Quote Originally Posted by VeloZer0 View Post
One of those things where you remember when it happens, but don't remember all the much more numerous times it doesn't. As krissy said there is no such thing as random number generation for a computer. It either takes a seed and uses an equation to give a psudo-random number, or has a pre-determined list of random numbers and uses the seed to pick from among them. Either way the result is perfectly predictable as long as you know the seed.

I only have a rudimentary knowledge of computer science, but I think the most common seed is a very precise reading of the time, something like thousandths of a second. At this level it is essentially a random number to begin with.
This is correct. It has two major strengths. First, reading the time to that degree makes the number nearly random. A seed generated by the exact time a system is turned on, or generated at a point based on how long the system has been on, or how long a particular mode is running, leads to very nearly random values. The level of precision is beyond what a person can manipulate with any degree of precision. And conversion of seeds to the end result means that the difference between one millisecond can be the difference between a 7 and a 85.

Second, it is easy. Essentially every piece of technology that games run on already tracks these numbers. Everything has a clock. From your DS, to your PS3, to your PC, they all have clocks built-in, tracking these numbers. Even systems that don't have them visible usually have them built into the framework somewhere. It takes minimal resources to run a digital clock, so almost everything has it. Which makes snatching a number from it very, very easy.