RPG Games: Do Personality Types Affect Role Play?

Ehh the whole point of playing a game and immersing yourself in a different world is to enable a person to escape reality and assume a persona through which they live an alternate life and have a chance to carve a new personality for themselves. If how you're feeling IRL really reflects how your character is feeling (or vice versa) then something is very wrong and not really contributing to the ultimate goal of happiness and joy a game is meant to bring. I agree however, if your in-game character is feeling down for whatever reason please try and don't let it impact your RL self and vice versa. Take a break :>

Also, questioning only 20 people in 5 IRE games each with over 150+ people online at any given time is kinda real low for generalisation.

That was my result and I'd have to agree with it for the most part. This article was interesting and a step away from the usual which is nice once in a while.

If you are a prick in real life, it inevitably carries over.

I'm pretty consistantly an INTP on most Myers-Briggs tests, though I oftentimes wind up as an INFP. I do try to RP an ISTJ, but I've no clue how well that works out.

I completely forgot to take this quiz after being messged it in game :(

I find myself almost always playing a fantasy version of my own personality. I'm easy going, slightly shy, on the artistic side and prefer to avoid conflict and confrontation. I do have respect for those who can portray something completely opposite of themselves for an extended period of time. That is good role-play. I'm just not able to do it.

Without question, players' personalities affect characters and their roleplay. That's why you never see introverted people with poor self-image playing leaders of organizations.

I need to make a guy persona so I can play him again. But all the girls fall for him for some reason :\

I find that my favourite way of RPing a character is to take my normal personality, exaggerate it extremely, and then add a new element, such as religious zealotry. For me, this method makes it difficult to accidentally slip into my RL persona.

One of the most difficult thing for me in roleplaying is to separate my own personality from the character I've created.

Apparently I'm an INTJ.

Wikipedia describes the personalities mentioned in this article as among the rarer ones to be found... the results obtained here seem to speak a lot about what aspects of a text game are attractive to various people!

I'm so confused.. and yet so interested.

Sorry but 20 players is a pretty small sample.  It would have been cool to test the correlation between a character's and the player's view.

Based upon what I've been reading, I'm almost inclined to believe that I'm an INFP, but I've not taken any quizzes.  Anyway, I'm far too lazy to be proper ISFP (artist), and far too selfish to be an ENFJ (giver).

I've noticed a tendency of mine to play total hippies and/or grubby hobos.

I couldn't even begin to mesh together the correlation, because, well ... that would require effort.  So, ah.  Yep, that's it.

Many of my characters have fallen into the ENTP range of things. But I tend to enjoy playing the type. It is an interesting read for the other types though, I can pick a few of my friends in there.

Agree

The only personality trait that I allow my character to possess that is similar to my own is my need to be constantly organized or to constantly push for change. I definitely would want to work towards developing an ESTP personality for my character.

I'm not a big fan of the MBTI, but I think this article is spot on. I suspect that people of a personality class and temperment will be predisposed to play characters of a certain temperament. I suspect that while introverts will typically play introverts, and extroverts will typically play extroverts, but that all other aspects of personality likely map to different personalities. For example, in the MBTI's system, perhaps SJs would be predisposed to playing NTs, regardless of their status as a T or an F. I think these mappings could be found by asking enough players(though of course some temperaments would be much rarer than others.) I also thing such a study would be aided by switching to a better personality typology.

Personality absolutely affects in game RP.  Since I was a child, people have been saying that I'm like a Troll Runewarden.  It was only natural that I play one in Achaea.

As far as a personality stamp, I'd have to say I'm a LVMEB.

Interesting article

Well, I didn't realize it but my character is a lot like me...not what I was going for.  I scored ESTP which, I already knew since ive done the Myers Briggs thing a few times and always score the same.

However, I did not realize that my character took on the same personality.  Guess that is one of the skills of somebody who is great at RP, to seperate their own personality from their character.

Cool article, made me think of ways to seperate my character from me. 

Sometimes I force myself to be the complete opposite of myself, when creating role-playing characters. I always tend to do so when I'm playing DnD, and the character I have in mind for Rivka is most likely going to turn out completely different than I am, as well. However, I have already notied that, while I want to be a bit more anti-social than I am in real-life (since I'm usually wanting to talk to EVERYONE, I'm fairly obnoxious), it's seemingly impossible to do that and have fun in Iron Realms games, so it's going to be something I  need to work on as far as integrating into my character.

