A recent Blaugust post inspired me to finally take the Bartle Test. For the uninitiated, the Bartle Test determines your MMO personality by asking a series of questions. It’s basically a psychology quiz that relates your personality to what you would find yourself doing more of, in-game. Richard Bartle created the test, and the surrounding theory, and was also one of the creators of the original MUD, which is the precursor to modern MMO gaming.

In Thalen’s article, he talks about how his Bartle Test results reflect his desire to avoid PvP.  He goes on to say that he can be competitive, but in a more goal-oriented way rather than feeling a sense of accomplishment from PvPing. I disagree with this, but I have discussed PvP on more than one occasion, so I won’t go into that here. I do agree with him though that the Bartle Test is fairly accurate, and a way to glean more about ourselves when looking at how we behave in MMOs.

Here’s my results from a Bartle Test:

 

As my test results show, I am firmly a Killer. PvP is a driving force in what I enjoy in games. My career of PvP started long before I ever played an MMO (before they even existed as we know them today). Games like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Twisted Metal, Mario Kart, Starcraft and a long list of FPS games took up much of my gaming time. Of course, as a lover of RPGs, I can also admit to loving the exploration facets of games, and wanting to achieve all of the alternate endings for a game. I also became a bit of a trophy monger once I got my hands on a Playstation 3, and that accounts for a bit of my Achiever status, though I have lost the urge to get all the trophies or achievements in a given game. One part that is surprising to me is the Socializer aspect being so low, because I have always placed a high value on being a social person. I guess that doesn’t reflect well in-game though, because I am not a person who really role-plays or is content to sit around and use my MMO as a chat room. Being a Killer is also reflective of anti-social tendencies. I suppose I’m a walking contradiction.

I wasn’t really surprised by these results, I think that they reflect my personality fairly well, at least when it comes to playing MMOs. This is probably part of the reason that I’m not overly satisfied with the current crop, or those that have passed, because PvP is rarely a focal point. Here’s hoping that some games of the future will cater more to us Killers.

Have you taken the quiz? What were your results?

#bartletest #killer #blaugust