Gambling in games

[Eno]

If it's an optional way to make extra money, sure. If it's intergral to actually continue in the game, that's pretty bad. The rock paper scissors in Alex Kidd is a good example of that.

I tend to really dislike randomness in games in general, unless the game is built around that sort of thing (random encounters, random events etc.). Mount & Blade really annoys me when it comes to tournaments (it's technically gambling so it works...) because they're SO dependent on luck: that you and your team will have good equipment and you won't get a weapon you're no good with; that the enemy team won't be unfairly given better equipment than your team; and that your team-mates won't be complete idiots and get themselves instantly killed, leaving you to get chased around the arena by the remaining four enemies on horseback.

It would be so much more fair if you could choose what weapon you wanted to go into the tournament with, or if at the very least it was guaranteed that all the teams would have the same equipment... Although some tournaments do make sure of that, so it's even random what rules a tournament will follow.