This article is a little bothersome to me.  As others have mentioned, it bases its opinion on a terribly small sample size.  I'm also a little concerned about it linking to a pay quiz like this on a ... frankly, very poorly constructed website.  I'm skeptical about the whole feel of this.

My roleplaying personality doesn't actually tend to match my actual one, though I aknowledge that this may not be the norm.

My IC personality is more the emotional, random, spur of the moment kinda guy, whereas the RL me is much more logical, methodical, and 'safe' (ok, I'm lame), and I have a tendancy to rage when things aren't as such (apologies to everyone who has to listen to me on the mudlet clan).

Yes, personality type does affect my character.

I agree that it is impossible to detach your personality from your character. Even if you come up with, and act completely different, small things will remain the same. Due to the extended period of time you spend working on said character, the similarities will come through.

I've never really given much creditbility to these kinds of studies. However, this looks really fascinating.

That just about says it all^^

Just did a test for myself:

Introverted (I) 80% Extroverted (E) 20%
Sensing (S) 50% Intuitive (N) 50%
Thinking (T) 75% Feeling (F) 25%
Perceiving (P) 57.89% Judging (J) 42.11%

And then for Ellaeren:

Extroverted (E) 90% Introverted (I) 10%
Intuitive (N) 64.29% Sensing (S) 35.71%
Feeling (F) 79.41% Thinking (T) 20.59%
Perceiving (P) 90% Judging (J) 10%

Which is pretty well the opposite. I guess I play this game as an outlet, I don't want to be myself.

Of course, I don't know if I'm playing Ellaeren accurately, maybe anyone she talks to can immediately tell that I'm an ISTP.

oh you crazy kids!

I always find that at least a little part of me creeps into my character even when I don't want to. Most notably, my humor.

Great article Natalie, thank you for giving me the opportunity to contribute to the overall top results! ;) (INTJ haha)

I know a lot of my rl personality affects my game play and which organisations Ferrous is part of and interacts. I recently tried creating alternate characters in a few different IRE games with a different (more neutral) roleplay, but quickly ended up returning to the "good" side. I guess thats where I'm destined to be!

Great article~ Definitely an interesting read!

Fun article! It would be interesting to see if there were similarities not just across leaderships but across organizations ... especially for ones like Hallifax and Gaudiguch in Lusternia.

I think that it'd be very difficult to create a character that is completely unlike yourself in all ways. However you do it, your character is bound to reflect your own personality somehow.

Nothing wrong with letting a bit of your RL personality bleed into your characters. Just be aware that you should learn how to stay distanced from your character. Remember, just because a city enemy insulted your character doesn't always mean that they hate YOU as a person.

Although the subject matter of this article is intriguing, I'm afraid I have to step in and be a bit of a persnickety cow. There are a number of fallacies in this article that bother me.

1. "According to the Meyer-Briggs results INTP and INTJ are both dominate thinking personality types. Dominate thinking personality types are involved with order and organization and being able to use logic."

   First of all, INTJs are Ni-dom, or 'Introverted iNtuition dominant' in layman's terms. They have Extraverted Thinking as a secondary function, not a primary (dominant).

   Secondly, the function you're talking about is specifically Extraverted Thinking; that's to do with order: organising and categorising things. What INTPs have as a dominant function is Introverted Thinking, which is more to do with analysing information than it is to do with sorting it. Though it may tempt one who has not yet fully come to terms with his or her strengths, INTPs are not typically interested in or suited to administrative roles; they would much rather be the architects or 'the power behind the throne'.
    

2. "The feeling personality is based on values, beliefs, and moral foundations. Once more I analyzed the characters and realized that each of the characters’ have always been well-known to role-play their beliefs and values very well."

   The feeling preference is more to do with following your heart instead of following your head. It is equally likely that a person with a thinking preference will choose to base their life on values, beliefs and moral foundations; they will simply go about it in a more cold, calculating manner and be more capable of making tough decisions for the greater good.
    

3. "[...] the ISTP is a dominate thinking personality [...] I took consideration into viewing the characters that received the ISTP result and my findings were the following both were in leadership positions of some degree they were also a member of similar classes, and were known as fairly gifted thinkers."

