What kind of player you are?

Different players have different goals in WoW. Some players don't seem to have any goals, or at least are not methodical about their goals. I always have a list of gear I'm working towards and I do research where/how to get it. This was especially true when I was gearing to be effective healer while transitioning from level 6x Shadow Priest to level 70 Holy. And at level 70 I set my goals on rep gear, heroics, Kara, etc.

Reading Matticus Responding to the “I Play for Personal Advancement and Gear Argument” post on the Raider’s Progress that was seemingly not happy with Warcrafter got me thinking, why do I play World of Warcraft and what kind of player I am (and what kind of players I enjoy playing with).

Playing to outstand from others through gear or other visible achievements is only part of the story (and for some, it's not the story at all). And being a bit academic, I want numeric results (that's just how I am), so I figured that the way to reflect one's play style in this case would be through The Bartle Test.

About The Bartle Test

The Bartle Test of Gamer Psychology is a series of questions and an accompanying scoring formula that classifies players of multiplayer online games (including MUDs and MMORPGs) into categories based on their gaming preferences.

The Bartle Test results into "Bartle Quotient" of The Four Categories of Players; Killers, Socializers, Achievers and Explorers. The Bartle Quotient totals 200% across all categories, with no single category exceeding 100%.

I chose the Bartle Test for this post because it's relatively simple, but for example The Daedalus Project used this more expanded model to describe game interests/motivation. Here is the test for it

My Bartle Test

The Bartle Test has also been organized in electronic form, and Bartle Test of Gamer Psychology in GuildCafe was linked in Wikipedia, so I took it.

Results: I'm EASK. Breakdown: Achiever 66.67%, Explorer 73.33%, Killer 13.33%, Socializer 46.67%.

That reflects the reality pretty well. I enjoy exploring new areas and read strategies and guides offline (to gain knowledge), but on the other hand, I love to get new gear and equipment to make myself more effective in what I do (I heal). I don't care that much about having the best gear, so I would be "admired" for it, but to be the acknowledged as "great player", someone who knows how things work and is able to do what's necessary to get the task done.

On the other hand I wouldn't want to be known as "Player with great skills and gear, but not-so-pleasant personality". And all this is also what I respect the most in other players; personality. I take patient, mature & polite person over irritating, hyperactive trashtalker with super-gear any day.

What kind of player you are?

A year without blogging

It's been a quiet year in Zemalf's haven. Not that it's been quiet for me, but I just haven't had any interesting thing to write about or at least no sudden urge to share mundane things of my life here.

I have been playing World of Warcraft since October 2007, and that's probably something that I will be covering here in the near future. Links on the side has been modified with this in mind.

I'm not gonna rush into things, so I'll be first planning out how this blog will turn out to be from now on. And the unoccasional, bursty nature of my writings will probably continue. So no guaranteed daily updates here :)

Top 5 Things About XMas

XMas, Christmas, Holidays, what have you. Here are the five things
that make my Christmas:
5. Chocolate and Candy
Holidays is the one time of the year, when it's OK to give that
sweettooth a treat
4. Snowman
Snowman and it's theme song "Walking in the Air" ends the Christmas
morning, followed by the best rice porridge there is (made by my
mother, of course). It's about tradition and this has been on for two
decades now.
3. It's a Wonderful Life
The Christmas Movie, re-run every year and every time it brings a tear
in my eye.
2. Giving and Sharing
True Holiday Spirit comes from the joy of giving, sharing and
forgetting all the selfishness one might have.
1. Family and Friends
That's what it is all about, right?

Lifehacking Your 43 Folders

There are times when one needs to start over, clean the table and turn things around. This is it for me. I haven't been very active blogger (and I'm not turning into one), but I still decided to (b)log some of the things I'm Looking Into right now.

Lifehacker.com. I stumbled upon the site by accident couple of days ago and boy, am I happy about that stumbling - I really should browse the web more often. Anyway, lifehacker is very active bringing out smaller and bigger hacks into your home or work life. Especially the "Geek to Live" features are driving me on right now. If it says anything, I even bought the book that's coming out in couple of weeks.

43 Folders: More on the lifehacking subject, and also more on the Gettings Things Done (or GTD) . Something I'm bringing into my life right now after getting tired of ineffectiveness of myself and my working environment. Naturally this will and has effect on my non-working life as well (I am writing this on my "free" time anyway).

I even cleaned up piles of old and unneeded articles, bills and other paper from my desk and drawes at home. YAYME!