Greg Costikyan has posted an engaging essay on randomness in game design. It’s a thoughtful, extensive read; here’s a sample to whet your appetite:

One sort of game aesthetic says: Games should be won by skill and not luck. Hence any recourse to randomness by a game is bad.

Curiously, it’s an attitude held by two sorts of gamers who otherwise have very little in common: Fans of abstract strategy games, and fans of first-person shooters.

– Greg Costikyan: Randomness: Blight or Bane? @ Play This Thing!

I’m not sure what Costikyan means by “blight or bane” … perhaps he intended “boon or bane” …?