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29163: Re: [MUD-Dev] [DGN] The psychology of random numbers
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From: Mike Shaver <shaver@off.net>
Newsgroups: nu.kanga.list.mud-dev
Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2004 09:41:01 -0500
References: [1]
Organization: Kanga.Nu
On Jan 28, Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com wrote:
> From: Brian Hook [mailto:brianhook@pyrogon.com]
>> So to fix that, you have to do a biased PRNG that takes into
>> account the last success, assigns a sliding bias as that time
>> grows.
>> Which most definitely isn't random, but it FEELS more random.
> That harks back to the thread on here a while back concerning
> fudging the random numbers. Interesting to hear field experience
> that suggest players actually like it.
AI Game Programming Wisdom II has a pair of articles that might be
relevant here (I haven't got my copy yet). The abstracts:
The Statistics of Random Numbers, James Freeman-Hargis
Abstract: Random numbers are used most heavily by Artificial
Intelligence and games in general. To ignore their potential is
to make the game predictable and boring. Using them incorrectly
can be just as bad as ignoring them outright. Understanding how
random numbers are generated, their limitations and their
capabilities, can remove many difficulties of using them in your
game. This article offers insight into random numbers, their
generation, and methods to separate good ones from bad.
Filtered Randomness for AI Decisions and Game Logic, Steve Rabin
Abstract: Conventional wisdom suggests that the better the
random number generator, the more unpredictable your game will
be. However, according to psychology studies, true randomness
over the short term often looks decidedly unrandom to
humans. This article shows how to make random AI decisions and
game logic look more random to players, while still maintaining
strong statistical randomness.
Mike
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