Pirate The World - Online Adventure Game

For those of you who are thinking that there is something up with the "randomness" of Pirate The World, please read this Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambler%27s_fallacy

As it relates to PTW, each random event in the game (i.e. searching an island, diving into a lagoon, attacking a town or another player) is statistically unrelated to every other event, and therefore cannot be used to predict the outcome of a future event.

Basically, if you hit a storm, that doesn't guarantee that you'll be storm-free for the next X moves.

The random number generator is working how it is supposed to. I have spent lots of time researching it. It operates independently of time, so "timing" your clicks will not work.

If anyone else knows about php and random number generation, please feel free to PM or email me.

One of the better articles on this problem. Finally someone that admits that the problem is stated with some ambiguity at times.

Having been a former Vegas Junkie, I know all about RNG's, since I used to play slots and video poker.

Which is also why I'm not whining about the storms/moves ratio. Some days I hit tons of storms...some days very few...some days the odds are right on. Same with finding moves, gold or nothing.

That's why the R stands for Random!

One problem with computers though is that they can really only "simulate" randomness unless they are connected to an external source of entropy, such as a device that measure radioactive decay or listens to radio background noise. It's called a "pseudorandom number generator".

For nearly every situation, PNRGs are fine. When people are paranoid about things being "truly" random (i.e. lotteries and casino websites) some other method is used to either control the pseudorandomness or to use a natural source.

I believe the "Gambler's Fallacy" concept really only applies to the "strictly" random events in the game, by the way. Such events include the determination of what option you will get when you search an island or lagoon (i.e. finding moves,gold,and so on). After it's been determined, i.e. you will receive a pearl, a different, possibly less-than-straight-random, routine will be used.

A perfect example is attacking. As everyone knows, when you attack someone whose defense is exactly at your offense, the odds are 50% that you will succeed. That would be a "strictly" random event in my definition. If their defense is higher or lower, then it's not entirely random any more (though there is some element of randomness to it).