Personality Archetypes of New Members on RMRK: A Study of Behavior Patterns

Personality Archetypes is an observational study by NAMKCOR. It was widely agreed that his insights are not only entertaining, but spot on. His perceptions come from years of seeing new members come and go and realizing that certain behavior patterns were constant.

## The Contributor

The Contributor qualifies as a member who focuses on RPG Maker, sometimes with complete ignorance of the General Boards. This member signs up, sometimes neglecting an introduction, and gets right to posting topics, giving to the community during, or even before asking for something in return. They are usually on multiple forums, spreading their goodwill across the RPG Maker scene. They also have big-name projects that many have heard of, and serve to usher in new members. These members are the threads that bind together the communities, as they tend to link back and forth, and flaunt their expertise by finding obscure resources from different sites that nobody has heard of before. The Contributor often sticks around to be come one of The Veterans as they age and grow weary of hobbyist game engines, though many still use RPG Maker from time to time; usually for competitions.

Qualifications
Motivated RPG Maker User
Contributes in some way, Graphically, Scripting, Eventing, etc...
Tends to assist new users
Uses Google

Examples include: The Shadow, Joy, NAMKCOR

## The Leech

The Leech who may also be one of The Lurkers tends to post requests in quick succession for a project they have either posted very sparse information about, or none at all. They almost exclusively have near no posts unrelated to requests, and nearly never give anything significant back to the community. More often than not, their projects remain incomplete, and they do not stay around very long. Furthermore, the game ideas are usually thin and two dimensional (no pun intended). The Leech tends to have mediocre RPG Maker skills at best. Sometimes The Leech evolves into The Brat after The Veterans begin their work.

Qualifications
Flighty, unable to finish a project
Very few posts with real substance
Does NOT use Google

Examples include: Mad Klown, Mr Moo

## The Lurker (a.k.a. The Sneaky Snooper)

The Lurker is a large userbase that likely has not registered or posted at all. Little is known about The Lurker save the group's fascination with Child Porn. The Lurker may be an anonymously logged in member, or simply a Google Web-sifter doing its routine page ranking. Without details to go on, the only real behavioral pattern The Lurker exhibits is a lack of posting. The Lurker is often a member of the archetype, The Leech due to their tendency to take without returning anything. Sometimes, The Lurker will create an account and reveal itself as being a member of the other archetype(s) entirely.

Qualifications
Does not post
May not even have an account
Might be a robot?

Examples include: Everyone who's never registered or posted.

## The Nameless

The Nameless are a group of lesser-known users, though they make up the largest body of the population. They borrow characteristics from both The Leech and The Lurker but more often than not they contribute sparsely, and have short life-spans. The moment one of The Nameless becomes recognized by the community, 90% of the time it evolves into one of the other behavior archetypes though interaction with The Veterans

Qualifications
Mostly silent, though active.
Does not contribute much
Might be a hidden talent or Crouching Tiger hidden Veteran
Likely will not stick around long

Examples include: Mr\_Wiggles, Redwyn

## The Veteran

The Veterans are most often than not members who originally signed up for RPG Maker, and grew out of it, sticking around to hang out with the other Veterans. They are likely in the Extra Access, RPG Maker Advanced+, Pervert usergroup(s), or are on Staff. The Veteran is a thick-skinned and savvy internet user who has survived many a flame war with their personality intact. They have bouts of inactivity, but are most often the most active participants in community events and the General section of the forums. Many of The Veterans hang out in the RMRK Community (not RPG Maker help) IRC channel. The channel is often filled with self-masturbatory ego-centric circle jerks, and many of the lesser-known members, especially The Nameless are often ridiculed mercilessly upon entering (usually for demanding RPG Maker help, or generally exhibiting behavior that The Veterans find annoying.) The Veterans are both the most and least mature archetype, and pride themselves on their demonstrations and psychological warring against 'lesser' archetypes. Whether this be due to boredom or some sense of superiority is not yet confirmed.

Qualifications
Long active membership
Not much RPG Maker interest or activity
Thick-skinned, able to take jokes
Volitile, quick to start forum wars

Examples include: Roph, Anski, NAMKCOR, Arlen, Holk

## The Brat

The Brat is a simple archetype. They are always immature, demanding instant gratification or praise for their work, and are always extremely vocal. They cry for attention constantly, and when they are criticized or told to be quiet, they throw an even larger tantrum. Some of The Brats "leave" multiple times, sticking around to see what people say in their "I'm better off without you, so I'm quitting RMRK" topics long enough to get angrier and fuel the forum war longer. The Brat is The Veteran's easiest and most enjoyed target. The Brat almost always starts as a sub-par RPG Maker user, or one of The Nameless, but a choice few have been successful active members before devolving into The Brat

Qualifications
Loud
Drama-whore
Obnoxious
Prone to quick rage

Examples include: boxxy, billybullshot.

