Post by Demonic Neko on Feb 5, 2004 17:15:30 GMT -5
I found this online and thought it was rather amusing. This is basically a takeon diffrent types of players you;ll find in the mutiplayer online prose RPG world, I noticed that most people (myself included =^_^=) fall into more than one catagory. I myself am part Actor, Crafter, Terrorist, Genre Feind and Pain King. =^_^=
The Actor
The actor is the base type of player of online prose games, and most people start here and accessorize with various degrees of the types below. This player is interested in improvisationally acting out the role of a character in an immersive online prose game, writing "their part" in the collaborative work of the game world they choose to play in. They work out their character's role ICly, spending equal amounts of time starring and in the background, chatting when it's called for, fighting when it's called for, and doing whatever seems appropriate for their character. But every Actor's personality is also made up of varying degrees of one or more of the following player types, as you will see...
The Crafter
This player is into creating, building, describing, and otherwise adding long-lasting things to the game universe. Not necessarily "tangible assets" -- Crafters mostly just want to leave a legacy of some sort behind, be it an organization or an object.
The Thrillseeker
The Thrillseeker is the player that must have SOMETHING TO DO no matter where they are or what they are playing. This player craves ACTION more than anything else, even in games where GM-moderated combat means that ACTION takes longer than roleplaying. In Champions terms, this is the Combat Monster, except that the urge to fight is directed towards NPCs, goons, or other computer- or GM-generated creatures rather than other PCs.
The Terrorist
This player lives for player-vs.-player conflict, preferably of the lethal kind. Also known as a "PKer" -- for player-killer -- I'm expanding the definition here to include those players who like to ruin the lives of other players, not necessarily killing them. This is the sort of person who would just as soon bring down your house as kill you if they get the chance, because they live under the assumption -- true or not, depending on the game -- that other players are the most interesting targets because they're capable of more independent thought or action than GM or computer-controlled targets.
The Twink
"Twink" is a word all too often abused and ill defined in gaming -- both tabletop and online. A twink (a short form of "Twinkie") is someone who is obsessed with success in the game world to the exclusion of anything else -- ignoring roleplaying, story development, character development, or anything at all that will distract the Twink from his or her goals. This player type goes for the best equipment, best spells, and the best everything that it's possible to get in the game. Driven towards these goals, a twink often sacrifices things that other people hold dear -- like online friendships and relationships -- if it can benefit their personal goals to do so. Sometimes, in the worst cases, the twink bends and twists game rules to get what they want, squeezing the most efficient character design or goodie into their character regardless of whether or not it makes sense in the game for their character to do so.
The Impersonator
This player wants to run game-world versions of characters that someone else created. In most cases they are trying to duplicate characters taken from the universe that the game is based on, although you do get your share of historical figures in some games. This can be a very interesting experiment and provide for wonderful roleplaying, unless, of course, the player becomes a Duplicator, which is the much more common version of this type of player.
The Duplicator
The Duplicator is a player who must be something specific, and it doesn't make a difference to them what the genre or game world is they're doing it in. This player wants to do Gandalf on the bridge of the Enterprise, or see how well Han Solo would do swinging a long sword against an orcish horde. Sometimes they actually do play an original character -- except that they play that character in every POSSIBLE genre, with the same personality and magic items, no matter how inappropriate a four-color superhero ninja would be in a Lovecraftian setting.
The Genre Fiend
The Genre Fiend is the same in the online prose world as it is in a tabletop game. A bit of genre fiend is present in most players, but taken to extremes, it can be horrid. This is the player who loves the game world so much that they learn absolutely every trivial thing possible about it, and considers himself or herself an expert on everything involved with the game. They're not shy about it, either. If you're wearing pink on a Thursday when everyone KNOWS that's a sin in the Cult of Mahriltajar, because it was right there in black and white in the third-party supplement to the game published in 1976 by GenericGamers and released in a print run of 500 copies on newsprint, this player will be more than happy to point it out to you and mock you repeatedly. Combine the Genre Fiend with the Duplicator and you have a truly obnoxious player, one who has to ABSOLUTELY do everything the way that the character they're copying would do it, regardless of the genre or suitability of the action for the character.
