Sure, but that temporary pain has a cost in lost players. Setting up long term skill growth is great, but players won’t last long enough to get there if the learning experience is miserable. Definitely a tricky balance and one more reason why I’m always a bit in awe of the designers I work with.

Even if the comment is positive, there's a chance of consequences for the dev. Players often draw conclusions from unrelated statements and think you've promised something, and then the poor comms people spend a month undoing the damage. They've already got a tough job, no need to randomize them.

"The ability to play chess is the sign of a gentleman. The ability to play chess well is the sign of a wasted life." -Paul Morphy

Most of us don’t have to make a hundred flights a year and sprint across airports every day, but the attributes that help in those situations are also really good for the average traveler.

All of us who are fans of the series appreciate you pushing through to make it happen anyway. Thank you.

It's amazing how often researchers and data scientists fail to take the extra few minutes to just eyeball their data. Going straight to averages and correlations can conceal a lot of weirdness.