Happy Monday, folks, and welcome to the Weekly Video Games Thread. I’d normally be effusive and energetic, but I’m stuck on a question. A debate, if you will, that shakes the very foundation of video games to their core.

Let’s say you’re a Pokémon Trainer, one trying to empower their Water-type friend. A Poliwhirl, let’s say, or a Greninja or Piplup. You need to give it a move, and you can choose between two options. Surf has 90 power, 100% accuracy, and you can use it 15 times, making it strong and consistent. Hydro Pump has 110 Power, 80% accuracy, and a paltry five Power Points, making it risky and potentially damaging to your own strategy. It’s a debate over reliability versus pure power. And the Pokémon franchise is full of these things. Do you pick the 90 Power / 100% accuracy / 15 PP Flamethrower or the 130 / 70% / 5 PP Fire Blast? Do you opt for Rock Slide, which does miss somewhat, over the far more powerful but less consistent Stone Edge? The normally strong Energy Ball versus a Solar Beam that takes too turns to charge? Thunder versus Thunderbolt? Ice Punch versus Ice Shard versus Icicle Crash versus Triple Axel? And what kind of venue are you in? Competitive players will almost always opt for the risky option because everyone else is packing those, so you can’t rely on safety, but people who are just playing the games casually have to really think about how many times they can use moves over the long term.

Video games, particularly the abstracted RPGs, often involve questions like this. Questions not just of risk versus reward but also risk versus less risk, or different types of risk. After all, using the safe move is itself risky, if only because you don’t know if you can beat that opponent with the number of moves you have. So I’d like to put to you today’s prompt: Risk versus Reward, reliability over inconsistent power, and which you prefer. This can be specific to distinct games or situations, but in general I’m interested in how you approach these kinds of strategies. And, potentially, ways you can try to mitigate that risk. After all, that’s in Pokémon, too—Ice Beam vs. Blizzard is about the same as Flamethrower vs. Fire Blast, but if you use Blizzard while it’s hailing or snowing it becomes 100% accurate and does more damage.

And, of course, how was your weekend when it came to gaming? It’s not just action mechanics we’re talking about.