Introspector
This player is one of those who get very into their character's moods and emotions. They'll sit there and watch what's going on, then show you their reactions to it. Some introspection is good -- you want three-dimensional characters, and someone who can tell you WHY their character likes to kill human beings with a sniper rifle for money but shies away from whacking a squirrel with a BB gun is usually a good player. But when they're bad, they're REALLY bad. You might be talking about the pros and cons of the new BlasTek Model 151 Laser Pistol, and they'll take 10 minutes to describe their reaction, down to the last twitch of the eyebrows, the sheen of light reflected by the window on their moist eyes as a tear wells as your story reminds them of their lost puppy, Peppy, who was killed when they were five by the BlasTek's distant ancestor, the .357 Magnum. These players go deep into their characters -- so deep they often get lost, and make enigmatic comments which no one but a mind reader could understand.
Projective Telepath
This player is probably your columnist's biggest pet peeve. This is a character, much like the Introspector, who gets into their character's reactions and describes them in great detail. Unfortunately, they tend to do so via projective telepathy. That is to say, they're really big on posing or otherwise indicating in a non-verbal manner things which are impossible for your character to divine, unless of course you're playing in a game with telepathy, in which case all bets are off. The things they pose thinking about are often offensive, a passive-aggressive way of making comments on your roleplay without exposing themselves to consequences. For example, your character might be espousing an opinion on the price of swords in the marketplace being too high, and the Projective Telepath will pose something like, "PeeTee thinks that Scott is being a tightwad jerk because he has enough money to buy TEN swords but just wants the price to be lower, but doesn't say anything, instead keeping his eyes downcast and grumbling under his breath." Don't you just want to kill someone like that?
Pro From Dover
The Pro from Dover shares some of the basics of the tabletop version (including the catchy name of the category), but can be a bigger problem in online prose games than they can be in tabletop games. The short description is a player whose character needs to be the absolute best in the game world at something -- running, shooting, being a good scientist, being the best magician, whatever. In a tabletop game with an average of 6-8 players, it's relatively easy to accomplish the goals of a Pro from Dover, since there aren't that many players, and each character can be specifically good at something. In the massively multiplayer online prose world, however, there are often several players all vying to be the best at one thing or another. This can lead to competition, which is good; but it can also lead disgruntled and frustrated players to take that competition too far, which is bad. Next week's column will deal with the problems and perils of not being able to be the "best" in an online prose game.
The Actor
The actor is the base type of player of online prose games, and most people start here and accessorize with various degrees of the types below. This player is interested in improvisationally acting out the role of a character in an immersive online prose game, writing "their part" in the collaborative work of the game world they choose to play in. They work out their character's role ICly, spending equal amounts of time starring and in the background, chatting when it's called for, fighting when it's called for, and doing whatever seems appropriate for their character. But every Actor's personality is also made up of varying degrees of one or more of the following player types, as you will see...
The Crafter
This player is into creating, building, describing, and otherwise adding long-lasting things to the game universe. Not necessarily "tangible assets" -- Crafters mostly just want to leave a legacy of some sort behind, be it an organization or an object.
The Thrillseeker
The Thrillseeker is the player that must have SOMETHING TO DO no matter where they are or what they are playing. This player craves ACTION more than anything else, even in games where GM-moderated combat means that ACTION takes longer than roleplaying. In Champions terms, this is the Combat Monster, except that the urge to fight is directed towards NPCs, goons, or other computer- or GM-generated creatures rather than other PCs.
The Terrorist
This player lives for player-vs.-player conflict, preferably of the lethal kind. Also known as a "PKer" -- for player-killer -- I'm expanding the definition here to include those players who like to ruin the lives of other players, not necessarily killing them. This is the sort of person who would just as soon bring down your house as kill you if they get the chance, because they live under the assumption -- true or not, depending on the game -- that other players are the most interesting targets because they're capable of more independent thought or action than GM or computer-controlled targets.
The Twink
"Twink" is a word all too often abused and ill defined in gaming -- both tabletop and online. A twink (a short form of "Twinkie") is someone who is obsessed with success in the game world to the exclusion of anything else -- ignoring roleplaying, story development, character development, or anything at all that will distract the Twink from his or her goals. This player type goes for the best equipment, best spells, and the best everything that it's possible to get in the game. Driven towards these goals, a twink often sacrifices things that other people hold dear -- like online friendships and relationships -- if it can benefit their personal goals to do so. Sometimes, in the worst cases, the twink bends and twists game rules to get what they want, squeezing the most efficient character design or goodie into their character regardless of whether or not it makes sense in the game for their character to do so.
