What I Like
RPGs are a favourite pastime of mine, and over the time I have gained experience with various ways of running them or participating, and I have acquired some quite precise ideas of what I like in a game and what I don't like, in general – though I will at times be happy to go out of my comfort zone and try something new, I prefer to sign up for that explicitly.
There are some different models of describing what I like in games. Giving you these various descriptions and some links to their sources might help you sort out better games for yourself, so even if you never intend to play role playing games with me, have a look!
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.
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.
