What Kind of Player are You?!

Ever wonder what type of player you were when it came to video games?  Did you already have an idea of what type of player you were?  Do you not identify yourself as a player at all?  Take a look at the list of types of players.  I know that a few of them really surprised me.  Hopefully you find yourself at home with one, or more, types!

"Playing Video Games: Motives, Responses, and Consequences" lays out 9 different types of players.  Let's go through them one-by-one.

First we have the type everyone knows of, and sometimes grudges against:

The Competitor

http://www.techiestate.com/improve-your-visual-acuity-by-playing-video-games/

The Competitor is the player who plays to be better than everyone else.  This player will stop at nothing to win.  They may get aggressive if they do not win.  Be cautious when one of these types of players loses while you are around, they may throw their controller at you.  When I was younger, playing Contra on Nintendo (NES) was one of my favorite games to play.  I played with my younger brother, of course.  For some reason, he was always better than me. But whenever I played with him and he lost a life or I "made him die", he would slam his controller on the end of the bed just to show how angry he was.  There were times he would have to be banned from playing video games for a day or two because he just could not control his anger.  He had to win.

The Explorer

https://wowmisadventures.wordpress.com/2010/10/05/

The Explorer is the one player who plays to experience the boundaries of the play world in order to discover what others do not know yet. One example is when Mount Hyjal was under construction in World of Warcraft, there was one way to get in that not many players knew about.  If you were dead, you could sneak your way in and make your way up the mountain, an achievement that no other live character could get to.  I feel that I am part explorer because while I play World of Warcraft I search for things that are not commonly known by most players.  One thing for instance is the Onyx Egg.  When you are increasing your reputation with the Order of the Cloud Serpent, you can use these eggs to raise your reputation quicker.  These eggs are cleverly hidden and have a low spawn rate, so they are tough to find.  But even after I was exalted with the Order of the Cloud Serpent, I still continued to find eggs, even though I had no use for them anymore.  It was just fun because not many players knew where they were.

The Collector

The Collector plays to acquire as much STUFF as they can throughout the game.  In the PC games of Nancy Drew, there are literally Easter Eggs, not only were they the in-game Easter egg tricks that Warren Robinett first created in Atari 2600 game "Adventure", these were Easter Eggs that if you put in the write codes for a door, or clicked the right thing X number of times, you get an Easter Egg.  Normally there are three in the game.  Unless you play for hours and hours on end, you will never find one by accident.  I have made it my goal in every game to collect them all, and hopefully remember where they are and how I get them when I play the next time around.

Another game I could be considered a Collector for could possibly be Pokemon Leaf Green.  I mean, you gotta catch 'em all.

The Achiever

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/exodar/Regnibla/achievement#81:a8306

The Achiever plays to not only be better than everyone, but to have the best rankings over time or the most wins.  When I think of the Achiever, I think of the person who wins realm firsts, *COUGH COUGH* my boyfriend, in World of Warcraft.  In every expansion there are always realm firsts for certain categories. The category my boyfriend accomplished realm first for was Archaeology. He has won two realm firsts in a row for Archaeology. I told him that I am going to win when the next expansion releases in the late fall. He wasn't too happy with me being competition for him to reach realm first. Maybe I will try for Herbalism or Fishing, I'm really good at fishing (All the rares, all the time!).

The Joker

http://breakingmuscle.com/family-kids/wired-kids-how-screen-time-affects-childrens-brains

The Joker plays just for fun, for the social aspect of gaming.  Now that I think of it, I don't know many people who play just for the fun of the game or simply for the social aspect. There is usually some sort of gain the players I have experienced are playing for. If I were to call someone the Joker, it would have to be after the player had lost a game and did not get sour or rude about the game play or other players.

The Director

http://www.comicbooktherapy.com/the-hardcore-review-going-viral-with-the-guild-33290

The Director plays for the thrill of being in charge.  They want to orchestrate an event in the virtual world.  One fictional character who does this is Vork from the web series The Guild. Other than the episodes where he appointed Kodex as guild leader to prove a point, he himself was guild leader. He scheduled all of the raids and meetings for his guild and loved doing it. 

The Storyteller

The Storyteller plays to create or live in an alternative world and build narrative out of that world.  

I remember in my 6th grade science class, my teacher brought in the game Simcity for students to play around with before school started or after school while waiting for the buses.  The day I was able to create part of the city I felt so much power.  I was creating a world; a world where people worked, and depended on their surroundings that I created.

The Performer

The Performer is the person who plays for an audience. They do special moves or use a unique style of controller usage in order to impress their audience. My favorite "Performer" was my boyfriend from Freshman year of high school.  He was two years older than me and absolutely loved playing Guitar Hero for me, not just because he liked playing the game itself. He was amazing! He would play any song, on hard, while staring at his audience. He was a pro! Prom night, he stayed over and instead of going to the after prom party, we went to my place with a bunch of my friends and he put on a show.  That is him in the above picture, with my brother standing in "aww" at him probably playing Free Bird on Expert, of course.

The Craftsman

The Craftsman plays to build, solve puzzles, or engineer constructs. The Creative mode in Minecraft would be a good example of this.  The main premise is that the player builds and creates large projects. I have not played myself, but I know a few friends who may be teetering on the addictive side of playing Minecraft.

Next up we have a different side of gaming you may not have consciously thought of.  My next blog will involve the stigma of hypersexuality in gaming.  More to come, stay tuned.

Vorderer, P., & Bryant, J. (2006). Playing Video Games: Motives, Responses, and Consequences. New York, NY: Taylor and Francis Group.