Mountain - is it a game, is it art?

[Jester]

Which raises the question: Are classic nonstrategic "games" like Candy Land and Snakes and Ladders "games" at all?

I never felt "good" about games where 100% of the outcome was either predetermined or based upon chance. I would say even in more popular card games, chance can give you a bad hand, but you may still win depending on how well you play it, and how badly your opponents play theirs.

Then again, I don't really enjoy the 2D scrolling action games like Mario, because they depend almost entirely upon real time hand eye coordination skills. They feel too skill based.

Strategic decisions in the face of risk (or the reduction of uncertainty to risk, more precisely) is one of the hallmarks of random games - I'm a big fan of any game that incorporates random elements, so long as there is always a way out. Maybe you drew 2-7 offsuit against the other player's nuts pair of aces, but if you can convince them that you lucked into a straight flush, you still win. That's a good game, to my mind.

Super intensive reflex games have never been my thing, but then, neither have sports. They're definitely games, maybe even good ones, but I'm not obligated to like them.

-Jester