MUD's are Multi User Domains and are 'typically' text-based RPGs with one significant difference: a chat element allowing players to interact with eachother online (at a very basic level). This type of game has now become widely popular and is referred to as a MMORPG, a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.
Bartle describes two distinct playing styles: Action (World orientated) and Interaction (Player orientated). These are then split into four types of players, known as...
- Achievers: See leveling up and gathering points as their overall goal. Achievers tend to set themselves goals and are constantly on the look out to improve their character in any way they can.
- Killers: Players that use killing others as their overall goal. They often just want to cause distress to the other players, limiting their enjoyment of the game - the less fun others have at the behest of the Killer the more fun the Killer experiences.
- Socialisters: Players that base their playthrough around talking to others and making new friendships. Socialisers tend to play just because of the inter-player relationships that can be formed, and often don't care that much about the intended objectives of the game.
- Explorers: Players that want to learn everything about the game terrain they are playing through. Explorers often try to find and explore the game Mechanics and enjoy discovering interesting objects and artifacts within the game. These kind of players get enjoyment from things such as being the 'first' player to discover a hidden item, or location.
Bartle uses metaphors for each of these gaming personalities, he uses the suits from a pack of playing cards to do so:
- Hearts (Socialisers care about players feelings)
- Spades (Explorers tend to 'dig up' strange new places)
- Diamonds (Achievers want to have the best of the best when it comes to score and items)
- Clubs (Killers club people to death)
Relationships
Socialisers: Tend to socialise with each and every player time, but mainly speak to other Socialisers. They take an interest in the game purely so they have people to talk to.
Achievers: Achievers see other Achievers as a form of competition, and often want to 'out-rank' them within a game. This type of player sees the game as a very important aspect of their life.
Killers: Killers target Achievers as enemies. The game means so much to the Achievers that the stress caused by the Killer can be maximised against these players.
Explorers: Do not usually want to fight back against Killers, but when they do the Killers may need to treat cautiously as in the process of exploring the Explorer may have found powerful items that could lead to the Killer's demise.
Bartle tells us that the balance between these player-types needs to be in balance. Each of the player-types offers a relationship with another player-type, leading to mass player interaction. If one of these types was to drop in population, chances are that another type that relied on that one would also drop in population. For example if the population of Achievers dropped dramatically you may find that the population of Killers also drops; this is due to the Killers wanting to maximise their 'annoyance level', and Social or Explorer players dont necessarily get annoyed at being killed.
Less Achievers = Less Killers
Conclusion
Throughout this article I have learned about different player types which have been noticable to me but never really broken down in my life as an MMORPG player. However I would consider my own playstyle to be a mixture of all of these aspects as I enjoy taking part in all of these activities. I feel that in newer MUD's players can be forced to experience all of these playstyles whilst leveling up. There are often segments of the game-world that specific types of players enjoy hanging out. For example PvP zones for Killers and high score leaderboards for the Achievers. This article may have been a little old, but it definately can be applied to modern games and gamers.
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