Typology: Article
Language: English
Date: 1996
Hearts, clubs, diamonds, spades: Players who suit MUDs
Theme: Digital Learning
Author: Richard Bartle
Keywords: Multi-User dungeon; Gaming; Social Gaming; Socialising; Exploration; taxonomy of gamers;
ABSTRACT: Four approaches to playing MUDs are identified and described. These approaches may arise from the inter-relationship of two dimensions of playing style: action versus interaction, and world-oriented versus player-oriented. An account of the dynamics of player populations is given in terms of these dimensions, with particular attention to how to promote balance or equilibrium. This analysis also offers an explanation for the labelling of MUDs as being either “social” or “gamelike”.
Bartle, R. (1996). Hearts, clubs, diamonds, spades: Players who suit MUDs. Journal of MUD research, 1(1), 19.