## The Child

The Child is arguably the least mature archetype, and borrows from many of the above archetypes, but dumbing things down and making the characteristics colored by immaturity. They most often do not understand basic English grammar, be it from having English as a second language (forgivable in this case) or simply being plain ignorant of it (unforgivable). The Child makes dumb jokes, and uses tons of emoticons, and tends to try and fit in with The Veterans through use of self-depreciating humor or dramatic antics and non-sequitor. The Veterans often spurn The Child and it is their second most preferred target. They are often mistaken for being far younger than they actually are, leading to the grand reveal of their true age to be disbelieved by the majority of members. This immaturity is theorized to be caused by the lack of true identity, and thus lack of tangible consequence on the internet. The Child is often totally ignorant of the community backlash to their antics, and think that they are liked when they are deeply loathed, attempting to use their childishness to assimilate into the community as some sort of comedic relief. Some seem to be aware of the dislike, though unable or unwilling to change their immature ways, and continue to post as they were; perhaps out of spite.

Qualifications
Often grammatically ignorant
Likes :D :) :( :[hearty laughter]:
Makes childish jokes
Mentally younger by years than their physical age

Examples include: FairlyZ, kaboth

## The Wannabe

The Wannabe shows up and is active, exhibiting signs of The Contributor, however once the Poster Board is available, they attempt to get traffic to their own Clone Community. Most of the times, it is an InvisionFree or Proboards forum on shoddy hosting, and has zero real active members. Often, The Wannabe will offer staff positions to people who sign up, banking on using the advertisement and opportunity to control a small spit of cyberspace as fuel to drive traffic into their site. These sites have short lifetimes, and The Wannabe is often told preemptively that their site is saturating an already oversaturated niche, but to no results, leading to a Self-fulfilling prophecy.

Qualifications
Runs their own forum
Flaunts it
Shortsighted and flighty

Examples include: Mad Klown

## The White Knight

The White Knight is another fairly straightforward archetype. Sometimes also known as a "Member Moderator", they seat themselves upon a moral high-horse and try to impose their views on everyone around them. Most become hypocritical, and easy targets for drama and dissection by The Veterans, they often like to criticize the forum staff, attempting to tell them how their own forum should be run. Almost always, a White Knight will also be a Brat and further devolve, upon their ego remaining insulted, into The Damned. The White Knight may also become The Repentant but this is rare. They are often extremely cynical, black-and-white, and shortsighted.

Qualifications
Cyncal or Rude
Feels they embody a driving force for some "Greater Good"
Believes themselves superior to any who disagree (often implied through their speech)
Insatiable Drama-Whores

Examples include: BDMarvel, ChaosSpartan28

## The Repentant

The Repentant always start as an archetype that is prone to some form of drama, be it The Brat or The Child. This group is the second that a drama-monger might fall into after the war ends (the other simply being one of The Damned or devolving into The Lurker) The Repentant attempts to apologize for their actions, claiming they've turned over a new leaf and changed their ways. 90% of the time this is a flat out lie, as The Repentant has a short-lived time of low-activity as they try to re-assimilate themselves into the community, before starting their shit all over again; though some are truly changed, and adopt a new archetype accordingly. Many tend to push their apology too hard, leading to more drama, and most often a continuation of the flame war. The Repentant are most likely to become either The Damned or return to be The Lurker or The Inactive depending on the circumstances surrounding their departure.

Qualifications
Convicted of earlier drama
Loads of apologies
Often tries to justify their previous issues

Examples include: Kaboth, Animefan

## The Inactive

The Inactive are members who have quietly descended into inactivity, either through quitting to further their real lives, or from losing interest in the community. Many of The Veterans become The Inactive over time, and it usually ends with much sadness. The Inactive contain some of the most missed members of RMRK.

No longer here
Quiet or Sad departure

Examples include: Kitten, Deliciously\_Saucy, Zeriab, KitKatKan

## The Damned

The Damned go out in an explosion of flame. Usually upon becoming The Repentant or simply skipping the apology phase and going straight to the ending, one of the more drama-centric archetypes will reach critical mass from the ridicule and flaming from The Veterans among others, and will enter blaze mode. This is a high-point in the lifetime of The Damned where they get more attention than anything else on the forum at all. After a large climactic flame war, The Damned are often banned outright, being snuffed out by the Staff to quell the unrest across the boards. Like the final life cycle of a star, The Damned are no more.

Qualifications
Entirely focuses on drama, often spreading it outside the thread where it originated
Never last long, usually due to Staff intervention
Never liked during this stage of life.
Sometimes might be an old liked member or Veteran prior to blazemode

Examples included: Animefan (sometimes), blaze, billybullshot

## Related Links

Personality Archetypes of New Members on RMRK: A Study of Behavior Patterns