Just some food for thought here.
We’ve seen topics about Bartle’s Taxonomy before, mostly asking people about which type they feel they fit into… but seldom really taking a deep dive into it and the implications it implies. WoW’s evolution over the years shows what I feel is a large amount of neglect in this particular aspect of MMO design theory, or to put it more simply, the design choices in the game have pushed it so far in one particular direction that it now specifically appeals to ONE of these groups and the others are feeling the game has essentially abandoned them.
So to give everyone a primer, here’s a link to one of the oldest articles on the subject (possibly the original):
http://mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm
To be more helpful, here’s the two-axis graph from the article in the link above:
ACTING
Killers | Achievers
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PLAYERS -------------------+------------------- WORLD
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Socialisers | Explorers
INTERACTING
And a couple of videos summarizing the subject:
Now for a quick overview of the different groups…
Achievers
Mode of Play – Acting upon the World
Motive – Acknowledgement
Probably the simplest group to understand from a design standpoint, these are the players that want to play the game and complete all the objectives within it. When the game acknowledges what they’ve done, be it high scores, achievement notifications, and various rewards… all the neurons fire in their brain and they’re happy.
For the most part, how the other groups interact with them mostly comes down to how useful they are to their objectives:
- Achievers like their kindred in both a competitive sense and they can be useful for finding like-minded people to attain their goals.
- Explorers are oddballs to them with strange interests (and can be annoying when cease to be directly useful), but can provide valuable information from time-to-time.
- Socializers are ignored because they don’t help nor impede them.
- Killers are disliked because they can get in the way and frustrate them.
For the most part, keeping these people happy comes down to ALWAYS giving them something to do.
Explorers
Mode of Play – Interacting with the World
Motive – Discovery
Explorers are an odd group to say the least… but their main motive of “discovery” (and generally speaking, trying to learn something new) helps put things into context. Mastery and character progression are just tools to them, they don’t like perfecting stuff… but they do like to experiment with the game. If they aren’t hunting for forgotten lands, they’re tinkering with the game to see what works; as such, sometimes these are the people trying to see what can be solo’d for the sake of it.
Explorers tend to be something of lone wolves, but still interact with other players in many cases:
- Achievers are willing listeners at times… and other times stubborn fools who are too busy chasing their own goals instead of focusing on the joys of discovery and seeing what’s possible.
- Fellow explorers are much beloved. FINALLY! Someone they can talk who can actually contribute to the discussion without getting bogged down over the semantics and small talk!
- Socializers are… well, people who focus on small talk rather than the more substantial discussions explorers are often craving.
- Killers are disliked, but not to the same extent that Achievers despise them. The odd one isn’t a problem… but a lot of them becomes a serious obstacle to deal with.
To put it simply, Explorers want content and variety; they don’t need a system to tell them what to do, they’ll just go out and find it. They also enjoy it when there’s unusual abilities in the game with niche utility, it gives them tools to experiment with and see what’s possible; glitches in the game can be enjoyable provided they’re not game-breaking. They also enjoy a good story in many cases, as it functions as a form of “content”… but they also dislike rehashed content which merely modifies something existing slightly, as it feels too similar to what was done before.
On a minor note, explorers don’t like being constrained and forced down a single route for a game. As natural explorers and experimenters (sometimes helplessly so), they’re actively looking to go off the beaten path just to see what’s there. A good way to look at it is that they’d be classified as a “scientist” in this old webcomic:
https://xkcd.com/242/
Socializers
Mode of Play – Interacting with Players
Motive – Playing with Friends
Socializers are pretty straightforward, they like to play with their friends (no matter the activity) and REALLY like to talk. A bit of neglected crowd in general, they had a healthy presence in WoW for the longest time simply because WoW was the only game of note on the block. These are also the players that really enjoy things like player housing and role-playing, ways for them to play (and talk) with their friends in more ways.
Now, how do they interact with other types?
- A strange relationship with Achievers… the two seldom interact. Interestingly, socializers enjoying talking ABOUT achievers, something like celebrity gossip in a sense.
- Explorers and socializers both like to talk… but about entirely different subjects. Socializers like small talk, while explorers crave “substance” of some variety (game secrets, tricks, and other things).
