A new taxonomy of gamers

[timewarpgamer]

Very interesting series of articles. Just started reading in earnest. The Guitar Hero analogy for skill gamer versus tourist is quite compelling. Personally, I'm a sucker for the Guitar games, but I'm torn by how to categorize myself. I didn't realize until reading this that the select button could be used to activate star power. At the same time, though, I'm always striving to play songs on harder difficulty settings. The challenge appeals to me. And I do play songs I enjoy in disproportionate numbers. I want the five star rating on "crappy" songs, but it's a chore. I always gravitate towards the songs I like. Anyway, I'm still reading this series. I find the writing so far interesting food for thought, but ultimately I'm not sure how much classifications really help us understand gaming, because classifications are little more than generalizations...

[MrEco]

It would seem to me that I am a tourist with a few completionist qualities.

When I play a game, I find that if I'm told to go somewhere and find it blocked off then I get pretty annoyed. But as I'm taking the detour to find the key that opens the door I quickly forget my annoyance as long as they throw something at me along that detour. Whether it's some enemies to kill, pretty scenery that distracts my eyes, or even some very unique background music that I haven't heard before in the game, I can forget that I basically started at point A, was told to go to point B, then had to sidetrack to point C just so I could successfully reach point B. Also, if there's a high score, some bonus item, or even just a new area to explore I will try pretty damn hard to reach that goal. But if after a few tries it seems like an impossible task I will just give up and move on to the next shiny thing.

In the article he stated that genre isn't really something that you can define your gamer tendencies off of. And while in a whole I do agree with this statement I think it's important to read into the whole genre definition thing. You see while I don't necessarily try harder to do good in RPG's, I do try harder to do good in games that have a "shiny factor" to them, and RPG's(According to my standards) tend to fulfill "shiny factor" better then other genres. If you do a bonus objective in an RPG you often get EXP and/or money. Both of which fuel your ability to gain new spells and attacks. Sure, at level 5 you had a fire ball spell. It was cool and all, but at level 15 you get the hellfire spell. It only really does 10 more damage than your regular fire ball but it looks way cooler. In a FPS doing bonus objectives gives you new money/vehicles/guns. Money just serves to get you new guns and vehicles. So ultimately your goal is the guns and vehicles. And while a shotgun is very different from an assault rifle and both are very different from rocket launchers, the end all factor is that according to my visual acceptance you get bigger("cooler") rewards for doing good in RPG's than in a FPS.

This is just an example, it obviously isn't the same for everyone. But the point I'm trying to get across is that genre does in a way effect what type of gamer you are. Not so much though that you find RPG's more appealing. But that the things you find more appealing are often found in RPG's.

Jeez, I really hope that makes sense to everyone.