What kinda gamer are you?

[Umbran]

Can I be a thinking - story teller?

I don't need to be in the elusive, elite 12% but those two are both descriptive of me?

Yes, because again, you have to keep the list of things that all RPGers like in mind:

• Strong Characters and Exciting Story
• Role Playing
• Complexity Increases over Time
• Requires Strategic Thinking
• Competitive
• Add on sets/New versions available
• Uses imagination
• Mentally challenging

In other words, even the Powergamer, who by description is all about the immediate combat threat, also likes role playing.

I think that's important to remember - as the article says, we are all "blue". The differences between the groups don't mean you absolutely don't like something in another group. They merely suggest that you tend to lean one way or another.

 

[barsoomcore]

Interesting.

Rather than say which one I am, since I can't decide, I'll say which I'm not: Power Gamer. I like the planning and min-maxing of the Thinker (especially as DM), I really enjoy the theatricals of the Character Actor, and as a DM I also love Story-Telling. But the dice rolling and so on of the Power Gamer is less interesting for me.

What I find very strange is the "Competitive" core value. Competitive in what sense? Players competing against each other? Or is this just referring to the idea that the players should be presented with challenges? I don't get it.

 

[Particle_Man]

Great article!

I am definitely a Thinker. I have traces of the other types, but I am the guy that loves to make up characters, max them out within certain defined parameters (like trying to make a Duelist that isn't weak) and does so even when I know for a fact I will not be using those characters in any campaign. It is like creating a work of art, or solving a crossword puzzle. THEN I add roleplaying stuff that fits the "skeleton", and sometimes this leads to a modification of that "skeleton".

But I like this categorization. It does show me what I have to make allowances for as a DM, as I do not DM all and only thinkers.

 

[Celtavian]

re

Well, many folks might be tempted to say that. But we should remember that groupings are a matter of statistics - the differences between the groups could seem to us to be pretty darned fine.

The article suggests that people who fit into one group do like things from all the other groups too. The list that John Chriton quoted is of stuff that gamers want pretty much universally, which means that the distinctions between the groups are pretty small - they are minor tendencies within a general class.

It'd be interesting to see the questions, and the transform used to come up wiht the plot, so that folks could actually find where the questionnaire would place them.

I'm sticking by my self-assessment of being in the fifth category. I put equal parts into all aspects of the game whether a player or DM.

 

[John Crichton]

Yes, because again, you have to keep the list of things that all RPGers like in mind:

• Strong Characters and Exciting Story
• Role Playing
• Complexity Increases over Time
• Requires Strategic Thinking
• Competitive
• Add on sets/New versions available
• Uses imagination
• Mentally challenging

In other words, even the Powergamer, who by description is all about the immediate combat threat, also likes role playing.

I think that's important to remember - as the article says, we are all "blue". The differences between the groups don't mean you absolutely don't like something in another group. They merely suggest that you tend to lean one way or another.

To agree with the agreement: Looking back on all the games I have ever participated in this makes perfect sense. Everyone who I have ever considered a powergamer (which included me when I first started) wanted some story in there. It's kinda odd looking back and seeing how all these different people, while they wanted different things from the game all really wanted something similar.