Player Motivation - Bartle’s Taxonomy
In this series, we are going to look at some of the different classifications proposed by academics over the years for hobbyists, gamers and users, across both Hobbying and Video Games. Not because I think it's useful to try and push people into boxes, but because it allows us as a community to both think about our own motivations and then discuss them with others in a constructive and common language, better understanding how we can get the most out of the hobbying we do in whatever form that is.
Today, we are going to be looking into a theory proposed in the late 90’s by Richard Bartle that splits players on two main axes to break them into 4 groups. In the model, the X axis represents a players preference for interacting with other players vs. their leaning towards exploring the world around them (i.e. how much do you want to deal with others) and the Y axis represents preference for interaction vs. unilateral action (i.e. how much does the world change what you want to do)
So what do the 4 groups tend to enjoy doing and what do they not enjoy - let’s jump in and take a look at them.
Achievers
Achievers want to tick all the boxes that are put in front of them, complete the full set, collect all the items and get the 100% mark next to the goal and show this off to others. There is an innate satisfaction in seeing the task completed, and ideally that comes with a cosmetic reward or a way of “showing off” to the world that as a player you managed to achieve.
In everyday video gaming, this can be seen through systems such as achievement points, Gamerscore or Titles. Often various cosmetic items can be gathered as a reward, and players enjoy running through the game world showing off these rare and special items that only they have. In Mini Gaming or Painting, achievers could also be deemed collectors, wanting to have one of every model within their collection, or hitting certain arbitrary milestones such as 2000 points of Orks or painting up 3 large monsters a month to give them the same sense of fulfillment and completion.
Recommended Game : Guild Wars 2 - once you reach max level, is mostly about the collection, achievement and 100% of zones, or about achieving completion and kills on certain content. If you enjoy the feeling of setting a goal, seeing the progress bar tick up, and then getting the reward at the end, give it a go.
Explorers
Explorers just want to immerse themselves into the lore and world in front of them, exploring story, characters, environments and locations. Typically they are the kind of player that wants to check behind every door, under every stone and inside every box, just in case there is some sort of hidden item or easter egg to find and understand. Explorers are the type of player that completely understands the complex links between all the characters in the story and how the actions of one villain may impact the world as you see it!
Typically explorers are not interested in a repetitive grinding style of game, where they may need to repeat the same tasks over and over to achieve an arbitrary target or goal, and are more inclined to games where the world is so vast they can explore within in it to their heart's content, or they may lean towards more story driven games where the experience is slightly more tailored but the story is a deeper and richer as a result. Explorers are also the type of game player & supporter that is most likely to invest in the lore outside of just the game, as they fully immerse themselves in books, magazines, merchandise and generally anything related to the worlds they have fallen into.
Recommended Game : Journey - A game built entirely around the process of exploration and figuring out how the world works, this is a multiplayer game with no form of communication outside of the way you interact with the world.
Socialisers
Socialisers tend to focus purely on the social aspects of gaming and hobbying - who would have thought that! Rather than the specifics of the game and the mechanics, they see it more as a facilitator to enable a social experience. Perhaps this is to meet new people, catch up with old friends, or maybe it forms part of a long standing ritual or scheduled time for people to stay in touch outside of their busy lives.
Socialisers can appear to have no specific goal within a group, instead looking to help others achieve what it is they set out to do, but in reality the goal of a social player is to foster the relationships and interactions with other players around them, all whilst having fun doing it.
Recommended Game : Depends on your group - As we say above, for socialisers it's more about finding the right game to facilitate your group having fun so you can enjoy the experience with them. If you are all socialisers, try to find a game that is themed around your interests to allow you to enjoy it as well.
Killers
Killers thrive in the competitive environment. They are fans of Player vs Player content (PvP for short, with the alternative being PvE or Player vs Environment) where they can match skill, wits, knowledge and mechanical prowess directly against others. Sometimes this is a friendly competition, other times its more destructive in nature, leading to terms you may have heard such as “owned”, “ganking” or “camping”, but either way they tend to take more pleasure in beating another player / hobbyist than an AI or Co-Operative achievement.
Some games are built around this concept, even if they are not specifically multiplayer. This could be through speedrunning (where you attempt to complete a game in the fastest time possible) or leaderboards for high scores, whereas other games will have additional game types or modes that allow for a more competitive environment.
Killers is not specifically a negative term, and these players are not destructive or overly aggressive, it’s just a competitive spirit that allows them to best enjoy the game. Someone who is a killer can still be a good winner and a good loser, it’s the act of competition that gives them the enjoyment.
Recommended Game : Any MOBA or Online FPS : From Fortnite to League of Legends, DOTA to Counter Strike, probably one of the most catered to player types. Any game with an online multiplayer can give the Killer what they need.
Additional Thoughts
Above is a discussion of the basic model, using the two axis to generate 4 distinct player types, but Bartle does goes on to add a third axis to the model in later papers, breaking the 4 groups down into 8 through an implicit vs explicit axis which tries to separate players by how much they are actively planning their future play and endeavor vs a more intuitive ‘working it out as you go along’ style. With 3 scales, it’s much harder to represent on a 2D grid and is probably a topic for another day but for reference the 8 potential player categories are below - let me know in the comments if you want to hear more about it.
As we have said before, it's never as simple as putting players or hobbyists into a box. Bartle recognises this by breaking the 4 boxes down in his own further research, and other academics have proposed other models to try and help understand player motivations, such as Nick Yee who looked at a set of components or factors that make up player motivation, with individuals getting a combined profile of scores in each area rather than one of 4 or 8 profiles.
So what motivates you to play games - can you see yourself falling into one of the 8 categories? Is there anything you think separates you from other gamers that you can’t see captured in Bartle’s model? If you want to hear more about this kind of player motivation, let me know and we can deep dive into alternative approaches or further refinements.
