The Bartle Test

Another short post, with useful links. One of the problems in designing a good MMORPG is to give the players what they want, because different players want different things. So somebody named Richard Bartle went and actually wrote a scientific paper about the different player types. It is about players in MUDs, multi-user dungeons, the text-based grandfathers of the modern 3D MMORPG, but the same classification still applies.

He roughly divides players in 4 groups, Explorers, Socializers, Achievers, and Killers. Of course everybody is a bit of everything, I'm much of an Explorer, a bit of Socializer and Achiever, and not at all a player Killer. To find out what you are, somebody designed a Bartle test questionaire that gives you your Bartle (or ESAK) quotient. They also have extensive statistics, showing for example that killers are more likely to play Shadowbane, or the scores of some "famous" people in the genre.
- posted by Tobold @ 8:36 AM Permanent Link