We examine ten major gaming types, discovering what they say about you and the games you play…

Psychometric testing was once the preserve of the Californian psychoanalyst, delving into the brain to learn more about the human condition. But in the last two decades the psychological measurement of everything from intelligence to personality has broken free of the academic arena. In 2002, when Blockbuster began giving job applicants a personality test to see if they would be able to cope with the mental rigours of dispensing popcorn and movies, it sent a strong message to corporate America: recruiters can now predict how people will behave from a few short questions… at least, they think they can.

Now standard practice in the majority of big businesses across the pond, the fashion for psychometric and personality testing is becoming evermore popular in the UK. This is understandable given the length of time and legal wrangles involved with removing a staff member who isn’t pulling their weight, but it remains inherently offensive to the ears of people all over the Western world. In a capitalist society, people are conditioned to embrace individuality – if only through the products they buy – and the prospect of being silently slipped into a fixed category rubs against the grain. However, while few people relish being pigeonholed, there is a growing body of evidence that suggests we can be divided into distinct ‘types’. Indeed, psychologists have largely come to agree that there are five major sub-divisions of the human personality, referred to as the Big Five: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.

For employers looking for solid and loyal workers, personality tests can be gold dust. In 1991, the psychologists Barrick and Mount reviewed 117 studies containing 162 samples with 23,994 participants. They found that conscientiousness was consistently related to all performance criteria in every occupational group. Furthermore, extroversion was a valuable personal attribute for occupations involving social interaction, such as management and sales. Companies no longer had to make recruitment decisions based on scrupulously prepared interviews. With psychometric testing, you can give yourself away without even realising it.

Which brings us on to games. For years, psychologists have been studying the ways in which our true natures are revealed by the choices we make – the clothes we wear, the music we enjoy, the friends we keep, and so on. Given that videogames now account for more play activity than any other pastime among teenagers and young males, it seems strange that there has been so little focus on this very modern expression of our tastes. Indeed, when you take into account the interactive, wish-fulfillment aspect of the medium, the games we play could be argued as the most honest expression of our inner lives.

Eric Zimmerman, the author of Rules Of Play: Game Design Fundamentals, puts it this way: “Unlike a book, a film, and other forms of prescripted media, a game is more like a set of tools that the player uses to build his or her own experience. The games we choose to play, and the way we play them, reveal a tremendous amount about us – from our creative drives and ambitions to the dark corners of our desires.”

While much of this article is speculative, it’s both interesting and enormous fun to get the psychological community thinking about how videogames can reflect our personalities. In the ten categories we’ve listed below, you may recognise something in yourself: perhaps you’re the type who collects everything in sight, like Vanessa Feltz at a buffet, or maybe you just enjoy grinding opponents into the ground until they plead for submission.

… continued