That "Random" Algorithm

[solitary]

First things first, this is not a post about wanting my money back, or anything like that. It’s just about making my complaint more formal I guess, and my guild recommended I put it on here because a lot of people feel this way. Secondly, there will be veiled threats in this. I paid for 6 months of game time, I’m going to use all of it, and I may or may not resub at the end depending many variables.

 

That being said:

 

I am really disheartened by the effectiveness of the random algorithm used for the Strategy Alliance Packs offered on the Cartel Market. I have no issues with most big MMO’s going into business of micro-transactions, or in game store using real money for aesthetics. I think this is a brilliant idea, and I am 100% behind this because I give a **** about how my character looks, and there have been times where I’d quit playing a game because my character looked so stupid, like in WoW. Since coming back to the game 3 weeks ago, I’ve bought 5 or 6 x5 packs of the Strategy Alliance Packs. Truthfully, at first they were awesome. I was getting some cool gear, some not cool stuff, some great mounts, and a cool colour crystal. Then starts the repetition and now I have 3-4 copies of the same armor sets, I have 4 of the same mounts, and I have more farmhand blue crystals than I know what to do with. It’s ridiculous that there isn’t better randomization, and randomization is the reason why I am not demanding my money back like some idiot. It’s a gamble, I get it, but your algorithm sucks. Badly. Very badly.

 

I feel like I wasted my money after the 2nd purchase of the x5 pack. I feel cheated, and as I said before, a few people in my small guild feel the same way, and I’m sure we’re not alone.

 

“Sell it on the GTN!” – you say, but we can’t because everyone has the same problem with the ****** algorithm, and the market is swamped with the same ****, and it’s bottom of the barrel pricing for it. I can make the same amount credits or more doing daily heroics instead.

[SteveTheCynic]

OP: "I'm complaining about the fact that I don't understand what 'random' means."

 

or maybe

 

OP: "I'm complaining because I think 'random' means 'biased against duplicates'."

 

or maybe

 

OP: "I'm complaining because I think 'random distribution' and 'uniform distribution' are the same thing."

 

The essential complaint here is the one about duplicates. Do some careful reading about that thing called the "birthday paradox" - to get a 50% chance of having two people in a group with the same birthday, you need just 23 people, and this result seems to the casual observer to be excessively low. It isn't.

 

So no, the randomiser is working as expected.

[ALaggyGrunt]

The random algorithm is multiplication of a starting number (the seed) by a huge prime number, division by the largest number you want out of it, and taking the remainder.

The function always returns a positive integer, or zero.

Edited January 22, 2016 by ALaggyGrunt