Gamer Style

Presented above is a snapshot from my Gamer Motivation Profile, a tool by Quantic to help categorize and survey the gaming populus. According to this survey I'm a "Bounty Hunter" which means I like exploring the world and racking up achievements, an assessment wholly agree with.

Whether trying to hunt materials to forge every piece of armor in Skyrim, or trying to complete the Pokédex in each Pokémon game, or even just trying to explore the small nooks and crannies in Kingdom Hearts so I can eventually forge the Ultima Weapon, I LOVE me some quests to complete. There's nothing quite as satisfying as checking off that last goal or getting a rare 1% trophy (in game or out). I've even gone so far as to try to grind out every single type of weapon and attachment in Tears of the Kingdom.

As this is a mostly analog gaming blog I want to reflect on this and see what may be a good way to translate it into board gaming. As far as exploration and achievement based objectives go I would look to games like Betrayal which offer the chance to generate a randomized map every game while trying to complete an objective. However I'm also a fan of the "action space" mechanic where even on a set board, once you land on a specific tile or space a random event occurs.

I'm also a fan of crafting mechanics. I like the vibe of gathering resources in order to make something, whether it's a set item based on the ingredients or if it draws from a possible pool using a crafting mechanic or minigame. Some possible examples of this could be with a dice roll or a crafting table doing some sort of value calculation.

These are just a few ideas I have and may explore more in depth later on, but for now I just wanted to share a bit about my gaming style and translating my interests into board gaming.

Before we go, I would also like to touch on the three player profiles of Magic the Gathering: Timmy or Tammy, the Power Gamer who just wants to do cool things and play big splashy effects. Johnny or Jenny, the Combo Player, who enjoys piecing together separate effects to create a result bigger than the sum of its parts. And finally Spike, the Tournament Grinder, who wants to challenge themselves to be the best, always striving to improve, build the best decks, play the best strategies, becoming the most skilled that they can in the competitive sense.

Of these three I'm definitely a Johnny with a little bit of Timmy in there. I like to do cool things and to achieve that I'll sometimes delve into the depths of the power system to string together different powers to produce the coolest results.

Until next time, best wishes and good gaming!