Carleton University - School of Computer Science Honours Project
Winter 2020
Problems with the Perception of Probability and the Concept of Fairness
Katherine Shaw
SCS Honours Project Image
ABSTRACT
The probability-based game genre has an incredibly long history. One that has long pre-dated modern computing. For example; Playing Cards. You have a 7% chance of drawing a Queen of any face from a full deck. The base fact that the game is probability based is shared in modern video games. Like many traditional games, video games contain a mechanic to make things a bit fairer. In a game of Poker or Old Maid, you can watch your opponent’s facial expressions. While video games offer the use strategy or stat modifiers to shift the odds. This project considers the many reasons people play games, the amount of time a player would invest into a game, and how probability-based games and rogue like games can wipe out that time investment in an instant. Through research and understanding, we investigate ways that games can fool players into a false sense of fairness, or unfairness all by altering the underlaying probability without the players knowledge. With such large amounts of time spent on gaming, and the varying options, it becomes more necessary to implement these fairness systems to keep the player base happy. Whether that is to help the player succeed while maintaining a sense of individual achievement, like modern X-COM games or to keep a player invested in a time and money wasting mobile game.