Breakdown: On RNG, Progression, and "THE GRIND"

There are games that exist that have progression that is dependent on random number generators. Monster Hunter, for instance, requires you to farm certain monsters until that RNG decides to grace you with what you want for that armor you were crafting. Sometimes, this armor is what will allow you to progress to tougher monsters, because otherwise, you might get hit by a single tail slap and die, horribly, in front of your pet cat. Or faint. Whatever. The same could be said of games like Warframe, which has some of the most important mods, such as the four main power boosting mods, locked behind RNG. However, these two work in very different ways. Lets take a look.

Monster Hunter's RNG is fairly kind. It can take one or two hunts of the beastie before you get a good deal of your monster parts. However, there are a few parts that you need that are much, MUCH rarer. Gore Mangala, the poster boy for Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, and resident menacing badass, makes a good example. Killing him will grant you pieces of his carapace, and teeth, and scales, and other such various bits an' dodads. But his horns? Those are near impossible to get.

Unless you break them in combat.

You see, in Monster Hunter, you can break pieces off of the monsters, such as tails, shells, and - of course - horns. Unfortunately, these horns are only breakable when the beast is enraged, and, therefore, a lot more vicious. So when you get the horns, when you pull them out of that number generator's cruel grasp, it is rewarding beyond all compare.

In Warframe, however, there are no parts to break. No specific thing or feat of skill will really get you those four mods I mentioned, or the weapon parts you needed, or, well, any drop for that matter. Sure, you can farm missions with the right enemy type, that lasts indefinitely, with the perfect setup, but it is still up to RNGs as to whether or not you get it.

So instead of feeling satisfied that you finally got what you wanted, you just feel like you finished a chore, and can get on with the game.

That's the difference: one is satisfying and requires intention and skill from players, the other requires you to keep going at it, getting bored, and eventually being done with it.

Monster hunter should be teaching us how to RNG. Don't make RNG pointless, but make it so that player input and skill and intelligence can affect the outcome and change what the chances are. Don't make it absolute, but make sure there is progression, and you won't have to deal with the problems of pure, hard RNG deciding when and where you progress. That's just gambling. And I think we've already run out of patience for that.