second fight or so. The only pokémon I can rely on somewhat is the one I started out with. For some reason he always ends up way higher level than everyone else, and always has to save me whenever I encounter some badass player.

But it doesn't matter, it's the way I enjoy playing Pokémon. I want all my pokémon to grow at once, and would never put all my efforts into only one or two, like Love and my brother plays Pokémon. They only play their starting pokémon (and maybe one more to cover a weakness), so that that one turns really überstrong and kicks everyones ass. It's a difference in playstyle, but in the end both styles work fairly well.

What's interesting though, is that it corresponds to how we also play other games. Like WoW. I play one billion alts, and prefer to level them all at once. I have one main which I usually level first and also put a little more effort into getting nice gear and whatnot, but in the end I'm always sitting there with a bunch of semi-good alts all around me. Love on the other hand has put all his time into one character. Since it's a druid he hasn't really have had the necessity to level any other class either. Today a druid can essentially fill any role quite well. My brother does the same thing. When he plays WoW (he takes breaks all the time) he puts all his time into one single character. I don't think he's even ever leveled an alt (Love has at least one other character at 80).

And you can see this behavior in other games as well. I've always preferred the team-games, like roleplaying games where you play multiple characters at once or some RTS games where you play several squads at once. Even though I love games like Resident Evil and Half-Life (and anything like it) I've never actually played any because I just don't enjoy the idea of just playing one character. Don't ask me why. I've also always preferred multi-player games over single-player games, like Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros and multi-player modes of Quake and Golden Eye, etc. Love is the other way around, he plays bunches of single-player games, all the time.

I won't try to make any Freudian analysis to why this could be. I don't think people would call me overly social, but with games I certainly seem to be. It's funny to think that I play WoW just like I play Pokémon, and that this kind of playstyle seems to be true for any kind of game, at least in my case. Thinking about it it's totally logical of course, if one likes a playstyle one will stick with it. But that two games that are so different (WoW and Pokémon) still can be played similarly is interesting.

And of course this could just be a coincidence. A sample of three people isn't really what one would call statistically solid evidence. So I wonder if you can see a line of behavior in your playstyle? Do you seem to prefer multi-playing or single-playing?

The ultimate choice (?)

Today Love asked me a question, and I found I had a hard time answering it. First he asked me if we should reroll new chars for Cataclysm, to start out fresh. I simply said that I love my priest and I would just reroll another priest if I had to start out new. Then he asked me "really? But if you could only play one class evermore, would it still be a priest?".

I wasn't so sure if that was the case. I really do love priest healing, and have devoted alot of time and effort to learn as much about it as possible to be as good at it as possible. It is without a doubt the class I have raided the most with. But is it the class I have played most or do play most, off-raid? Definitely not. One big problem about healing is that as soon as you get good gear it gets too easy. Healing heroics is probably the least-action filled thing you can do in WoW today.

Some years ago this one-class thing was more the rule than the exception. Blizzard didn't originally intend for people to respec on a regular basis, and they probably never ever dreamed of implementing the dual-spec system. At first the respec costs accumulated indefinitely, making it extremely expensive to respec your character after a while. If you wanted the same class with another spec it was often better to just roll a new character (which I often did, and the habit stuck with me until dual-specing). They quickly noticed however, that being able to respec your character was one of the most loved features of WoW, one that was much in use even though it was so expensive. So they put a roof on the expenses (50g). But you could still only have one spec, and some (like Love, who according to armory has respeced 175 times until now) who played hybrids or just liked respecing, respeced several times a week and still had to put alot of money into it. Others, like me, simply rerolled a new character with the desired spec. That's for example the reason I've played four shamans to 70+ (one resto, two elemental and one enhancement). And then Blizzardfinally caved in and gave us dual-specs. But I would easily pay 20k g for the possibility to have triple-specs.

So back to the question; If I could play only one class evermore, which would it be?

I really love priest, but like I said it quickly gets too easy (this might, hopefully, change with Cataclysm however). And although I have played alot of shamans I wouldn't like being able to play only them. Shamans are simply really fun to level, but not so fun at end game. That is probably because they, just as paladins, work really well for several roles while leveling, but in endgame they're rather boring (at least I think so). One class that never has bored me, not while leveling, not while raiding and not while doing heroics is (you can probably guess it) prot warrior. Like I've mentioned before, tanking well is always an effort since it's really up to you and the rest of the group how difficult it will be. If the group is really well geared, keeping aggro will be a handful. If keeping aggro from the group isn't too hard, you can instead try to make big and cool pulls to keep you occupied. I'd definitely miss priest healing, and I do think healing is way more fun in raids than tanking. Tanking is probably the easiest thing you can do in a raid, mostly (there are always exceptions). Healing might not be the most difficult thing (I think so, but I realize some people think it's sooo hard to keep track of a rotation and the environment at the same time, boohoo), but it's definitely the most changing thing you can do. What a dps/tank has to do when they have to interrupt or cc is what a healer has to do all the time.

But this isn't a debate about which is the more difficult. In the end it's about which is more fun. To me difficult, or rather challenging, equals fun. And I believe, as it is today, I would have more fun with a tank warrior than a healer. So I would either choose a prot warrior to play alot of heroics or choose a priest healer to do a few raids (or perhaps alot).

Which class would you choose if you could only play one? And why?