Help CSU Researchers Define Gamer Personalities

From the very first time I started researching Bartle’s player types, I’ve been fascinated by how well this taxonomy of player motivations for games maps to my understanding of the “non-game world”. For those who aren’t familiar, Bartle’s player types are a typology developed by Richard Bartle to understand the motivations of people who play games. Although they have since been expanded, his original grouping – Achiever, Explorer, Socializer and Killer continue to be an enduring, meaningful and “a-ha!” way of looking at people’s motivations.

Whenever I give a hands-on workshop – as I am doing with my nearly sold-out worldwide tour – I always begin with an investigation of human psychology. This includes a roundup of relevant research and behavioral models that help us unpack drive, motivation and engagement. Bartle’s work features prominently in that discussion (we do a number of exercises based on it), and workshoppers always find it interesting and useful.

But despite steadily growing interest in Bartle’s work, and a broadly held belief (at least by gamification experts) that it tracks somehow to personality types – there hasn’t been the rigorous psychological research required to map Bartle’s theory of player motivation to non-game play. So when Daniel Martin, a professor and researcher at CSU EB and I connected recently at a meeting at Stanford, it was fortuitous. Dan expressed a strong interest in unpacking Bartle as it relates to non-game behavior, and so took up the mantle of helping to create the first personality test based on how we play games.

This is a huge step for the gamification (and game design) communities, as it’s one of the logical foundational steps in breaking down the barriers between fictional game experiences and real-world interaction. If we can map how we play to how we are, we can build ever more engaging experiences and help users achieve mastery while experiencing maximal flow, joy and interest.

As someone interested in the subject, you’re invited to be among the first to take the test. Please help us by donating a few minutes of your time (less than 10) to filling out the test online. Answers are anonymous, and your contribution will help Dan and his colleagues build a normalized data set from which to extract personality traits that matter. You can also evangelize the survey to your friends (tweet this article with the links below) and let them know how important it is to connect game behavior to real world personality.

Once again, I’m excited to help drive the discussion of gamification in a constructive way, and look forward to getting the results. Thanks to Dan and his team at CSUEB for their interest in games and gamification!