[MUD-Dev] Interesting expansion on Bartle's Four

[Raph Koster]

This was posted on a Lum's discussion board by a fellow going by the handle
of TPRJones:

start quote--->
If you've ever dealt with the Birkman <http://www.birkman.com>, then this
will be a bit familiar to you. Here is a graphical representation of
Bartle's types that I just whipped up:

http://pages.tca.net/jamesj/Images/bartle.jpg

This shows the basic four Bartle points, along with a visual representation
as to why Killers and Explorers don't get along, just as Socialites and
Acheivers don't get along.

Furthermore, there are four "pure" points:
5 - "PvP Roleplayer" - This point is purely interested in interaction with
(and action upon) other players. The game environment is of no interest
whatsoever except as a backdrop. A player at this point is as likely to
roleplay with you as to kill you.
6 - "Storyteller" - This point is purely interested in interaction, as
opposed to action. These players are as likely to try to have a deeply
roleplayed conversation with NPCs as they are with other players. They love
to play bards and other entertainers.
7 - "Builder" - This point is purely interested in interaction with (and
action upon) the game environment. This includes the soloist that never
speaks to or deals with anyone else ("Hermits") along with those who like to
disect the game mechanics to see how they work, and even (if the game
allows) create new game elements.
8 - "Activist" - This point is purely interested in action, be it on the
game environment or on other players. These players hate to talk, and will
instead leap into action, any action, to avoid conversation.

Just as the far corners will have little to do with each other, so these
four "pure" points will also rarely interact. The Storyteller and the
Activist will have a hard time understanding each other, as will the Builder
(or Hermit) and the PvP Roleplayer.

Lastly, there's the central point, #9. This is the person that does and
talks about every aspect of the game, and is in perfect balance as far as
what they desire. Ideally, this is the point that an MMORPG development team
wants their scores to center around, on the average, so that the resulting
game is most likely to have balance, and a little something in it for each
of the four main types.

Perhaps we could get the Bartle scores of the dev teams of all the upcoming
games, take the average for each team, and plot a Bartle's Graph showing the
results for each upcoming MMORPG? That would be very informative, I think,
and would be a great entry on the Sacred List for each game.

TPRJones

<---end quote




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