{"id":25429,"date":"2025-09-05T00:00:45","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T00:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/article.php?article_id=2129060"},"modified":"2025-09-05T00:00:45","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T00:00:45","slug":"an-ode-to-the-randomize-button","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/an-ode-to-the-randomize-button\/","title":{"rendered":"An ode to the &#8216;randomize&#8217; button"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/an-ode-to-the-randomize-button.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Google&#8217;s <em>I&#8217;m Feeling Lucky<\/em> button has nothing to do with luck. It actually shows you the first search result, something it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out. I always thought that if I hit IFL on, say, &#8216;dogs&#8217;, I&#8217;d get a dog related webpage plucked randomly from the entire internet. Pretty stupid. But it&#8217;s a compelling idea, right?<\/p>\n<p><em>Random<\/em> is something of a dirty word nowadays. For people who came of age in the late noughties it sparks &#8216;Nam flashbacks of pale teens, their hair stiff with neon dye, blurting out nouns like <em>waffle<\/em> and <em>narwal<\/em> to demonstrate their irreverent wit. Put those children aside for a moment. Consider instead the crowning jewel of a character creation screen: the <em>randomize<\/em> button.<\/p>\n<p>I love the word &#8216;randomize&#8217;. It sounds like something Jean-Luc Picard would bark in a moment of stress. So high-tec, so powerful. Slam down the randomizer to see something never before witnessed by human eyes. It&#8217;s an inherently fun concept, and so <em>video-gamey<\/em>, too. Oli Welsh waxed lyrical on the power of randomization in his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/articles\/champions-online-hands-on\">Champions Online<\/a> preview, calling the game an &#8216;inexhaustible factory for charismatic super-beings&#8217;. Satisfying as it may be to tweak your character&#8217;s eyebrow density just-so, there&#8217;s an equal thrill in being thrown a random jumble of parts and powers and told, in the style of Project Runway, <em>&#8216;Make it work!&#8217;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/articles\/2020-12-15-an-ode-to-the-randomize-button\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/articles\/2020-12-15-an-ode-to-the-randomize-button\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google&#8217;s I&#8217;m Feeling Lucky button has nothing to do with luck. It actually shows you the first search result, something it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out. I always thought that if I hit IFL on, say, &#8216;dogs&#8217;, I&#8217;d get a dog related webpage plucked randomly from the entire internet. Pretty stupid. But it&#8217;s a compelling idea, right? Random is something of a dirty word nowadays. For people who came of age in the late noughties it sparks &#8216;Nam flashbacks of pale teens, their hair stiff with neon dye, blurting out nouns like waffle and narwal to demonstrate their irreverent wit. Put those children aside for a moment. Consider instead the crowning jewel of a character creation screen: the randomize button. I&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerpt-more\"><a class=\"blog-excerpt button\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/an-ode-to-the-randomize-button\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eurogamer"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>An ode to the &#039;randomize&#039; button | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Google&#039;s I&#039;m Feeling Lucky button has nothing to do with luck. It actually shows you the first search result, something it took me an embarrassingly long\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/an-ode-to-the-randomize-button\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An ode to the &#039;randomize&#039; button | Arcader News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Google&#039;s I&#039;m Feeling Lucky button has nothing to do with luck. It actually shows you the first search result, something it took me an embarrassingly long\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/an-ode-to-the-randomize-button\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-05T00:00:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/an-ode-to-the-randomize-button.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"168\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/an-ode-to-the-randomize-button\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/an-ode-to-the-randomize-button\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\"},\"headline\":\"An ode to the &#8216;randomize&#8217; button\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-05T00:00:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/an-ode-to-the-randomize-button\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":244,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/an-ode-to-the-randomize-button\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/an-ode-to-the-randomize-button.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Eurogamer\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/an-ode-to-the-randomize-button\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/an-ode-to-the-randomize-button\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/an-ode-to-the-randomize-button\\\/\",\"name\":\"An ode to the 'randomize' button | Arcader News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/an-ode-to-the-randomize-button\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/an-ode-to-the-randomize-button\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/an-ode-to-the-randomize-button.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-05T00:00:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\"},\"description\":\"Google's I'm Feeling Lucky button has nothing to do with luck. 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