   


Being a 'gifted thinker' has no more to do with 'having a thinking preference' than being 'sensible' has to do with 'having a sensing preference'. It is to do with having a preference for utilising logic as a decision making tool as opposed to utilising how you feel about something as a decision making tool. In fact, an INFP is far more likely to be a gifted thinker - defined by a higher than average IQ - than an ISTP. There is a strong inverse correlation between the sensing preference (the 'S' in 'ISTP') and the likelihood of being gifted; INTPs rank the highest, followed by INFPs (who have a FEELING funciton as their primary). Here's the layman's graph: http://fileupyours.com/files/251501/thegraph.bmp and here's the source:
http://www.sengifted.org/articles_social/Sak_SynthesisOfResearchOnPsychologicalTypes.shtml
    

4. As many have pointed out, 20 is nowhere near a large enough sample to conduct this testing and draw conclusions. It makes sense that introverts dominate the text game population, but you don't have anywhere near enough data to state what the four most common personalities are, and you certainly don't have enough data to tell us which way those with specific personality types lean as far as org/race/class is concerned.

I also don't think RL personality type should directly affect the personality of your character in an experienced roleplayer. It may influence the personality types you would be interested in exploring, but I think that if your own personality is bleeding into a constructed personality you've written, you're doing it wrong. My RL personality type is iNtuitive, but I generally prefer to explore Sensing type characters.

I'm sorry for tearing into your article, but I think you need to do more research on MBTI. This gives food for thought, particularly for roleplayers who have trouble separating who they are OOC from how they act IC; please understand my comment was not written with the malicious intention of raining on your parade.

Sincerely,
A Fe-inferior INTP 

I find it's more enjoyable for everyone if you don't play a douchebag. 

I am an IFNJ and it deffently shows in my Char. 

I think it would be rather interesting to see what sort of personality demographic the players of IRE games are. It seems I'm an: ENTJ; but I play as a very lazy ENTJ. Ha!

personality affects their roleplay quite a bit.

My cynism, I believe, does reflect in Shirszae. Though she is like that by design, too.

 I think it all depends on what you want to get out of the game.

I don't take character tests serious

I feel that as soon as you have an anonymous screen, most personality 'restrictions' disappear. It's much easier to express your thoughts. This isn't to say they don't affect it at all; after all everything that you do or that happens to you has an effect, no matter how small. Still, I think it's diminished when you can be anonymous.

My charcter is almost the same as me

When roleplaying in a game that requires me to make real-time decisions, such as a MUD where I can't think about what my character would do and then get back to the DM a few moments later, I try to make certain aspects of my character's personality reflect my own. I'm kind of all over the place, so if I try to roleplay a character who's supposed to be on the ball all the time, for example, super-perceptive of every minute detail in his environment, then it's gonna be a joke. Also, being evil is hard for me. Like, even in Mass Effect, I feel really bad for being mean to the NPCs. This doesn't mean that there aren't aspects of my MUD characters, though, that don't reflect my own personality. And kudos to those who can go all out.

sure how much I believe in those personality tests. People aren't always hard and fast in one of two categories...there are shades of grey.

hehehe

Determines what your character does in certain situations.

how could they not?

interesting look at it through the MB testing.  Nice article.

I'm pretty sure that a lot (or at least some) of my personality leaks through when I RP, the same way sometimes my mood affects how I RP. I'm kind of seeing it as inevitable. 

I suppose I should not be playing this game. But Natalie is right I have much more fun when I step back from time to time and remember it is a game.

Subu is the closest to my personality. Actually I can't see the fun in acting otherwise.

yes

there's a level of personal projection onto all characters, whether it's your natural state in public, or how you are in private.

Or a projection of how you'd like to see yourself. 

I certainly admit to my own attitude ultimately affecting my character, though there are times when I know it doesn't -- oftentimes, I'm far more mellow than the character herself, and in certain situations (such as an individual saying she has a 'stupid name', which she does) her frustration actually adversely affects my own emotions. So it's a give and take both ways, I think.

if you're a bastard, you will be one. If you're a immature, you'll be like one

As someone with an EXTREME preference for Introversion per the MBTI, it's all I can do to make my character even remotely more aware of external factors and engage with others. It takes a great deal of energy.

Most definitely. Even if often the characters are bit different than the people who role play them, the person's personality will still come through in some ways.

Thats the right way

They deeefinitely affect role play.

Is a bit different than me, but we're pretty much the same guy.

it does.

of course they do

Of course, it does.