Do different demographics have different play styles?

Crown

If you haven't yet read a bit about the Google drama the past few days, an employee posted this internally, someone leaked it to the internet, the news sites cut out select parts to sensationalise and click-bait it, the employee was fired, and now there is a lot of debate and drama from people who didn't read or understand what was written with very, very little actual intelligent response.

It got me wondering if different demographics lean towards similar play styles, builds, and is there anything common among certain types of players..

None of the examples below are meant to be all encompassing, and people can be members of multiple selections.

Examples of demographics:
1. Age group
2. Sex / Gender
4. Ethnicity
5. Regional origin

Examples of play types:
4. The group leader
5. The squishy healer
6. The tanky healer
7. The squishy DPS
8. The tanky DPS
9. The ganker
10. The tank
11. The bomber
12. The "I have idea wtf I'm doing but I'm having fun doing it" player
13. The utility role

Examples of build types:
4. The full min/maxer
5. The cost-effective min/maxer
6. The "I do what I want" player
7. The build for the group player
8. Magicka build
9. Stamina build
10. The "I didn't think about it but it sounds cool" build
11. Copied a streamer build and isn't very good at it
12. Copied a stream build and is rocking it
13. The "I forgot what I'm wearing because I was trying something new and got distracted" player

Examples of attitudes:
7. The "I will get all the last hits" player
8. The hate whisperer when winning
9. The hate whisperer when losing
10. The expert in everything
11. The player who cares about the map
12. The player who cares about points
11. The casual player
12. The theorycrafter
13. The mathematician
14. The social player

As with most of the discussions I start, it probably won't reach 5 pages before being shut down, but it should be interesting until then.

I believe that age group is likely one of the most significant influencing factors for attitude. We can also include the point that people living in Australia, where just about every second thing (wildlife) you come across wants to eat you, and where there are giant (and flying) spiders, are nuts for living on such a continent. I don't know how that translates to gaming though..

Takes-No-Prisoner

Oh these are fun, by fun I mean interesting bits of information to chew on.

I believe where one starts out in their gaming hobby, most of the time determines how they carry their image through out there 'online gaming' carriers.

I started gaming in 1991, so my perception of other peoples and how I interact with them probably differs from the guy/gal who-- maybe started on Halo or some other multiplayer game. Since I started with a single-player RPG. This said RPG, has infact influenced my thinking and play style when it comes to ESO PvP. Only recently have I settled down(finally) into a play style/role that I can say I feel totally comfortable with on the inside and out. The name of the build I play, and the play style centers around how a particular character played in this RPG as well!

Nestor

I don't think there is all that much a Gender gap in the way people play, at least based on the Guilds I am in. I know some bloodthirsty females and males, and I know go along get along males and females. I do think age has some influence. However for me, the influence is more, "Don't sweat the small stuff" and "Gear differences really don't matter for the most part"

Yes I am an old fart that chuckles, and sometimes has a belly laugh, over the foibles of the youth, but that is not limited to games.

ofSunhold

You could set up some polling, and get people to sort themselves into which categories we think we fit, along with demographic info. The sample size wouldn't be amazing, but it would still be pretty interesting I think.

NightbladeMechanics

I have personally observed that younger generations who grew up with the internet tend to tie their egos too closely to the game, and therefore take winning and losing much more seriously, potentially becoming toxic or arrogant in game.

SirAndy

Biased post is biased, it's pretty clear where you stand from the "options" you provided and the words you chose to define those options.

I would described myself as a highly skilled filthy casual that is mostly interested in having fun and trying out unconventional builds. I'm not interested in the ever changing meta chase yet i'm also perfectly capable to kick some serious butt if i feel like it.

Now go and analyze that!

Takes-No-Prisoner

NightbladeMechanics wrote: »

I have personally observed that younger generations who grew up with the internet tend to tie their egos too closely to the game, and therefore take winning and losing much more seriously, potentially becoming toxic or arrogant in game.

I too have seen this, it frightens and saddens me.

NightbladeMechanics

SirAndy wrote: »

Biased post is biased, it's pretty clear where you stand from the "options" you provided and the words you chose to define those options.

I would described myself as a highly skilled filthy casual that is mostly interested in having fun and trying out unconventional builds. I'm not interested in the ever changing meta chase yet i'm also perfectly capable to kick some serious butt if i feel like it.

Now go and analyze that!

I perceived no bias. In fact, Crown appears to be aware of his bias and attempting to avoid it in this post. He's curious about others. I'd be interested to analyze why you are so resistant to categorizing people.

SirAndy

NightbladeMechanics wrote: »

I'd be interested to analyze why you are so resistant to categorizing people.

Ever since i can remember, i have always had trouble to "fit in" (whatever that is supposed to mean anyways).

It seems there is no predefined category that fits me, neither in-game nor in-world.

Publius_Scipio

20s-30s
Male
Imperial
Cyrodiil

Big time bias against AD and EP. Especially their guilds and zergs.

Drummerx04

Back in the day when I played Halo: Reach, Bungie and then 343 made public the complete PvP stats of every player, I noticed at least one interesting trend.

The stats on the confirmed female players was tilted heavily towards melee combat, as in a large percentage (from 50% to I *** you not as high as 96%) of a female player's kills, were made with a split between melee attacks, Shotgun, and Energy Sword.

Male players conversely tended to be more evenly split among spawn weapons and the rest of the power weapons. Usually less than 20% were melee range weapon and melee attack kills, and I was around 10% melee range kills.

I thought it was rather fascinating to see such a pronounced difference in fundamental play style based on sex (I viewed hundreds of profiles).

---

ESO I think is a little less cut and dry since builds can be varied, and there is really no public record of how people play. From what I can see from my guild groups in PvE and PvP, the ladies on average seem to prefer tank/healer roles and most of the female dps I know or knew a little more personally started the game as stam, or their current main is a stam toon.

I'm actually really intrigued by this thread, and look forward to reading about observed trends before the SJWs come in and ruin it.

Minno

Regarding Age, I used to play COD2 on the Black Hats collection of servers. They had a strict policy of respect and fostering a place where player could play in a positive place free of hacking and abusive players.

That meant trolls, abusive players, etc were banned without remorse. they didn't have an age limit but a strict application form. If you showed even a hint of trolling, you were banned and had to go through the strict application process all over again. Many of the admins we're on average 30 years of age, but the 18 year olds or lower were very friendly and everyone was there to play some good games.

Some of the best PC gaming of my life happened on that server, and I never forgot it.

qsnoopyjr

Yes,

If you are Chinese, your playstyle is usually gold farmer
Russians usually play this way too

Good way to learn about countries playstyle is to type the country in search.
Like if you type chinese or russian, a lot of gold farming threads will pop up. People have software that can detect from the activity players are doing and it indicates if they are from a certain country, like China.

People don't just say gold farmer, they know they are Chinese because thats most popular country that does a lot of that activity.

ZOS_MattL

Hey there,

We have closed this thread as it is asking for personal information from users. On our community rules it states:

"Personal Information: For the sake of your own identity protection and personal privacy, we ask that you please do not share any personal information in the official The Elder Scrolls Online community. This also goes for sharing another community member’s personal information — doing so is not only considered malicious behavior, but it is a violation of our Terms of Service and something we take very seriously."

Regards,
Matt