The Impersonator
This player wants to run game-world versions of characters that someone else created. In most cases they are trying to duplicate characters taken from the universe that the game is based on, although you do get your share of historical figures in some games. This can be a very interesting experiment and provide for wonderful roleplaying, unless, of course, the player becomes a Duplicator, which is the much more common version of this type of player.
The Duplicator
The Duplicator is a player who must be something specific, and it doesn't make a difference to them what the genre or game world is they're doing it in. This player wants to do Gandalf on the bridge of the Enterprise, or see how well Han Solo would do swinging a long sword against an orcish horde. Sometimes they actually do play an original character -- except that they play that character in every POSSIBLE genre, with the same personality and magic items, no matter how inappropriate a four-color superhero ninja would be in a Lovecraftian setting.
The Genre Fiend
The Genre Fiend is the same in the online prose world as it is in a tabletop game. A bit of genre fiend is present in most players, but taken to extremes, it can be horrid. This is the player who loves the game world so much that they learn absolutely every trivial thing possible about it, and considers himself or herself an expert on everything involved with the game. They're not shy about it, either. If you're wearing pink on a Thursday when everyone KNOWS that's a sin in the Cult of Mahriltajar, because it was right there in black and white in the third-party supplement to the game published in 1976 by GenericGamers and released in a print run of 500 copies on newsprint, this player will be more than happy to point it out to you and mock you repeatedly. Combine the Genre Fiend with the Duplicator and you have a truly obnoxious player, one who has to ABSOLUTELY do everything the way that the character they're copying would do it, regardless of the genre or suitability of the action for the character.
Introspector
This player is one of those who get very into their character's moods and emotions. They'll sit there and watch what's going on, then show you their reactions to it. Some introspection is good -- you want three-dimensional characters, and someone who can tell you WHY their character likes to kill human beings with a sniper rifle for money but shies away from whacking a squirrel with a BB gun is usually a good player. But when they're bad, they're REALLY bad. You might be talking about the pros and cons of the new BlasTek Model 151 Laser Pistol, and they'll take 10 minutes to describe their reaction, down to the last twitch of the eyebrows, the sheen of light reflected by the window on their moist eyes as a tear wells as your story reminds them of their lost puppy, Peppy, who was killed when they were five by the BlasTek's distant ancestor, the .357 Magnum. These players go deep into their characters -- so deep they often get lost, and make enigmatic comments which no one but a mind reader could understand.
Projective Telepath
This player is probably your columnist's biggest pet peeve. This is a character, much like the Introspector, who gets into their character's reactions and describes them in great detail. Unfortunately, they tend to do so via projective telepathy. That is to say, they're really big on posing or otherwise indicating in a non-verbal manner things which are impossible for your character to divine, unless of course you're playing in a game with telepathy, in which case all bets are off. The things they pose thinking about are often offensive, a passive-aggressive way of making comments on your roleplay without exposing themselves to consequences. For example, your character might be espousing an opinion on the price of swords in the marketplace being too high, and the Projective Telepath will pose something like, "PeeTee thinks that Scott is being a tightwad jerk because he has enough money to buy TEN swords but just wants the price to be lower, but doesn't say anything, instead keeping his eyes downcast and grumbling under his breath." Don't you just want to kill someone like that?
Pro From Dover
The Pro from Dover shares some of the basics of the tabletop version (including the catchy name of the category), but can be a bigger problem in online prose games than they can be in tabletop games. The short description is a player whose character needs to be the absolute best in the game world at something -- running, shooting, being a good scientist, being the best magician, whatever. In a tabletop game with an average of 6-8 players, it's relatively easy to accomplish the goals of a Pro from Dover, since there aren't that many players, and each character can be specifically good at something. In the massively multiplayer online prose world, however, there are often several players all vying to be the best at one thing or another. This can lead to competition, which is good; but it can also lead disgruntled and frustrated players to take that competition too far, which is bad. Next week's column will deal with the problems and perils of not being able to be the "best" in an online prose game.
