Forvalues-loop showing incorrect syntax - loops

Question

I want to generate variable names that depend on given variable games.
For example, if games is given as 3, the result is
game1 = list of uniformly distributed values
game2 = same, etc.
While there are multiple examples and answers on similar questions, I cannot see why my code cannot produce the results I want
Stata shows syntax error for the following loop:
set obs 1000
forvalues i = 1(1)games {
generate game`i' = runiform()
}

Answer 1

Is games really a variable in Stata's sense? Holding the same constant again and again is unnecessary and inefficient.
The problem is that forvalues expects to see numbers; it won't perform evaluations on the fly. But other parts of Stata will do that.
If you know you want just 3 variables then you could do just this:
clear
set obs 1000
forvalues i = 1/3 {
generate game`i' = runiform()
}
Or you could do something like this:
clear
set obs 1000
local games = 3
forvalues i = 1/`games' {
generate game`i' = runiform()
}
That does not contradict my opening paragraph. All macro evaluations are performed before any command is executed; thus forvalues sees 3, not a local macro name.
If you were really were holding a constant in a variable, then this would work:
clear
gen games = 3
set obs 1000
forvalues i = 1/`=games[1]' {
generate game`i' = runiform()
}