Different players different ways to play, or Bartle's Taxonomy.

gradii · May 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxpW2ltDNow

Post thoughtful comments or just
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if that's your thing...

nacito · May 2017

I knew someone somewhere did this kind of research about multiplayer gamer psychology, interesting enough.
But aren't people sometimes more attached to one side then the other? cause people usually doesn't stick too much with what you expect from a game, or that's just me?

baelogventure · May 2017

I wonder if most people assume different aspects of the Bartle chart depending on what game they play.

theravenforce · May 2017

Interesting video, it's been a while since I've heard this come up.

When it comes to observing and documenting human behavior, it's not overly common (in general pop) that you come across people who rigidly fit into pre-prescribed archetypes, they may have features from several but have more from one than the other.

I'm not going to do a Scholar and check on game psych articles but there are loads out there. Some focus on Cost-Reward Matrices and others on actual performance.

For the sake of simplicity, let's use the four original categories:

With CO, Content Expansion (Q Warzone, Revamped Cosmics, Revamped Open Missions, Lairs) tries to cater to "Explorers" but kind of forces "Explorers" to also be "Achievers" as those environments tend to be dangerous and require "good builds or better gear than the standard" (provided you take the standard to be whatever can be found before Merc Gear). That can be seen as presenting a problem for people who are purely "Explorers", since their needs aren't directly met because exploring those areas or pieces of content equals frustration.

"Killers" seems to directly link to the PvP crowd, which is highly limited in CO but could be bigger if [Insert Reason/Thing that needs to be changed] was the reality of the game.

"Socialize(rs)" generally looks directly at the RP community and those who are very focused on the community by helping out.

With CO, being able to identify with all of these types with a bias towards Achieving and Socializing means that you'll likely get the most out of CO in terms of personal enjoyment.

Then again, this is just a little summary based on how I see things at almost 3AM in relation to CO

Unknown · May 2017

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spinnytop · May 2017

I'm all four. For quite a while there the game wasn't really appealing to the explorer or the achiever in me, but then Kaiserin and crew came on board and both those sides are happily satisfied. PvPs always been there for the killer in me...and boy does this game let you dominate people, lol. A huge part of what appeals to me in games is the multiplayer aspect, interacting with people, comparing, discussing... this game failed on that for a while as well, but again current crew brought back team content so yay.

But yeah, guess that's why I'm picky about games... I have a lot of needs.

Related topic:
The 8 kinds of fun.
http://www.gnomestew.com/general/the-eight-types-of-fun/

How many kinds of fun there are is actually a rather disputed topic... some say four, some say twenty one. I think the 8 ones are pretty good tho, more than that and people seem to be getting too nit-picky without any real benefit to design rationale.

pantagruel01 · May 2017

For a lot more commentary, https://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/articles/bartles-taxonomy-of-player-types-and-why-it-doesnt-apply-to-everything--gamedev-4173 has a video by Bartle.

I feel he's left out some categories, though I'm not too surprised, as they probably weren't applicable to MUD1 or MUD2. The big one is the artist/builder. This did exist for text-based MUDs, but it generally required admin access of some sort, and sometimes account level access. For adventure-type muds, this usually meant either starting your own mud, or wizard-level access on an LPmud; my understanding is that creator bits were more available on the social mud types but I didn't personally play them much. CO only really caters to these people with the costume creator, though the Foundry is also targeted at them.

sterga · May 2017

Quadratic Foundry has a different their own profile and research. Bonus: You can take a fun survey to see where you end up. There is a GDC video that talks about their findings and how they came up with their profile.

Worth a look just for the survey. (I like surveys.) My highest was in Design (91%) and lowest in Competition (12%).

"CO only really caters to these people with the costume creator, though the Foundry is also targeted at them."

Uh, you forgot a huge draw to creative people that is a significant portion of this game: Free Form character creation. Also the Nem system... Or could be if it wasn't so neglected. You can design your outfit, your powers selection, and your nem. What you can't do is create missions. Creation is the hallmark of CO.

pantagruel01 · May 2017

sterga said:
Uh, you forgot a huge draw to creative people that is a significant portion of this game: Free Form character creation.

I wouldn't really call it the same sort of thing, though there certainly is a subset of people who really love complicated, tweakable character creation systems.

sterga · May 2017

What does being "complicated" have to do with loving to create things? People learn how to use 3d modeling software or how to write scripts just to create things as an unpaid hobbie. How is being able to customize your character's powers NOT enticing to people who like to create things? Sounds exactly like the kind of thing a creator would want to do. Powers are just as important to creating a theme as the costume is.

You don't need to be a pro player to make a freeform character. Not everyone just makes crazy Frankenbuilds.

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flyingfinn · May 2017

spinnytop · May 2017

pantagruel01 said:

sterga said:
Uh, you forgot a huge draw to creative people that is a significant portion of this game: Free Form character creation.
I wouldn't really call it the same sort of thing, though there certainly is a subset of people who really love complicated, tweakable character creation systems.

The character creation system gives me the same feelings of enjoyment that the costume creator does personally. Creativity, self expression, creation. In fact I think I actually get a bigger creativity buzz from fiddling around with powers than I do costumes - I make neat costumes and change them sometimes sure, but I'm always trying to find ways to make my character's builds feel more unique and exciting, something that a lot of creative exploits share in common.

sterga said:
You don't need to be a pro player to make a freeform character. Not everyone just makes crazy Frankenbuilds.

Some of the most creative builds are frankenbuilds btw. I think you got your message mixed up there.

Unknown · May 2017

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Unknown · May 2017

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spinnytop · May 2017

caelach2011d said:
Yes, you are clearly more the socializer type. Your views seem to promote grouping. You have noted you often form groups, you participate in the forums robustly and applaud all decisions that promote that type of game.

Eh, not as much as you might think. I don't really like cosmics or other large scale group content. I prefer small group content; 2-5 players is what I like best. I also like solo content due to how casually I play games and it's nice to just hop on, do something meaningful for 15 minutes, and hop off without ever having to wait for other people.

Different players different ways to play, or Bartle's Taxonomy.

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