Psychology of the gamer

First of all, I'd like to say that the hiatus has helped me gain a better understanding of the ways of gaming and gamers. I have studied conferences, interviews and personal opinions related to games. So, without any other unnecessary words... I'M F*CKING BACK!!!

Why do we like certain games? There must be tens of genres for video games only, but we like only a small select number of them. My studies have shown me that because the brain can only select a limited number of genres to like, it has made a complex way of choosing them based on subconscious factors, active preferences and personality. So I've divided gamers into 3 large categories: "liberals", "thinkers" and "socialists".

NOTE: the names I've given them have no connection to their political preferences or ties with the academic elite. It's just my political, sarcastic humor.

1. LIBERALS:

The "liberals" can be described as people who want to be as free as possible. They're most likely active in their daily lives (a.i. sportsmen, swimmers, fitness enthusiasts, people that do regular exercise and practice sports); they are the tougher and more popular ones. These people play games that consist in as much action as possible. Climbing walls, fighting endless waves of monsters, swinging your sword, shooting left and right and getting their daily adrenaline rush is what they want. The games they play include GTA games, anything that requires shooting without thinking (Modern Warfare 2) or wildly swinging your sword (God of War III), Prince of Persia, adventure games etc. Also, if the game has horror styles, all the better!

2. THINKERS

The "thinkers" are the cool, calculated people that need their daily food for thought. They need to keep their brains and senses sharp so they play games that require more thinking and calculating. These people (me included) are smart, like to think and probably wear glasses --> geeks or nerds as they are usually called.. the games they like include strategy games, more complex RPGs that involve decisions based on a moral scale and multiple paths to finishing a quest, shooters with tactical parts (Brothers in Arms, Star Wars: Battlefront II or BioShock 2). Luckily, there are already some good games, like Bad Company 2 or Supreme Commander 2, which are already out and many more to come (RUSE and C&C 4). Not to mention the strategy games' expansion into console worlds, with games like Red Alert 3, Halo Wars or Tiberium Wars already out for Xbox 360.

3. SOCIALISTS

Generally the people with a mild personality, who are not fond of overkill or gore. Girls are usually part of this group, along with people that like to socialize with others. Multiplayer online games like WoW, Aion or Guild Wars fit them. But that doesn't mean they won't settle in for the multiplayer components of other games. And let's not forget the Facebook or Yahoo! games.

So we see that there are quite a lot of types of people. But don't get me wrong, a person can always change (I'm an ex-liberal) and some people can be both liberal and socialists, or socialists and thinkers (sometimes my case). In the end, it all comes down to what you want.