The relationship between luck and skill is one that has long been of interest to game scholars. Roger Caillois, in classifying differing types of games, refers to games of skilled competition as agôn, noting that games infused with this quality have as their raison d’etre “for each player to have his superiority in a given area recognised” (1958, p. 15). To games of chance he ascribes the term alea, appropriating the Latin term for dice games. Caillois acknowledges that most games offer up a combination of these two forms, and for the most part eurogames employ an element of both skill and chance.
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Skill, of course, is called upon by the various mechanics discussed earlier, allowing players to affect their position within the game. The way that random elements are implemented when compared with other forms of hobby gaming bears a little closer examination.
Greg Costikyan has discussed the attitude within western culture that tends to devalue games the more that they employ chance in determining the out come of the game (2009). Games of pure chance are often only considered inter -esting inasmuch as they offer an opportunity for wagers or serve to introduce young children to the practice of formal game play.75Costikyan specifically describes eurogames as a genre that “prizes strategy and planning,” yet, perhaps surprisingly, it is rare to find examples of eurogames that do not contain some element of chance. Notably it is the particular way in which chance is imple-mented that offers a potential distinction between the eurogame and other forms.
The role of chance in eurogames is typically mitigated through a shift in the chronology of random events that are presented to a player. Writer Greg Aleknevicus identifies this approach with an explicit comparison to American- style games:
In American hobby games, a player will perform an action and then random chance will determine the outcome. For example, in Risk, I decide to attack the Ukraine from Northern Europe, then I roll dice to see who wins. In Euro-pean games, random chance will determine the options and the player then decides which to choose. For example, in Settlers of Catan, I roll the dice to see what resources I receive, then I decide how I will trade/spend these resources. To my mind, this is a far better way to differentiate the two styles of games [2008].
Although the distinction Aleknevicus makes here is useful, it is problematic in that, despite its iconic status as the most well known eurogame, Die Siedler von Catan is a relatively rare example of the genre because it employs dice as a ran -domizer—an inclusion that has up until quite recently not been favored in typical eurogame designs (Pulsipher, 2006).76While the comparison to Risk is valid, and indeed can be expanded to include the typical structure of many hobby war games and early role- playing games, Aleknevicus fails to take into account col lectible card games that offer a similar chronology. Still, these small issues notwithstanding, Aleknevicus’ observations do ring true for the vast majority of eurogames, in that luck is typically mitigated by having random factors pre -sented in the game before the player makes decisions. As Berlinger describes:
Many eurogames randomize the resources available during each round or each game. Note that you usually know the available terrain and resources BEFORE
you take an action, and so can use this information to plan your strategies, rather than the dice, cards, or spinners occurring AFTERor ASyou take an action to determine if you have succeeded [2009b].
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Once again, the reasons for this differing approach lie in the simulative roots of Anglo- American hobby gaming. The nature of armed conflict, at least on a strategic or operational level, is such that the outcome of individual actions cannot be predicted with any degree of certainty. In order to accurately simulate a particular battle or operation, a wargame must account for this lack of unpredictability. Of course, this is not to suggest that the outcome of a wargame is randomly determined, since players are at least notionally aware of the statistical probabilities underlying a particular decision. However, the short- term outcome of any given decision cannot be completely certain. As hobby gaming evolved and role- playing games appeared, this model of com-bat — a decision followed by a randomly determined outcome — became the dominant model.77
The designers of early eurogames, on the other hand, were not design -ing simulations, they were design-ing games for the family market. Conse-quently, random factors are employed to heighten variability and to embellish the decision- making process. As long as these random factors are balanced, their overall effect can ideally be mitigated through skilful play. Costikyan uses the example of Torres to highlight how the random drawing of cards adds color to decision- making without unduly influencing the eventual out-come:
The action cards in Torres allow players to do different things but, at least a priori, none of the actions they permit is obviously better or worse than the others. In addition, to draw a new action card, a player must forgo taking some other action in the game, so the question of whether or not to draw a card becomes a strategic concern. Chance is not entirely eliminated through this scheme, however; in a particular strategic situation, drawing a new action card might provide you with an ability that is precisely what you need at this moment, or something that is of no immediate benefit — and so luck contin-ues to play a role [2009].
Luck is present in most games, and those being discussed here are no exception. In eurogames, where particular emphasis is placed upon the mechanics of choosing, the ability to review the result of a random process before making a decision ensures that players have a sense of control over their own progression within the game. Importantly, it is not necessarily the case that this design element has any direct correlation with the role that skill plays in a particular game,78but, as Salen and Zimmerman point out, player perception of random elements is defined not so much by the mathematics of probability that underlie them, but by the way these events are implemented (2004, p. 175). In the case of eurogames, the perception of control brought about by shifting the chronology and structure of random elements can be seen as a defining trait of the genre.
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