I stumbled upon a very interesting post by Issuntril:

---

Q u o t e:

Indeed <playername>, what you say is true - but only if the only variable in the equation is the statistical chance of the event occuring (I did study mathematics and statistics before coming to work in the games industry ;) ). However, this is not the case with items drops - There are many other variables which effect which items are going to drop. I'm afraid this is information not intended for the community however, and is not something I can comment further on.

Issuntril

---

And here we've been told all along that loot is random...

What do you all think of this? It contradicts everything we've been told so far, doesn't it?

You know the best thing about posts? That you can link them so it doesn't look like you're just making stuff up.

If the dice is created by alot of uncontrolable and unknown factors, such as inmense small time messure stuff and what skills players have used, or whatever, then i still see it as random.

What is the defenition of random? If random is really random, there couldn't be randomness in videogames. Because you can't tell a pc to roll 0-100 and notice it rolled 47. Why did it roll 47? Was it random? Ofcourse not. It rolled 47 for a reason. A combination of factors. On wich YOU have no influence.
Thus: Random

---

Q u o t e:
If the dice is created by alot of uncontrolable and unknown factors, such as inmense small time messure stuff and what skills players have used, or whatever, then i still see it as random.

What is the defenition of random? If it really is random, there couldn't be randomness in videogames. Because you can't tell a pc to roll 0-100 and notice it rolled 47. Why did it roll 47? Was it random? Ofcourse not. It rolled 47 for a reason. A combination of factors. On wich YOU have no influence.
Thus: Random

---

Does true randomness exist at all?

---

Q u o t e:


Does true randomness exist at all?

---

That was his point. In our computers, random numbers are generated using many very often changing factors, like current time (including miliseconds), amount of memory free/taken, etc etc. If WoW uses stuff like number of cast heals, damage done, healing done, time to kill mobs x,y,z, time to get to the boss, etc etc, it's random, i.e based on many often changing factors you can't really control.

Actually i'm pretty sure it's as random as it can possibly be

---

Q u o t e:
Actually i'm pretty sure it's as random as it can possibly be

---

Have to agree. Played since early betas myself. A level 70, two level 60s, a level 63, a level 45, and a level 40. And I've never seen ONE BoE epic drop while soloing (seen one or two in instances, but thats it).

Tell me one thing that is random

if you program using a standard random number generator it asks for a seed (a base number which effects the outcome) if you always use the same number the first number given is the same everytime and only the second and subsequent numbers are truly randomized.

for the purpose of a simple aspect of game(e.g. what loot drops) a simialr device would be used, but to make it not have the same first value(and therefore always drop the same loot item) the seed number must change so there will be a number of variables that determine this.

;)

---

Q u o t e:
Tell me one thing that is random

---

/b/ is random.

The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance.
- Robert R. Coveyou

---

Q u o t e:


/b/ is random.

---

1. Do not talk about /b/.
2. Do NOT talk about /b/.

---

Q u o t e:


What do you all think of this?

---

I think we should make a point . Every guild points out 1 char who has to demonstrate our disappointment by standing naked at Gurubashi arena every first monday of the month at 12 o'clock for 15 minutes.

---

Q u o t e:
I stumbled upon a very interesting post by Issuntril:



And here we've been told all along that loot is random...

What do you all think of this? It contradicts everything we've been told so far, doesn't it?

---

Who the ##%% is Issuntril and who and what gives him or her authority and decision making over how Blizzard's systems work? I've seen up to several Community Managers, Developers and Blues say that loot is random and it won't matter what class entered the instance first, at what time, what class your master looter is, how long you spent peeing on your break at work or what colour underwear you're wearing.

Just saw, he's a GM. Doesn't give him authority over Developers or Community Managers though.

---

Q u o t e:

No. What item drops from what mob in WoW was decided 12 billion years ago when the universe started to expand.

---

So true.

Seeing as players are constantly complaining about seeing hot streaks it seems pretty random to me.