Player Types, Domination, and the Core Question of Your Game’s Design
By: Yvens Serpa
Tags: Bartle, Game Development, Games, Game Design, Psychology

For the sake of clarity, let’s analyze two games (a multi-player, and a single-player) under the lens of the Bartle Player Types.

Photo by Ravi Palwe on Unsplash

Mario Kart is a famous Nintendo racing game, with a roster of beloved characters from the Super Mario franchise. The recent versions of the game have both online and offline multiplayer modes. The following analysis focus on the multi-player mode, be it online or offline.

Achiever — The achiever wants to win the race and the championships. They want to win tournaments and unlock new characters and circuits. To some extent, they are also interested in the leaderboard, as it is a powerful bragging tool to show-off their feats.

Explorer — The explorer wants to find the hidden spots and short cuts in the tracks. They might win the race once in a while, as a consequence of their thorough testing of the game. Unlocking new circuits and characters are also exciting activities, but only as long as it opens up more possibilities to be explored and tested within the game boundaries.

Socializers — The socializer wants to have fun with the other players, be it in whatever mode is being played. Winning and losing are only consequences, but might be of interest if it furthers the game’s social aspect. For instance, a socializer will be inclined to participate (or just watching) in a tournament between friends, just for the sake of being with them.

Killers — The killer also wants to win, but not as an in-game objective. Winning in the game is not its goal. A killer wants to win over other players. They want to assert domination. They will be more thrilled when playing against achievers because the latter cares so much about winning that they became easy targets for distress. A killer will gladly take second or worst place in a race, as long as it drags the achiever to lose it too.

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Stardew Valley is an open-ended farming-RPG, first released for single-player mode only. The multi-player mode was later added to the game, but for the sake of the discussion on Bartle Player types, let’s reduce our discussion on the 4 types using only the single-player mode of the game.

It bears reminding, though, that Bartle’s theory was developed under the assumption of a multi-player environment, and he believes that using the theory in different contexts might not work or lead to wrong/biased results. However, the following analysis is an attempt to cover the possibilities of the 4 player types into a single-player game.

Achiever — The achiever wants to complete the in-game tasks, such as to finish the Community Center or to construct all different farm buildings. There are also in-game achievements, such as to earn 1 million in-game money or to cook every recipe. The achiever is willing even to make friends with the townsfolk to get friendship related achievements, although there is probably not a lot of fun in the process for them.

Explorer — The explorer wants to explore possibilities within the game and its economy. What is more lucrative or if you can profit from completely alternative methods (such as filling the Quarry with Bee Houses). Explorers will also try to break the game in its details that will often go missing under other players’ attention (the "Out of Bounds bug" is a good example). Completing the Community Center is not an objective for explorers, but might be seen as a necessary step to unlock more places to explore.

Socializers — The socializer wants social interaction, and this might be hard to find in a single-player game. But for Stardew Valley, there is a considerable fandom around the player-NPC interaction, and it might be something to entertain socializers. Also, these same interactions and stories are devices to engage in player-player interaction over online fora. From a Bartle’s Taxonomy standpoint, the game still fits as a tool for social interaction, even if the social element happens in an outside-game experience.

Killers — Similar to the socializer, the killers rely on social interaction to satisfy their needs. Stardew Valley does not have many opportunities for these types of players, though. There are few occasions to assert domination, but, as for socializers, this interaction might happen outside the game. Moreover, the game has a few mechanics to bother the NPCs, such as using the slingshot to shoot them or by following the Joja Mart progression. Ultimately, killing monsters in the mines could be seen as a sort of domination-related activity, but it might hardly fulfill a killer’s urge for chaos.

Even though not all types are broadly covered, it is interesting to look at the games from this perspective. The lack of place for a killer type in Stardew Valley might be a game design decision to make the game more approachable. As Eric Barone, Stardew Valley creator, said in an interview: the game aims to spark joy and wonder at every moment. That would be hard to achieve having space for dominant-aggressive behavior.