My Gaming Type
{In this article, I would like to express my gaming style: my approaches, behaviours, and habits in games. I also want to talk about my favourites and my least favourites across the game genres. This will hopefully give more insight to the way in which I review games.}
So, how do I define what type of gamer I am?
Richard Bartle wrote a paper in 1996, splitting players into four categories. Bartle Taxonomy of Player Types is a classification that many game developers use it to gamify their games. In other words, to make their game more appealing and so to capture multiple types of players. To understand what type of gamer I am let us look at Bartle’s Taxonomy theory.
The Bartle Player Types are:
Killers: act upon other players
Killers create their own experiences using the players to change or create their own experiences. They thrive in competitive environments, and value their reputation.
Achievers: act upon the world
Achievers are focused on challenging themselves within the game. They want to satisfy their goals and earn achievements quickly and/or completely.
Socializers: interact with players
Socializers aim to form stronger bonds with players or form new relationships with other players. They value the stories that are built by the players.
Explorers: interact with world
Explorers seek knowledge. They focus on understanding the game’s mechanics, the structure of the world, and the player’s freedom. Explorers try to take full advantage of the systems in a game. They tend to discover secret locations, features, easter eggs, and/or find glitches.
Bartle Player Types are a good way to simplify how a player might interact with a game. But it is also common for people to have multiple Bartle Types, especially depending on the game being played. However, under the clear definitions Bartle created, the Explorer most represents my style of play.
Each game has its own identity, and numerous types of players that are looking for their own satisfactory experiences. But only a certain number of factors can satisfy a player enough to keep them playing the game.
Factors that most drive a gamer:
Story:
The story can carry a player through a world seamlessly, whether it be through world design, visual themes, player choices, NPC (Non-Player Character) interactions, audio files or written notes. An engaging story will make the player want to follow the story or even take part in it.
Objective:
In a game, an objective may be presented to a player, or the player may invent their own. This could come in the forms of finishing quests, tasks or levels. It also includes games that gives the player milestones when saving friends, defeating foes, problem solving, building, increasing stats, collecting items, or fulfilling achievements. A straightforward objective with enjoyable gameplay loop can keep a player playing for hours.
Experience:
A player’s satisfaction of a game may directly come from the player’s own experiences. The unique experience itself gives the player the immersion and motivation to keep playing. This is not something that can be given to a player, but it can be encouraged. For example, a linear game will have little or no unique experiences, while a non-linear game is more likely to encourage multiple styles of play. These unique experiences apply to both single-player and multiplayer games, but it is more frequent in multiplayer games. This is because the players interactions with each other or with the game can give players added choice.
To my observation, these three main motivators can be found in not only video games, but board games, and D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) like role-playing games. Like the Bartle Types above, the player’s style may vary depending on the player inclination and/or the game. For me, objective-based gameplay motivates me the most. Story-based gameplay is a close second.
My gaming type:
Up to now, we have looked at a two examples of player classification. But allow me to go more in depth. Aside from being an explorer and an objective based player, I am someone who deeply values innovative games that have a new spin on genres, concepts, themes, mechanics and/or art styles.
My most enjoyable gaming experiences come from the studio or developer that put a lot of love into their game, like Divinity Original Sin 2, Subnautica, and Stardew Valley. I play a lot of indie games for that very reason. Games that are worthy of being played multiple times are high on my list. When I go to Steam, the games that peak my interest are those that are artistly charming, like Invisible INC, Don’t Starve, and more recently Gris. I also seek out challenging or difficult games like Darkest Dungeon and Dark Souls.
I approach games as both a way to relax and a way to explore the world that the studio or developer created. I want to learn about the game by playing the game. I am disappointed by the games having their stories outside of the game in other forms of media. I also avoid games that have pay to win mechanics or ask for too much money or time from their audience.
In game, I have a habit of collecting everything, spend too many hours perfecting a game to my own standards and I compulsively try to find secrets or stories around every corner. Single-player games allow me to take as long as I want to do a satisfyingly, thorough search of the world. When I really adore a game, I will sometimes try to get as many achievements as possible, leaving only the grindy achievements behind. I find it hard to play games with older 3D graphics. Single-player games are my bread and butter, but I also play multiplayer, Co-op (cooperative) and MMOS (Massive Multiplayer Online Games). I circumvent most PVP (Player VS Player) games unless it is a card game.
My favorited genres are:
puzzle
strategy
survival
story-based
turn-based
point and clicks
I am most captivated by themes of:
adventure
fantasy
mystery
science-fiction
But I also play a multitude of RPG’s (Role Playing Games), simulations, visual novels, side scrollers, FPS’s (First Person Shooters), open world games, shoot em ups, roguelikes, card games, and RTS’s (Real Time Strategy’s). I am willing to try most games once. However, I dislike themes of gore, violence, war simulation, sports, and racing, with some exceptions.
And finally, I am mainly a PC game player. Therefore, I mostly play on mouse and keyboard, I am less experienced with a controller.
That is just the type of gamer I am.
2020