Random Numbers and Gaming

In Counter Strike: Global Offensive spray pattern control becomes a muscle memory to a player after long periods of playing. It’s a design choice that makes the gunplay between players more about instant crosshair placement with the faster player usually winning. This is very different from the gunplay of the current popular shooter Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds. Player Unknown’s Battleground’s spray pattern for the guns are random. So how does this affect the player experience? Well as opposed to Counter Strike: Global Offensive, the design choice makes gunplay between two players more about how a person can adapt faster when encountering another. So why does the change from a set pattern to random make for such a different experience in gameplay. Did the usage of randomness make for such a different experience? Random numbers in video games are utilized frequently and have been used for a long time, whether it was better for the player experience is often hard to tell. So just what is this “randomness”? What games use random numbers and why? Are random numbers a bad practice? The usage of random numbers in games is nothing new, but poor implementations and bad business practices have given random numbers a smudge mark on their reputation