Home ➾ Blog ➾ Bartle Player Types: Socializers

Socializers – one of the four Bartle Player Types – want to form beautiful, colourful, lasting relationships with other players. They are ready to listen to your story and will share their collected items, if it means they can help you in this way.

Now and then, a little exploration is needed to understand what everyone is talking about. Scoring points may be necessary to unlock fun communication features. But this is not the reason why Socializers begin playing.

It’s a lot easier to design features for a game – ones that are well-received – if you know how your players prefer to approach the experience.

This deep dive is a sequal to Bartle Player Types: Introduction and Overview.

We turn our eyes to the Socializers; those who are always in for a good conversation, are up to date on the latest gossip, are the most visible in the chatbox, and – at the same time – can stand still in place for hours straight.

1. What do Socializers want from a game?

Hey! How was your day? 🙋‍♀️

Socializers want to connect with other players, have a good chat, and build meaningful relationships.

Greeting. Responding. Liking. Talking.

Really getting to know people is worth a lot more than treating them like pawn to be bossed around.

The point of play is to make new friends. The game itself is just background. The interaction with the game is less important. Socializers want above all to be in contact with others, to empathise with them, and listen to them.

Working together once in a while is fun. It is all about having a good time together. It is less important whether they are actually successful in their endeavour.

Even just observing other people can be rewarding; seeing them grow as individuals; developing over time. Socializers like to help new players.

Helping. Observing. Sharing. Cooperating.

They enjoy the recognition they get for the size – and quality – of their friend list and the social influence they have. This is their pride. This is the status Socializers seek.

Showoff. Status. Contribute.

Game features for Socializers 💬

▪️  Chat
▪️  Friend list
▪️  Newsfeeds
▪️  Communication tools
▪️  Water cooler
▪️  Cooperation mechanics
▪️  Mentorship
▪️  Sharable rewards
▪️  Toys that initiate conversation and interaction
▪️  Group quests
▪️  Small puzzles
▪️  Castable effects on other players
▪️  Amusing commands
▪️  Amusing responses for amusing commands
▪️  Casual trade
▪️  Crafting
▪️  Multi-user mounts
▪️  Mailbox

Socializers seek interaction with other players  🗣️👥

As the quadrant shows, Socializers fall under Interacting and Players. By interacting with other players, the game becomes a great way to connect with others.

So, in effect, you are developing more mechanics for Socializers by focusing on player interaction.

Think of adding – and optimising – communication tools, player-to-player commands, and simple puzzles that can only be completed in cooperation.

By giving players cryptic hints when they appear to be stuck and allowing the help features to sometimes provide vague information, you can also facilitate more frequent requests for help.

Maximise the number of simultaneous players and make the existing means of communication easy and intuitive.

2. How do Socializers view other players?

You just don’t understand the meaning of playing… 🙄

Last but not least, it allows us to understand the worldview of a specific Player Type even better with insights into how different Player Types view each other.

⚠️ The following paragraphs are a brief summary of Bartle’s research and are based on stereotype Socializers. They should not be taken as automatically true for any individual player who shows common characteristics with the Socializers archetype.

Socializers vs. Socializers 💬💬

Socializers can logically talk to each other for hours. The more Socializers the game already has, the more additional Socializers are attracted.

The topic of conversation is usually the game itself or other players in this world, but can also regularly take other directions.

Socializers vs. Achievers 💬🏆

Socializers don’t like to talk to Achievers, but they do like to talk about Achievers. Achievers provide an ongoing soap opera that Socializers can discuss.

They do not like to be drawn into an activity for which Achievers just needs a few extra pawns, purely because they do not find the activity itself interesting or fun, but on the other hand, they do want to help another person.

Socializers vs. Explorers 💬🤠

Although both Player Types like to talk to others, they rarely share the same areas of interest. Socializers generally consider Explorers to be sad characters who should look for a real life.

Socializers vs. Killers 💬💀

The hatred that some Socializers have for Killers knows no bounds. It is probably the most unstable relationship among all Player Types.

Socializers are often the victims of the ruthless Killers.