Why is this game fun? (The Unknown Element)

I will begin by describing the background for the context of this story;


I currently am living in a 6 room flat in Athena hall where I get to share a common "kitchen/living" area with the other 5.

So I walked into the kitchen today, and I find 2 of my flat mates playing this card game "shit-head".

This game is very chance/luck driven, and once you grasp its rules, any player would pretty much act the same way with any given hand.

Personally, when the victory in a game is achieved without inputting any skill beyond knowing the rules, I am demotivated from playing it, as it will not have a meaning beyond "hey, I got lucky this time."

Seeing as my flat mates have been playing this game quite often lately, I thought, okay there is something in it that they find entertaining in the game, what am I not seeing?

So I asked, "why do you like this game so much?"

It took me a while to fish out the proper answer from them while they gave me weird looks for my persistence, since "because we're bored" and "because we played this game a lot last year" aren't what makes the game fun.

But then the final response was "because you don't know what the face down cards will be".

Though this unknown element does not entertain me as much, it is quite clear that it is a variable fun factor for different people. The unknown has been used in several games and in gambling, and tends to make a game addictive.

I can give a couple of examples where randomness is used successfully to get players hooked to a game.

1) In MMORPGs, random loot and drop chance. - you know something has a small chance of dropping something valuable, the fact that you might get that valuable item, even though the odds are small, you keep taking that chance over and over just because curiosity pushes you towards knowing whether it will drop or not next time.

2) In scratch to win tickets, and slot machines. You actually know the odds are against you for winning (ie: making a profit), and still the player/gambler will keep trying their luck, just because who knows they might still win a very big amount next time and make up for all their losses.

Personally being less tempted to the unknown, it is situations like this one where my friends were playing shit-head, that convince me:

A lot of players, the ones I will be making games for, love this unknown factor, even though I don't, and it would be wise of me to add it into my games if I want them to be more of a success.