By: Mushegh Hakobjanyan
There are many different kinds of games out there, but not every kind of game appeals to everyone. How can you figure out which sorts of games you prefer? It may all come down to a simple quiz.
A psychologist named Richard Bartle studied different types of gamers and came up with a classification system. Later, a quiz was created to help people decide what sort of gamer they are based on this classification. You can find a copy of the quiz here!
Try and we’ll talk about the results together.
At the end, you’ll get a percentage of how much you are as an explorer, an achiever, a killer, and a socializer. Here’s what each one of them means.
Achievers: Achievers are people want to achieve goals within the context of the game itself. They want to master the game by achieving the goals set by the game. For instance, in a simple arcade game it might be to reach the furthest level or to get the highest number of points just for the sake of showing mastery of the game.
Many gambling games are suited to the achiever mindset. Most of those have a goal of amassing the most money over time. This need to achieve can be a root cause of things like compulsive gambling. Achievers can spend quite a lot of money at something like slots or bingo trying to reach that elusive jackpot. Take a look at this infographic of different gambling games and you can see they all have an achiever mentality embedded in them. However, not all of them are only achiever-based.
Killers: Killers are the flipside of achievers. Instead of mastering the game world, they want to show their superiority over the other players by any means necessary. In a gambling context, the goal wouldn’t be to amass as much money as possible by mastering the game. It would be about beating all the other players. Competitive poker is a fine example of a killer-oriented gambling game.
Killers aren’t necessarily driven to be nasty to other people. They just have a very strong competitive streak. The online tournament tennis player that seeks to be number one in the world or your buddies playing fantasy football also have the killer mentality. The goal is to show superiority over other people using the tool of the game.
Socializers: While achievers and killers like to play a game alone, socializers and explorers want to share their game experiences with others rather than beat them. On the socializer side, the importance of the game is the ability to communicate with other people. The ability to chat with others during a game can be a big draw for socializers. Many casual game enthusiasts fall into this category.
Socializing is one of the reasons online bingo has boomed. Quiet is demanded in bingo halls so people know when someone has won. Online bingo removes that restriction. And since bingo doesn’t take a lot of thought it’s easy to strike up a conversation while playing the game.
Explorers: Explorers are deeply interested in the systems of the game they’re playing, but the goal is to share that information with other players and for its own enjoyment. An explorer might do some of the same things that an achiever does but for different reasons. It’s not for the sake of the goal, but for the sake of the journey.
Only a few gambling games fit into this mold. Complex scratch-off tickets or any gambling game with complicated mechanics are suitable for explorers. But the explorer mentality is much more satisfied with low-pressure situations where they can take their time and work in their own way.
No one is solely one type. That’s why the quiz divides 200% among the four categories and then ranks them by percentage. Once you can see the pattern in your own gaming and reflect on the types of games you’ve enjoyed over time, you may be pleasantly surprised at how much it correlates. This can help you with future game decisions. It can also show you the kinds of games that you really dislike.
Have your friends take the quiz and see how you match up!
Article contributed by BingoMania – Bingo Games.