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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Impeesa" data-source="post: 5614944" data-attributes="member: 498">I have to disagree with this, and the multiple assertions that the psychographics apply only to combat. There are mechanics to everything, from games both combat and non, to real-world physics, to social dynamics. The ones that aren't in books may not be obvious, but if you can't see them at all, you're not looking hard enough. And if you see rules and mechanics governing something you wish to be involved in (be it a game, or a social circle, or a traffic system separating you from the grocery store), and don't have some instinctive sense of how to work with them, I'm not sure what to say really. Choosing actions based on prediction of outcomes, in any context, is a pretty basic brain function and requires an understanding of the rules and mechanics involved in order to make those predictions. The thing about costs is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_cost" target="_blank">pretty fundamental</a> as well (see also <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_theory" target="_blank">game theory</a>).So, then, given that premise, it's not unreasonable to restrict your scope back down to "all games" or "all roleplaying games" and then categorize people by the manner in which they approach this process. Rather than try to get too comprehensive here (because it's 4 AM as I write this and I don't want to lose my tenuous grip on some sort of a point), I'll just throw out an example. I put it to you that the drama major with the woefully ineffective character may in fact be a Spike at heart - but his definition of optimal choices (both in character making and in play) is based on an entirely qualitative scale of game quality, rather than any particular rules-backed competence. If, though, he really likes playing some particular handicap, and does so repeatedly even if it adds less to the quality and atmosphere of the game than he might otherwise bring, maybe he's more of a Timmy with regards to variables he values.Can a game serve all three? Or, more accurately, all seven (the M:tG player profiles consider combinations of 2 or all 3 equally valid - I'm probably an all-3 sort of player, maybe a bit heavier on the Spike). Assuming the game has sufficient substance to be interesting to at least one of them, I suspect it's nearly guaranteed to have something for all of them. After all, the psychographics are more about how we interact with systems than what outcomes we're seeking in doing so. In brief, if there is a nontrivial system, there are ways of interacting with it. In something like roleplaying games, which can be simultaneously rigorously rules-regulated and highly subjective, it might be better to ask what all possible values and and outcomes people might seek are, and whether a game can offer something for all of them. I sort of suspect the answer is, again, "technically, trivially yes," but that could just be my limited perspective.</blockquote>

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