Interesting review of different roleplaying types

[Gilrond]

http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm

It's written in context of MUDs, but very much applies to MMORPGs as well.

[Illysia]

I remember that paper. It is interesting to say the least, but I always felt that MMOs did bring enough new dynamics to where there should be more than 4 categories, even if those four are probably still the major groupings.

[Taya]

I have seen versions of this that do go on and further divide the categories. No links to hand for it though sadly.

It's definitely an interesting thing to look at either way, but I've also never been able to slot myself or a lot of other players I know very neatly into the categories. I guess it would be interesting to hear which different people think they are and why though.

[Pakarro]

One should never put people into slots. The slot "human" would be ok, in most cases at least...

[LigH]

You won't "put a square peg into a round hole", anyway. Unless the hole is so big that any peg would fit. And there are sometimes pegs which make their own holes.

So, come on, let me entertain you!

[Gilrond]

Pakarro: As any archetypes, these don't describe individual people. They describe tendencies. All of them can be present in any particular individual in various proportions. So it's an interesting research.

[Volki]

One should never put people into slots. The slot "human" would be ok, in most cases at least...

You're absolutely right, Pakarro. We should treat everyone the same, ignoring both their imperfections and specialties. In this case, personality differences that translate into playing style. This is the cost of categorizing people. Cornering them into definitions just so we can better balance our games. It's inhuman. Who are we to strip away a person's conformity... The injustice of it all!

[Denes]

Study of human behavioral patterns is hardly a new field. Might get controversial though, as it is not a “hard” science IMO.
+1 for the interesting part. Thanks for sharing!

PS: My favorite quote from Life of Brian:
Brian: Look, you've got it all wrong! You don't NEED to follow ME, You don't NEED to follow ANYBODY! You've got to think for your selves! You're ALL individuals!
The Crowd: Yes! We're all individuals!
Brian: You're all different!
The Crowd: Yes, we ARE all different!
Man in crowd: I'm not...
The Crowd: Sch!