LowbrowDeluxe: Pvt

LowbrowDeluxe: PvtStash: Yeah a good nethack can be good. BUT that's just craps table gaming for the ratio of player luck vs player agency.

I feel like you're looking at it from the wrong direction.  The point of it is the player's skill comes in from adapting to what they get.  Agency and choice is all about how you use the cards you're dealt, as opposed to a static strategic choice.

Check your analogy there.
IF i'm playing cards and i get dealt  a losing hand...against the house not another player i might try to bluff.
Exactly what was my agency in the hand i was dealt?

Blackjack is of a minimal amount of real agency, no skill that you can practice influences what cards you are dealt. There's no actual refined skill player agency to the static statistical odds of obtaining 21 without going over, while also needing to beat the house too.

Sure agency is in how i use the ice wand, but as there is no agency in obtaining it, there is no skill to practice at for it. And to find out what wand you got is just RNG.

there is no player agency in working to make sure you obtain ___ useful weapon. And if it is or is not cursed is just, to the player, no agency RNG to finds out.

You really missed what a ratio is that i am speaking of here.
Yes every game has some agency, you pick what craps table bet to place all on your own.

But when most of what weighs in on if you will or will not beat the game on this run is: do i get good or bad items do i find hard or easy baddies, are there more or less traps this run?
That's 100% nothing that you have any agency about.

Imagine Diablo 4 comes out. and it has 5 levels of difficulty. but you never unlock or pick one, ever time you start the game even for the game toon, you get a  randomly assigned difficulty level.

That's a basically what roguelikes are. you might have even odds and get what woudl be "normal"
difficulty of the random spread of good bad/ stuff. but you might have anywhere up  badass  run or those didn't make it past lvl 2 goes.

random difficulty curve is not a designed game by my POV that's just an excuse for padded play time where the vast majority of players just need a good luck run in order to beat the game. They can't actually improve at a skill that significantly overcomes the RNG weights of the mechanics.Ratio is what it is about.RNG/skillMore skill than RNG as what determines outcomes, , but some RNG is not a bad thing.but it defines if i am playing the craps table, luck not skill or if i am playing chess, skill not luck.and all stops in between on a spectrum like say poker, where the random cards are what they are, but a good bluff can overcome the RNG of the card deal. And good spot of lies and ability to calculate card odds, can overcome the bluff.calculating card odds is a skill you can improve at, telling lies is a skill you can improve at, but getting the cards you want is just random.