Comments on: Player Motivation and Types Revisited, Again

By: Gnome Stewart Will Strangle You in Your Sleep with GMing Links - Gnome Stew, the Game Mastering Blog

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:33:32 +0000

[...] DM: Teaching Role Playing Games to New Players is about that very thing, and it’s solid. Player Motivation and Types Revisited, Again revises the now-classic list of player archetypes from Robin’s Laws of Good Gamemastering, [...]

By: Ostar

Ostar — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:35:42 +0000

Points for finding a way to use a picture of Doris Day!
Otherwise, nothing to add to this excellent article.

By: Graham

Graham — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 03:16:52 +0000

Nah, that’s more method actor.

By: Flying Dutchman

Flying Dutchman — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 13:17:33 +0000

You are very correct. I misread the “unfold” part of that description, and assumed the storyteller persona was the type of player who makes up endless background stories in prose or poetry for his character.

By: Graham

Graham — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 23:50:58 +0000

That would be a combination of Storyteller and Butt Kicker. The Butt Kicker is still there for the triumph over a challenge, but the excited over description stuff is Storyteller.

By: Flying Dutchman

Flying Dutchman — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:19:52 +0000

True, especially for the combat- and puzzle-aspect, but how would you explain the horror gaming? There are people playing games to get scared out of their minds. Every now and then, when I’ve managed to produce something really scary in a campaign; this guy goes bananas, he absolutely loves it! And I’m not necessarily talking about fighting or presenting a challenge, just descriptions, vivid story-telling, he loves it! Kind of like how you used to tell your friends scary stories at night when sleeping over (without the horrid sudden-flashlight-from-below effect though).

By: Graham

Graham — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 15:51:36 +0000

@Flying Dutchman -

No need. That seems to fall under a combination of Butt Kicker and Outlier. The desire to experience and overcome new challenges (not just combat) is Butt Kicker, and trying crazy, wacky ideas that often result in death is pure Outlier to me.

Not everybody will fall under a single player type, after all.

By: Flying Dutchman

Flying Dutchman — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 15:29:04 +0000

I was thinking about one guy who plays with us. This guy enjoys the thrill of a good fight, or when I (as GM) set a timer for them to come up with an idea or a solution in a limited amount of time. He usually just panics and blurts out insane ideas that never work or get him killed, but he enjoys it nonetheless. He can get really pissed off and hold grudges against enemies they’ve made in-game, remembers names, and actively seeks friendships with NPC’s.
Maybe an idea for a new player type (or an explansion of the butt-kicker), because this guy also plays for the excitement. And not just combat like the butt-kicker, but also when I try to make things scary, or set a time limit; his eyes flare up like he’s some psyched dog about to go chase a Frisbee.

By: ChattyDM

ChattyDM — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 14:30:46 +0000

Reinstated Lurking and added Cheetoism, Escapism and Competition to player motivations.

By: Noumenon

Noumenon — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 14:09:39 +0000

I was comparing to the “player motivations” section from before (I was gonna save your list in my big D&D text file and found that I already had the list in there from before). I never saved the “player types” list.

By: ChattyDM

ChattyDM — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:44:57 +0000

In my mind lurking was more or less a player type that could be rolled in the Casual Player… You think otherwise?

I’d add Cheetoism as a player motivation (Along with Greywulf’s definitions)

By: Noumenon

Noumenon — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:29:56 +0000

I noticed that you removed “Lurker: No clear goal or motivation except to show up at the game and participate.” What was good about that one is that it gave me some way to understand the dwarven monk who sits quietly at all decision sessions and never attempts anything I’d call “cool.” I used to think he must be bored, but once I classed him as a lurker then I understood why he would keep showing up to our gaming sessions.

The downside of “lurker” is that this player does have a “psychodrama” facet that you’d never notice unless you talked to him after the game and heard him explain all the emotions his character was going through. You might miss it if you just wrote him off as a lurker.

By: Flying Dutchman

Flying Dutchman — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 19:42:36 +0000

Well, your international audience doesn’t necessarily celebrate the 4th of July ofcourse
But back on-topic, you are certainly right, the designer-type player usually plays (although probably not primarily) to test his own systems or to get inspiration for new ideas. I think it is indeed a characteristic of the Gaming-enthusiast. This player I referred to earlier does it with computer games as well; designing in map & campaign editors till deep in the night. But the actual designing-thingamagooeys does not (or at least, SHOULD not) take place during the actual sessions.

By: ChattyDM

ChattyDM — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 19:32:55 +0000

As for making a quiz of this… if someone wants to tackle the challenge, I’d be more than willing to host it on my site. I don,t have the chops for this

By: ChattyDM

ChattyDM — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 19:29:44 +0000

Hey, I’m actually happy someone showed up on July 4th!

We actually have a player like that in our group… but he does that designer tinkering away from the table. Since it’s away from the table, I’m not sure I would construe this as a motivation… but having gone stark raving mad for D&D 3.X crunch for so many years before growing tired of it, I can definitively see this as a motivation to play RPGs (but I would also say that it’s a Gamer motivation, not just RPG)

By: Flying Dutchman

Flying Dutchman — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 19:24:12 +0000

I just keep commenting, I know.

But another motivation, which might be interesting, and is (naturally among others) a certain motivation for one of our players; would be exploring the rules, systems, and the possibility to manipulate/alter such rules. Not for the causes of powerplay, mind you, but to develop a deeper understanding of game mechanics. The player in our group who does this, is fascinated when a new house rule is presented, studies it in detail, and knows it inside-out in a week. This guy constantly develops new classes, weapons, races, and rules. They are rarely unbalanced, as he sees balancing as a challenge in itself. I don’t know if this type of player is rare, since I’ve only played with one group, but we have at least one such player, and I myself am a bit like this too, and all the other players also show interest occasionally.
I would say that understanding and controlling a comprehensible system with great possibilities could be a drive for this kind of player.

By: ChattyDM

ChattyDM — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:36:19 +0000

@Anon: It’s obvious that my antispam doesn’t like Anonymous commenters. I restored it.

The books I read on RPG table psych mention that you can have selfish players of all types and that selfishness more than motivation leads to trouble.

I had a post on this earlier on, let me see…

http://chattydm.net/2007/09/27/the-4-stages-of-a-rpg-teams-development-norming/

By: ChattyDM

ChattyDM — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:25:23 +0000

Yeah sorry I’m at work and things are going a bit faster than I can deal with them right now. Here’s the link, which you found, IM sure!

http://cheetoism.pbwiki.com/

By: Flying Dutchman

Flying Dutchman — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:23:00 +0000

I had to google that, but it’s exactly what I mean. Although I find the very smell – not even to speak of the taste – of cheetos more revolting than the cheesy smell of a 24-hour gaming marathon with ten smelly guys in a small room with no windows. (Hypothetical, thank God)…

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:01:59 +0000

One type that isn’t mentioned (and is very problematic, so probably needs some discussion) is the “Greedy” or “Selfish” gamer (with associated need/want in the game) that demands the spotlight, just for the sake of being the lone hero of the story. If accused of munchkin’ing or selfishness, they attempt to undermine the other players or ruin it for the rest.

Though perhaps this could be replaced by “ex” gamer