Players in the MUD

       ACTING

               Killers            |                  Achievers

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       PLAYERS -------------------+------------------- WORLD

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               Socialisers        |                 Explorers

Bartle writes about four proposed types of players, who he maps into a two axis chart copied here according to playing styles. These are

• Action versus Interaction
• World-oriented versus Player-oriented

These two then have four labels to their style of playing. Bartle writes that players have one of these styles as the primary, and will only shift to other style sto keep advancing in their goal.

The four labels are:

• Achievers; achievers are fall in the action-world category of getting treasures, killing mobs
• Explorers; as the terms suggests explore by interacting with their world. In so doing, they discover the topology, physics and mechanisms of the world
• Socializers are in it for the play—they primarily interact with other players and communicate with them
• Killers, like achievers are action-players; they can't leave well enough alone and get off by hassling other players and being a nuisance.

It appears that Bartle’s goal is to promote balance in MUDs. He goes into a rather insightful explanation as to why less sympathetic human behaviors should be avoided even in-game. Prejudice and oppression are just as despicable in the real world as they are in virtual worlds. He advocates design reasons to demote evil.

Look again at the interest graph. Bartle suggests several ways in which graphs can be brought into equilibrium. Caution is in taking away the play, which is the main attraction in the first place.

Players—emphasis on players

World—go global and don't allow players meet

Interacting—focus on interaction rather than action; entertainment

Acting—put into practice what has been learned "without depth you have no MUD" (765).

Consider the following abstract graph:

                         





You can Deconstruct "game/fun versus real life seriousness"