Psychographics refers to the mental attributes distributed among a group of people. In game studies, it usually refers to what different players like seeing and doing in a game.
In The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses, game designer Jesse Schell paraphrases the work of game designers Marc LeBlanc and Richard Bartle's breakdown of player attributes (109-110):
LeBlanc's Taxonomy of Game Pleasures
Game designer Marc LeBlanc has proposed eight primary pleasures that arise from playing games:
- Sensation -- hearing music, seeing something beautiful, or using a control scheme that feels empowering. Usually tied to a game's aesthetics.
- Fantasy -- pleasure that comes from imagining oneself as part of a grand fictional world, immersion in a game's fictional world.
- Narrative -- the dramatic unfolding of a sequence of events, usually through a game's story.
- Challenge -- accomplishing tasks or solving puzzles; (a feeling other theorists associate with fun)
- Fellowship -- feelings of pleasure, friendship, or community
- Discovery -- exploring the game world or finding a secret feature or clever strategy within a game
- Expression -- pleasure of expressing oneself or creating things; includes character creation or community level building
- Submission -- the pleasure that arises from entering the magic circle of play and escaping from the "real world" for a while
Bartle's Taxonomy of Player Types
A more general system, Bartle's taxonomy was designed to be mapped onto suits of a deck of cards and so are easy to remember. Schell associates each type with at least one of LeBlanc's pleasures:
- Achievers (diamonds) -- players who primarily wish to acheive the goals of the game; associated with "Challenge"
- Explorers (spades) -- players who want to "get to know the breadth of the game;" associated with "Discovery"
- Socializers (hearts) -- interested in relationships with other people; their primary pleasure is "Fellowship"
- Killers (clubs) -- interested in "imposing themselves on others," either through competition, destruction, or helping/teaching other players