Understanding Player Archetypes

Previously, we talked about the game design’s ultimate goal being to design fun experiences that are anchored in the users’ wants and needs. But who are the players and what do we know about people who play games?

In game theory, we typically divide the player types into four different archetypes and they are as follows:

• The Achiever (enjoys gaining points/levels, and getting new equipment, clothes or just simply achievements. Loves to showoff with their cool skins in multiplayer and reach 100% completion in single-player games.)

• The Explorer (enjoys being immersed in the game world and explore the environment and find that rare easter egg)

• The Socializer (enjoys games by interacting with other players and that is why they play games. Spends too much time roleplaying even when it’s a single-player game.)

• The Killer (enjoys powergaming immensely, wants to have the highscore in everything and be the number 1 in anything and everything.)

This is known as the Bartle taxonomy of player types and can help us navigate in the design work by having player archetypes. In reality however, these are more of a spectrum than poles, meaning that people will rarely be purely one thing or the other. According to the theory, these four types are imagined in a quadrant model where the x-axis shows preference for either exploring the world, or interacting with other players, and on the y-axis we have a preference for acting vs interacting.

So now with these tools in hand, you need to find out what type of player you want to mostly appeal to in your design! Try to choose one group and do some research on them. For example, if you choose socializers, take a look at various games that bring in that social aspect; for example board games, or digital games and try to put your finger on the social aspect of these games.

As previously mentioned, these are spectrums and a person can be multiple types at the same time; and people are almost never one single type to an extreme level. So it is important as a designer not to stereotype too much and understand that people are complex.