Thought 10: How does variance effect the fun of a game?

I love games.  I've been playing a good bit of magic the gathering lately and it has been interesting to observe the emotional ups and downs linked to variance of the game.  I particularly enjoy drafting.  There are two questions to look at.  The first is whether or not variance effects our enjoyment of the game.

At first this looks like an easy question.  Variance does effect our enjoyment because when we are lucky we win, which makes the game more fun.  Early in my days of playing rarely did I win a game without thinking that I had been the superior player.  As I studied the game more and learned more about the role of and effect of variance in my games it changed the way I think.  Now I ask a second question.  Does knowledge of variance effects our enjoyment of the game?

Now things are different.  There are days I draft a terrible deck and do well.  There are days I draft (what I think) is a great deck and get thrashed.  There are days I draft a good deck and do stunningly awesome.  I was playing in that last scenario the other day.  I had drafted a solid deck (Return to Ravnica is the set, the deck was Azorius tempo) and was absolutely crushing people.  I kept playing one of the two bombs I had in my deck consistently early in the game.  It was the Grove of the Guardian, and I was able to cast other spells that let me copy the giant creature it made.

As I reflected on how often I was drawing the card (almost every game) it dawned on me that perhaps I hadn't done a good job building the deck as I originally thought.  Perhaps I just had a case of the "run goods" (I was drawing the good cards in my deck every game rather than some of the less powerful 'filler' cards).  That thought made me slightly less happy than the giddy "I'm so awesome" feeling I'd had earlier.  So did my knowledge of variance make the game less fulfilling?

In this particular case it did. But it also makes some defeats less crushing.  I can see how I made one mistake (or two) but it was combined with incredibly bad luck.

One thing I have noticed though is as I have learned more about (and observed more) variance I have found happiness and distress less in the results of my games and more in my individual play (and draft choices).

Of course I still feel emotions.  The funny thing is when I have good results but notice lots of loose or bad play on my part it does diminish my happiness.  But not too much.  I still really like winning.


So as I've matured I've learned that variance does not directly impact my enjoyment of the game if I think about things.  If I left myself get caught up in the swings of life then yes I can get down.  Playing well and losing to a lucky play (or unlucky series of draws) still effects.  I can still tilt.  But the more I play and the more I think the less it effects me.