- Socializers like fellow socializers, it’s someone who likes to talk!
- Remember what I said that neither of the first two groups disliking killers? That’s NOTHING compared to the burning hatred socializers have for killers, probably not helped by the fact killers enjoy preying on them and making their lives miserable (which they are VERY good at).
Socializers have an internal, positive feedback loop. More people to talk to will attract more socializers… and less people to talk to means there will be less of them.
Killers
Mode of Play – Acting upon Players
Motive – Dominance
Ah, now we come to the crowd no one seems to really like – killers. These guys exist for one purpose, to exert their dominance over others by any means necessary. While PvP is an “obvious” tool to accomplish this, they are known to use other means: topping DPS meters (even if it means standing in the fire to stay ahead), cornering the market on the auction house, being gatekeepers over others, and proudly displaying rare or unobtainable rewards because they know other people can’t have them.
A lot of those sound similar to what an achiever would want, but it comes down to the underlying motive. An achiever would want them as a trophy to display, while a killer would use that trophy to essentially say “I’m better than you!”; sometimes close observation is required to see the difference.
Killers don’t like to lose face, to say the least; APPEARING dominant is just as important to actually being dominant. “Playing fair” is optional, and preferably avoided. They aren’t here to make friends, they’re here to climb to the top by any means necessary.
Going through the motion, how killers view the groups is… interesting:
- Achievers are natural prey, and tend to be more “sporting” type. They’re good at the game, but not necessarily at fighting off other people. They know they’ve caused some anger and enjoy it. Killers will avoid ones they feel they don’t stand a chance against, however.
- Explorers are odd, and it comes down to threat level and a surprising lack of reaction from the victims. Explorers view them as a nuisance in most cases, and tend to ignore them unless they’re interrupting them at a really bad time. But with explorers being prone to experimenting, they sometimes can be more dangerous than they seem to the killer with novel ideas they may be able to use to their advantage. As such, killers may avoid them due to being less rewarding and unknown risks… provided they bother to discern them from another group.
- Killers LOVE socializers… but not in a good way. Pure glee at helpless victims, you could say.
- Other killers are competitors, and quite often it’s treated similar to achievers… but with an added factor of risk because they know how to fight. Killers will typically only engage another killer when they’re certain about victory.
Killer numbers tend to increase with the number of victims they can prey upon, and despite achievers disliking them… the two groups tend to form a natural equilibrium between the two. Their presence tends to be harmful to both socializers and explorers, though the former will feel the effects first and flee when things get hot; the latter will only start to chafe when there’s FAR too many of them and they start impeding the exploration at every turn.
Now then, we come to WoW.
As noted, I think the game has been overrun by one particular group – ACHIEVERS.
The signs are obvious, notably how domineering gear progression and other systems have become in the game recently. Achievements are obvious, but we also get into stuff like limited-time rewards and outside systems like IO score and constantly increasing item level. Damage output seems to be the core focus of what’s left of the community, while there’s little room for experimentation; corruption doesn’t really count, the downsides are too annoying to be worth bothering with.
In case it wasn’t obvious, I consider myself an explorer first and foremost… and I’d say most of the issues I have with the game stem from the fact there’s next-to-nothing which is there to interest me anymore. The exploration aspects have been neglected and I’ve already exhausted all there is to see in the game; and I’m still grumpy about parts of the game being removed for the sake of removing them (MoP cloak, WoD ring, mage tower, and so on). Everything is tailor-made for achievers.
This doesn’t seem too bad by itself… except thanks to an over-the-top systemization approach to the game’s design, there’s NOTHING to really explore. It’s the same stuff hashed out again and again, with slight variations. The socializers have all but fled, with some small RP-focused pockets confined to a select few servers. Fellow explorers? They seem to be nowhere to be found. Achiever and killer numbers seem to have remained constant, and I can’t say I enjoy interacting with either group (differing interests, to put it mildly).
I guess it remains to see if WoW will do anything to cater to the other player groups in Shadowlands… but based on what I’m seeing so far, I’m not getting my hopes up. A new expansion means new places to explore… but how they go about it will be more telling.