BrainHex

BrainHex is a player satisfaction model, focussing on video game play, categorizing gameplay behaviour in terms of 7 (non-exclusive) classes. The model uses self-report questionnaires to extract factors of your reward system, building on earlier purely phenomenological classifications and neurobiological research. The research paper is behind a pay wall, but you can take the questionnaire yourself under http://survey.ihobo.com/BrainHex/

My personal outcome is Seeker-Socializer with very low scores for Achiever, Conqueror and Survivor.

Seeker: 19 Socialiser: 18 Mastermind: 11 Daredevil: 4 Survivor: 1 Conqueror: -2 Achiever: -4

This gives me the following description, which I am quite comfortable with.

You like finding strange and wonderful things or finding familiar things as well as hanging around with people you trust and helping people.

• No Fear: You do not enjoy feeling afraid, preferring to feel safe or in control.
• No Punishment: You dislike struggling to overcome seemingly impossible challenges, and repeating the same task over and over again.
• No Commitment: You dislike being asked to complete everything, preferring to pick and choose which tasks you will attempt, or simply messing around with a game.

While Survivor managed to be the top one of those three, Horror/Thriller is a genre I don't like to be immersed in, whereas competition (Conqueror and Achiever) is just a thing I don't appreciate in role playing games, but which I don't mind in board games.

Metagame Rewards

I stumbled upon metagame rewards for the first time on a Philipine gamer's blog.

To put it simply, metagame rewards are a form of reward that encourages the players to keep coming back. These aren’t things “in-game” that boost character stats, or represent new gear, these are the rewards that make the player himself lean back with a grin, look the GM in the eye and say, “Great Game!”

Partly, the terms go apparently back to French Sociologist Roger Caillois and his book «Les jeux et les hommes» (1958), but the list got mostly compiled by Amagi games and people still find things missing, so my personal list has had Neugier (from discussions with other, German, gamers, who are apparently also somewhat Seekers) and Asabiyah (from the comment thread under the blog post) added to that list, and now sports a glorious 18 different metagame rewards, with names from Greek, Latin, German, Arabic and English, with short definitions. In the following, I have listed them very roughly in my order of preference: Items above the double dividers I consider necessary for enjoying games, and those after the single divider may actually harm how much I like a role playing game. (The order is vastly different when we're talking about board games, for some reason!)

EXPRESSION

The simple desire to be creative at the table

SOCIABILITY

The fun of being able to spend time with other people and enjoy their company

NEUGIER

The joy of learning new things and exploring new places

KENOSIS

The feeling of being deeply engaged in a character or in the fiction at a whole

KAIROSIS

The feeling of fulfilment that comes from change and development

KINESIS

Tactile fun, fiddling with maps, handouts, dice, etc.

ASABIYAH

The group feeling from getting their kicks from teamwork, usually with the rest of the group

CATHARSIS

A feeling of release that follows an intense or overwhelming experience

NACHES

The enjoyment of seeing someone that you have taught, or are responsible for, go on to do well with that knowledge

PAIDA

Free-wheeling player fun, where rules are a convenience

HUMOR

Gaming for laughs

CLOSURE

The feeling that there’s nothing more that needs to be done, and the thing is finished

SCHADENFREUDE

Delight in the suffering of another (the thrill of seeing the villain get what they deserve is a pretty common expression)

ALEA

The gambler’s thrill, the fun of taking a big risk, the tension that comes with it, win or lose

FIERO

The feeling of triumph, or winning, of defeating a challenge, or overcoming adversity

AGON

The thrill of winning against another person at the table

LUDUS

Fun from working the system and optimizing performance within the rules

VENTING

The desire to work out player frustrations or other emotions, using the game as means

Social Contract

The Same Page Tool is a great short list of questions that is made to to help a group ensure that they all play the same game, not just by name but also by expectations.

Yes, some of you might say, “I can do 2 or 3 of those choices” – pick the one that best fits the game you’re trying to run.

And because of that, while I do have preferences for many of the questions asked, I shall not give them here, but just say that I do prefer games where all players are on the same page.

Similarly, I like – and can help with – making a somewhat explicit social contract for the game, but while I hold that it is a thing to sort out before the game starts, and while I do have preferences what it should say and organize, this is not the space to list those.

Games I Like

I have encountered and played a variety of games of various size, page (in the same-page-tool sense above), setting, and goal. But while listing the games I like and the games I don't like may help explain my preferences in games, it is worth a separate post, which shall be forthcoming.