Types of Gamers

I've been doing some thinking and research over the past couple of weeks. Playing several online games and also observing my brother and his friends playing online in my abode. And I realized that I could start classifying some of the basic characteristics of the Singaporean players that frequently appear on these games.

Why should we classify them? It is so that we can have easy reference to characters we perceive online and also to minimize contact with the more unsavoury types of characters. Let's look at the basic types of players first.

One of the most obvious players are usually the winners. They are the players who have vested much time and perhaps money into the game. They are the ones who are usually rather outstanding and play the game to win. They are also able to be split into further categories. Among the winners, you will often see whether or not they are graceful losers. That will further split them into sore losers and self motivators.

The sore losers will bitch and whine about losing and complain about it all the way until they leave the game. No doubt, when they vested much time into any game, they will at first look like a winner. But you will see that ugly side of them as soon as they make their first loss.

And as for self motivators, when they have a loss while playing the game, you can see them encouraging others in their team to try again and attempt to get better at the game. They have vested much time and have enough experience to understand the reason why they lost and are willing to recuperate and try again usually winning a long streak before losing again.

That's it for the winners. Now for the other characters. There's the spy. I noticed that alot of times in alot of LAN type games, there will be a group of friends with too many players and one of their friends have to join the opposite team. Normally it would not be a problem. But if the member that joined the opposite team is of a spy type character. The person usually works against the team joined. The ways include sacrificing one's self to the opponents and also acting as recon for his friends in the opposite team. These characters cause one of the most grief in most of the LAN type games played today.

Other than the spy, there's of course the Leader. This character type is quite unique due to the fact that any of the other character types may actually take up this mantle one moment or another. The Leader character is the type of person that is either forced or volunteered. They work in the same manner by rallying their teammates and giving instructions. In games where strangers playing together have to work together as a team. After one or two hours, the natural leader of the group would naturally stand out from the rest. That person will eventually be in charge everytime the group needs instruction to progress. The person may not be rather charismatic in Real Life. But he/she understands the members of the group and has a natural intuition to direct them in the best way possible. Note, you will notice a Leader character in the losing and the winning side.

Then there's the Supporter. This is a character that rallies behind the Leader. The Supporter is usually one that is first to respond to the Leader's beckons and urges the others to follow the lead. This character is usually filled with a strong desire to win. And when everyone else feels the cause is lost, the Supporter is unfazed and continues trying to rally the others towards the leader. Note, the Supporter is usually second in command depending on the game.

If there's positive then there's negative, thus comes the character known as the Slacker. This character type is usually very passive and doesn't actively seek to win the game. They may be playing the game for the first time or even be very experienced. Anyone can become a Slacker at any time by becoming a character that doesn't contribute to winning the game. The person may just want to win by doing nothing or just doesn't feel motivated enough to chip in for the win. Nevertheless, this character usually causes alot of grief as well.

That's the basic characters you will see in the standard LAN type games being played today in Singapore. With few exceptions even in Non-LAN games such as Audition, World of Warcraft and Everquest. Reason being that it's more of a basic human trait that manifests on the gaming level rather than in Real Life. Do note that traits that come out in gaming are usually the hidden traits of a person's personality, especially if the person doesn't normally act that way in Real Life. It's a very effective way to tell whether a person's rotten on the inside or pretending to be a bad boy on the outside but actually an angel in disguise.

With that amount of analysis, I believe my brain has decided to take a vacation for the next couple of hours. Probably going to take a nap or something to refresh myself before a night out with ex-poly classmates tonight. If you managed to read what I wrote. I do believe that you should pat yourself on the back and then go wash your brain with detergent. Alauz Out!

Idiots of today, Geniuses of tomorrow