RTW Player Types (some thoughts)
I've been wondering about the types of gamers that play RTW and/or its mods, and would be keen to hear your thoughts about it.
First, I see two main categories (which I also know from other strategy games): the "performance" gamer and the "enjoyment" gamer.
The Performance Gamer plays to beat the beat the game. He (I guess 99% of strategy gamers are male) doesn't really care about the background, it's totally irrelevant to him if the game is about Rome or WW2 or tentacled aliens, as long as it puts him up to a challenge. This type usually cares nothing of the actual gist of the setting - this is the type that plays Rohan in Battle for Middle Earth without ever building a single horse because Peasant Spam is cheaper.
There are several subtypes to this category:
* Powergamer: picks out the strongest faction, and learns all the knacks about it, but pretty much ignores the other factions.
* Challenge gamer: wants to beat the game with every single faction, usually proceeding from strongest to weakest. Or sometimes just with the weakest one(s).
* Rush gamer (often a Powegamer also): tries to complete the game as quickly as possible, i.e. in the fewest turns or hours. When he's done, he starts over and sees if he can do it faster (or switches to a new game).
* Final Victory gamer: wants to conquer the entire map. When he's done, he picks a new faction and starts over.
The Enjoyment gamer, however, shows some or all of the following traits:
* chooses the game by the setting in the first place. If he's not interested in the background, he won't play it.
* wants to enjoy well-made graphics. If his computer can't handle high detail settings, he may decide not to play the game with it.
* picks a faction that he is particularly fond of, even if it's only mediocre. On the same note, he wouldn't play the single most powerful faction if he doesn't like the look and feel of it.
* has a very slow playing style, taking much longer for a single turn or move than other gamers, and dragging out the game altogether. Likewise, he doesn't take the fastest route to victory, but the one that will keep him playing as long as possible.
* plays for Final Victory, but usually only once, or may replay with certain factions that he likes for some reason.
For RTW specifically, there is another subtype, the "Historician". This type doesn't play Vanilla, but installs one or more Realism mods. Usually this type is an Enjoyment gamer, sometimes cross-bred with Challenge and Final Victory gamer.
I also suspect that Faction preference follows certain patterns as well. Not for the Challenge gamer type (who will play most factions consecutively), but rather for the type of Enjoyment gamer that will play the game only once or twice with his favourite factions.
* European gamers often pick the faction that represents his own ancestors, or the ethnic group that he identifies with. Since a large part of Europe used to be Roman occupied, this is the chance to turn the tables and crush Rome with their own people. Of course, most players at least try out the Roman faction as well.
* North American gamers rarely have this kind of bias, but are more regularly fascinated by the might and glory of the Roman empire. Which is not very surprising, since there are certain parallels between Rome and the USA. Rome is, so to speak, the US of the Classical Period.
So much for my observations. Do you recognize yourself in this pattern, or do you think I'm grossly off track? What observations did you make?
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Originally Posted by hannibalbarc
. But then again if you play online and just focus on fun factions that you love 1.) you don't master the online game as well compared with using many factions and 2.) you lose alot more by not taking good "counter" factions.
