Rigged

[gaveveteran1976]

The draw luck seems riggged. Too often I get everything I need or the opponents do. I’d love to believe it’s just random but there is no way. Everyone applauds this game for balance. I believe EA rigged some stuff like draw luck to give the illusion of balance between heroes and to allow weaker players to enjoy the game. Anyone agree or disagree?

[Gabochido]

I answered this in the balance thread, but here is what I wrote.

There is a lot of research on bias of perception of randomness and how the mind works to make us perceive that kind of pattern in things. Essentially, we tend to see patterns in things that might not necessarily be there (look up the term .apophenia).

This is a feeling that happens in all card games and you will see people posting about games being rigged for all games. As a game developer, I can tell you that it's much harder to rig a game at runtime so that it feels good than to just balance the pieces directly.

If you find yourself getting exactly what you need very often, it means that your deck is well built and has consistency against the meta you are facing. It also means you made the right decisions early on in the game to get it to a state where the cards you are drawing are likely to be your outs. This is why skilled players tend to repeatedly and consistently win even though the game has elements of randomness in it.

[Gabochido]

Just to expand on the difficulty of rigging a game in that way. Imagine how that problem would be solved. It is essentially the same problem that the game AI has to solve when selecting what cards to play from your hand. In this case, the game would have to be able to evaluate a given situation and then pick the best cards from your whole deck and force those to be drawn. This is quite difficult to achieve effectively, which is why the actual game AI isn't particularly great most of the time.

[jaydabbler]

[Removed pointless off-topic post - CM]

[puntwothree]

Consider what it is you “need.” In PvZ, deck size is only 40, and that number dwindles as soon as you draw your opening hand. The chances of drawing any given card aren’t actually that uncommon if you’re running 4x each of your important pieces, especially if you would be able to settle for 1 of 2 or 3 different cards (which is now over 25% of your deck, all of which is over-represented among the cards you haven’t already drawn).

If you’re convinced the game is rigged, though, you can always play a singleton deck and guess at your next draw will be based on your “what you need” hypothesis. This would give you much better data to convince you that you’re wrong.

[saintlydevilis]

II agree it is rigged. Too often a weaker player gets cards that save the day from conjuring. such as a battlecruiser with strikethrough. I've even benefitted from this rigged system. It happens to stop players get fed up with losing. If the packs gave better cards it probably wouldn't need to happen, but then EA would not make as much $$$. Instead when you lose 5 games in a row it says why don't you buy a pack of cards. I've had great decks, with cards 4 of each card, and yet the card draw can really screw your game. Luck, yes it plays a part.. but even bad luck is not that consistent. I've played the game a long time, and very consistently to have made these observations. Look at player who have all the cards, they are less likely to lose, and yes some of that is down to their card draw luck, but alot of the time if you've all the cards you won't be buying anymore until the next release. 

[Gabochido]

This is definitely a biased perception of randomness. Try out any other card game and you will see similar effects.

Also, take into account how a business works and how consumerism works. Most people, if they are losing and feel that the effects are due to bad luck or a rigged system will stop playing the game and switch to another, not spend more money. What makes most people spend more money on a game is when they feel they are being successful in the game and progressing will give them more enjoyment. 

This game is very skill intensive and skilled deck building and playing will consistently mitigate the luck elements, this is why those who reach UL can do so repeatedly without issue. I've seen those lucky conjures and occasionally, I lose a game due to one of them, but it doesn't happen very often, making it just an exciting thing when it happens.  I have both an F2P account and an account where I've spent the equivalent of a video game on it and in both the results are the same.

[BlazinsZ]

Maybe there are some parameters that we do not know, who knows? and who can assure it? 

but this is a bad thing? for example with Cornucopia almost always generates another legendary or a card that costs 5 or more, but is that paying 10 suns for a card that creates another 4, costing 1 sun each one, really is not worth it, maybe this has been modified so that you really feel the power of that card.

some time ago I opened a topic where in December I got many Jolly Holly through High Current Voltage, I even started several games in 'random game' 'simply by playing the berries and I kept getting them, even after all this, it could have been just coincidence. 

[UniVoidz]

@BlazinsZ Might that have been round Christmas time by any chance?

[BlazinsZ]

lol, it seems, seems to be programmed to get them more commonly on certain specific dates