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Character Creation based on Psychological Theory

Started by April 23, 2012 08:26 PM
7 comments, last by Joe Evans 12 years, 7 months ago
Hi, first time poster and aspiring game designer. I have, in my possession, a concept of character design based on the archetypal psychology studies and findings of Carl Jung and the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator (MBPTI). Please, if interested, view the attached .pdf file [attachment=8448:Anthropocene.pdf] for an in-depth outline on the creation process. Keep in mind, the concept is infantile and requires much tender, love and care which I do intend to provide. Irrespective of maturation I feel that the concept holds magnificent potential.

EDIT: The overall theme is not final, and I am wishing to find a theme that co-aligns well with psychological theory and a strong tendency towards realism; a supernatural aspect would have to be very appealing for addition. I really would like to find a more supportive motif for the "class" system.

Elapsed Writing Time: 6 hours
Total Words: 1,000
My idea is morphing from a "birth of civilization" theme to a "management of civilization" theme. Considering the 16 variations of roles and the nearly 16(...15) positions of The Cabinet of The United States, I was thinking there may be something there with creating a world persistent around the occupations of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Security, Urban Development, Interior, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Law and outside the The Cabinet influence occupations surrounding entertainment, art and science. I feel that this may interpret well with the psychological theme of the character creation process. Criticism? Ideas? As I mentioned above, it's still a very immature concept and I wish to develop it more, but I seem to falter when it comes to integrating informative character detail with spirit or story.
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Wow it sounds very interesting and in depth.

so will this be implemented in some sort of MMORPG world?
This sounds more like a Writing topic than a Game Design topic to me. Moving accordingly.

-- Tom Sloper -- sloperama.com

From a post I put in the Writing forum before it was moved here. :P

I wish to find possible story arch or anchor, themed properly for

THESE ROLES/ROLE VARIANTS:

  • Mentor: Instructor & Counselor
  • Advocate: Marshal & Healer
  • Coordinator: Champion & Mastermind
  • Engineer: Inventor & Architect
  • Manager: Director & Inspector
  • Preserver: Provider & Protector
  • Operator: Craftsman & Promoter
  • Entertainer: Composer & Performer

    THESE SKILLS:

    • Collaboration
    • Command
    • Accommodation
    • Gathering
    • Envisioning
    • Crafting
    • Performance
    • Instruction

      AND THESE ARCHETYPAL AGENCIES:

      • Agronomy
      • Commerce
      • Defense
      • Education
      • Energy
      • Human Services
      • Domestic Security
      • Urban Improvement
      • Interior
      • Labor/Industry
      • State
      • Transportation
      • Asset Management
      • Regulation
      • Philosophy
      • Science
      • Entertainment
      • Art

        Please, list any skills or agencies that I may be missing or should ditch(My roles are pretty much set in stone.), and any unifying themes, other than civilization management, that could possible integrate well with them. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

        tl;dr Stories that have high immersion factors with civilization management games on a microcosmic scale from the ground up?
One other thing; Updated .pdf I added a more simplified graph to relate the variants and also got rid of all the damn colors and speculative story.


so will this be implemented in some sort of MMORPG world?


Yes, hopefully. More likely than not, a browser-based text and image oriented MUD, mmorpg, or many other titles that escape me at the moment.

[attachment=8453:Concius.pdf]
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I've decided, conclusively, that I will incorporate a prehistoric era, primarily the Paleolithic Age or more explicitly the Lower & Middle-Paleolithic. (This situation appears to be a neglected atmosphere when it comes to interactive entertainment.) Principally incorporating fabrication routines of stone utensils, gathering behaviors of foragers and scavengers, shamanic doctrines, ritualistic conduct and activities and, most significantly, survival in a savage, primeval realm. I do intent to expound all the terminology in the preceding document, actual and illusory, with a separate glossary issue. Roles, temperaments, attributes, etc. are all subject to recurring terminology modification. But, the models that the roles and variants are grounded on are indeed definitive.
A word of caution though:
Very few people have just one quality, typically people have a dominant type intermingled with a few of the other ones here and there. In other words, being too strict with the player can potentially scare them off. This is one of the reasons why the concept of Lawful/Chaotic-Good/Evil turned out to be rather bad - because you're defining the character prior to actions made and not as a result of them.

Using the Bartle test as an example, no players are just one type of either killer, achiever, explorer or socializer. It's always an amalgamation of either, with one of the types usually being dominant. There are also inherent flaws in the Bartle test, like the inability to differentiate between gang killers and lone killers, between teamster socializers and trolling socializers, or between world explorers and system explorers.

I've been known to shift from almost 100% of one player type to almost 100% of another player type simply on mood alone. However, a lot of studies into player psychology keep assuming that players stay the same or similar as a constant. What has been typical of me is that, once I'm burned out on one playstyle, I adopt an almost opposite playstyle for a period of time.

- Awl you're base are belong me! -

- I don't know, I'm just a noob -

Beautifully constructed Dr. I propose the ability to indicate a role as your preparatory role and level through all of the roles on a single character gives the ability of freeform play style, I mean not to give the player that freedom in the preliminary stages, I want them to earn it. The mere boundary to “freedom” is you are fixed with the choice of Reserved or Social and thus limiting only the variants of the roles to one side. I also wish for Reverence and Notoriety to be scaled on a fluctuating spectrum so the player, if he/she wishes, can flow from one side to the other without bounds, unless dictated by a faction.

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