Playing styles

[Troll_Hunter 54]

Hi people I like to see a poll to index people playing styles.

 

In order to make up the poll, we need to recognise and define the different playing styles, can you help me out with that?

 

Please list 1..x your list of possible playing styles, and provide for each a definition, precision is appreciated.

 

Thank you.

[Steak and Potatoes 13480]

Just make sure to add Axe Wielding Musty Train to the poll, its an art.

[janusz.pietraczuk@gmail.com 138]

Lone Ranger - I travel the Chernarus without companions. I carefully scout every city with binoculars/scope before entering it. I never kill innocents and I offer my help to every met survivor. I kill in self defence and to protect others - bandits are on my list ;)

 

Check out my signature for my project, strictly connected with my play style.

Edited November 29, 2014 by atre88

[tobias winfro 305]

Traveling junk dealer/Medic, I roam the map picking up various items and then I barter with people for more stuff. It may not be sexy like some play styles but I meet tons of interesting people and plenty of PvP. If I have clanmates or someone else to roll with I usually go looking for trouble at the airfields but I tend to shy away from the coast because shooting new spawns is no fun and kind of assholish

[hannibaldaplaya 1095]

Excitement Seeker.

Musician.

Bandito.

[Evil Minion 943]

I think playstyles are multidimensional and consists of several aspects (that may or may not depend on each other):

 

Motivation:

What the player is looking for and wants to experience ingame. I made a topic (with poll) about this some time ago. Its not a clear cut thing but rather a combination of several preferences:

• Achieving ingame goals: survival, PvE, finding specific items, ...
• Acting on others: PvP, killing, enforcing specific behavior, ...
• Exploring the game: visiting places, trying new things, analyzing the game ...
• Interacting with others: socializing, roleplay, making friends, ...

Social vs. Solitary:

Do you rather want to be left alone or meet others? Some people want to be part of a community while other people enjoy the freedom of doing what they want without a group slowing them down:

• Loners do not need a partner. They may or may not enjoy social interaction from time to time but dislike to join a group or keep others around.
• Independents do not like the strings attached to group play but may temporary join forces with others if its in their interest.
• Group Players like to stick together with people they know but are generally not too trusting towards outsiders.
• Socializers flock to other players even if those are complete strangers and tend to form bigger groups.

Attitude:

I could also call this "Leadership" but its not only about leading but your general attitude towards others.

• Leaders are the boss and make the calls. Others are expected to follow their orders.
• Advisers do not care who makes the calls as long as they are making the right ones.
• Soldiers usually do not bother with command and rather follow the advice of others focussing on bringing their own skills to the table.
• Free Spirits do what they want to do and do not want to get bothered with "babysitting" others.

Aggression:

The probability of a player being hostile towards others.

• Killers are almost always hostle because "lets face it: this game is about killing other survivors". They do not care if freshspawn or fully geared as they just want to kill.
• Predators kill others for their stuff. Gear status is most important and if you have nothing of value you might even get to live - if you are lucky and not a rival.
• Hunters go after high threat targets for the thrill. Sniping barely geared friendly players is beneath them unless they get too cocky.
• Survivalists have the motto "shoot first, ask questions later". They will attack if they perceive someone as a threat but not hunt them down.
• Travelers will fight if they feel actively threatened but avoid gunning down innocents if possible.
• Heroes will assume others to be friendly at first and try to reason with them while still staying cautious. If the response is hostile they will attack.
• Friendlies assume "friendly until proven otherwise" and will attempt to reason with people over fighting them.
• Pacifists won't attack most of the time and if reason/retreat is not an option they would rather avoid killing others.

Mobility:

How you move on the map. As not all of the areas provide the same amount/types of loot and player interactions there are implications on a players possibilities here.

• Residents usually stay in the area they spawned in
• Migrators move to a "better" area and stay there
• Patrols move between some specific areas probably for specific reasons
• Nomads just can't stay in one place and travel all around Chernarus

Immersion:

This is about the emotional connection the player developes to his/her character. The more immersion the more "natural" the behavior.

• "I don't care." - no emotional connection at all, might act very unresonable and even suicidal all the time
• "Just a game." - less connection to the character and more to the collected gear
• "What a waste." - grows more attached the more effort is put into the character, regardless of gear
• "Serious business" - strong connection, the characters live does matter and its death is a very bad thing
• "My alter ego" - fully immersed, the character is basically the players projection in Chernarus

this also affects a players behavior towards the characters of real life friends. A fully immersed player will treat the character as if it was his friend while a player who is not immersed at all might kill his fully geared friends character for fun.

 

Investment:

How much effort do you put into developing your character?

• Casuals just dip into the world of Chernarus and do not invest a lot of time and effort
• Spare Time Players play along investing time and effort into particular objectives as they like
• Gamers believe that you have to invest to get better and have more fun and usually focus their efforts on their particular playstyles
• Hobbyists invest a lot of time and effort into various aspects of the game

Now in DayZ this has a massive impact on gameplay as more effort greatly improves your options and especially as no progress is permanent which means you will not "get there eventually".

 

Okay thats not a list of playstyles - because I am simply too lazy to list all the possible combinations. Not all of them are equally possible, some correlate and some combinations do not make much sense (like "leave me alone" loners that also like to lead a group). I probably forgot some of the aspects but thats what I could think of.