Bartle taxonomy of player types - Wikipedia
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The best example i can think of this is in the game barotrauma, someone once asked “why do you grief?” The question itself is best answered by Bartle’s Multiplayer Psychology maxim. We all lean toward some aspects of basic multiplayer motivations: Socialites, Explorers, Achievers or Killers. If you don’t have much ‘killer’ (defined as someone who gets their fun by causing a negative reaction in others) in you, then it’s hard to understand that motivation. Of course, few griefers will admit to that need. No-one is 100% one motivation, but Our Explorers lean toward Engineer roles, our Socialites are Medics or Captains, while our Achievers and more balanced motivation players tend toward Captains and Security.

This is the only way I can understand killers/griefers, as I struggle to see the emotional reward in the action.

  • Nelots@piefed.zipEnglish
    5·
    13 days ago

    An interesting test, I guess. I got scored as 80% explorer, 40% achiever and socialite, and 17% killer. While the killer score being so low is pretty spot on, I can’t really agree with the rest. Many a time throughout the test, I had to pick between two options I would never do. For example, one of the questions was (paraphrasing):

    “Somebody PK’d you. Do you want to find out why and convince them not to do it again, or do you plan your revenge?”

    My answer would have been neither. I got killed in a game with PVP, that happens, I’ll just move on. But I had to pick the top option, despite how ridiculous the idea of finding out why a PKer just PK’d me is. Which I imagine pushes me further into the socialite category, despite quite literally never socializing with random people in games.

    • MurrayL@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      13 days ago

      It might give you some comfort to know that that exact flaw has been noted many times before about the test. It’s even mentioned on the wiki page:

      the test has been met with some criticism for the dichotomous nature of its question-asking method

      Ultimately, the utility of Bartle’s research is not so people can self-test, but that it gives a useful set of target audiences to refer to when designing a game.