What type of player are you?

What type of player are you?

  • The Social Historian

    Votes: 23 37.7%
  • The Everyman

    Votes: 8 13.1%
  • The Dictator

    Votes: 3 4.9%
  • The Great Hero

    Votes: 3 4.9%
  • The Deity

    Votes: 4 6.6%
  • The Narcissist

    Votes: 6 9.8%
  • Other

    Votes: 8 13.1%
  • The Psychopath

    Votes: 6 9.8%

  • Total voters
    61

Mr Jon of Cheam

Emperor
Joined
Oct 26, 2017
Messages
1,234
Inspired by a discussion in another thread, I thought it might be fun to poll the CivFanatics on how they play Civ, specifically how they identify with their own choices and with their opponents during a standard game.

These are often different, which leads us to six archetypes, i.e. you might see yourself as playing one of the leaders but consider your opponents to be the civs, or vice versa. Which one are you, and how does this impact your view of Civ VII? For example, I am The Narcissist, which means I am quite comfortable with decoupled leaders and civ switching, happy with the number of civs per Age, but a bit annoyed by the diplo screen showing my leader and miss the old days when you could choose your leader's name.

Some disclaimers:
- This is meant to be fun, not science. I understand that it is all a spectrum, of course, but I would think most of us would lean more towards one category than the rest. If you are something else entirely then I'd love to hear it!
- Please excuse the terrible names, that's just me having a bit of fun, what's a guy to do on the train into work?


The Social Historian
My civ vs other civs: I am Greece and my mortal enemy is Rome

The Everyman
My civ vs other leaders: I am Greece and my mortal enemy is Augustus

The Dictator
My leader vs other civs: I am Machiavelli and my mortal enemy is Rome

The Great Hero
My leader vs other leaders: I am Machiavelli and my mortal enemy is Augustus

The Deity
Myself vs other civs: I am the Supreme Mr Jon of Cheam and my mortal enemy is Rome

The Narcissist
Myself vs other leaders: I am the Supreme Mr Jon of Cheam and my mortal enemy is Augustus

Bonus option: The Psychopath
In a world controlled by AI, I'm the only human left. They want to rewrite human history and I need to stop them and prove once and for all what really happened in the last 6000 years
 
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Great Poll!

I'm missing this option:

The Psychopath
In a world controlled by AI, I'm the only human left. They want to rewrite human history and I need to stop them and prove once and for all what really happened in the last 6000 years.
Added :D
 
The way civs and leaders have been reinvented for VII will probably make me switch from The Social Historian to The "Great Hero" archetype. My own leader actually showing up and other leaders role being more pronounced is what I imagine will make me change my way of thinking.
 
The Collective
Combined identity vs the opposites: I am the fate of the nation, the people, and their leadership, and my enemies are the fates of each nations & peoples & leaderships.

I was originally the option #1 the Social Historian, but I found out it can be #4 the Great Hero after I played as Sejong the Great in Civ 5. And slowly, my POV was changed more complex, and finally reached to this idea: I'm not the only one of them, I am the mixture of all POV within the Civilization. The people are not just my loyal subjects, I am the hive mind of them when they have unique and dynamic society. The leader is not just my champion, I am the leader itself when they have strong vision for their nation. So when I play Korea, I am Sejong the Great who really care his people, and I am the spirit of Korean people who really crave the peaceful powerful nation, at the same time.
 
I used to play as @uppi's Gamer. All any civ was was a package of game bonuses that I was trying to min-max toward a victory. They wouldn't have even had to have had a name drawn from any RL civ. Sometimes, I could literally not remember what civ I was playing as, though I could tell you with great precision where I was in my game. The other civs were just by whichever was shorter: leader name (including abbreviations like Monty) or civ name (Siam, not Ramkhamhaeng).

Then I became a Global Historian, penning my master work, How [Korea] Conquered the World. (This corresponds to a shift from seeking science victories to seeking military victories). I presuppose a military victory, and what I am writing is an account of how it was that [Civ] achieved that. This historian is probably Korean (since by the time he is writing, Korea has conquered the world, you see), but he talks in a neutral, modern-day objective-historian voice (though he sometimes quotes earlier, patriotic historians). Although I'm playing as Korea, I'm equally interested in describing all of the other civs. In fact, in the early years (since I play on deity), I will provide accounts of how Korean scouts gazed in wonder at the roads their neighboring cultures had built and the level of cultivation of their fields.
 
I don't have a consistent answer - at least in 6... There, there were civs where I thought of them as a leader, like Alexander, and civs where I thought of them as a civ, like Babylon.

My answer varies depending on the opponent, so who knows what civ7 will do...
Do you not even gravitate towards one, naturally? I'm probably the same as you, but definitely my default is Narcissist in VI, aside from in specific cases. I'd say this has changed over time though, I'd probably have been The Diety or Social Historian back in the Civ VI days.
 
I find this surprisingly difficult to answer!

I certainly identify the AI opponents as their leader avatars - it’s Monty who keeps declaring war, and Qin who stole my wonder etc.

As a player though, I am my own mind - my leader is some abilities I have, but otherwise I am not really role-playing.

There is a social historian aspect to how I imagine events during the game and how they fall about, where I think in terms of my civilisation and its neighbours. But in general I am very much aware I am playing a game (that I intend to win) rather than embodying some kind of people or deity.

So I guess I am a Narcissist :D
 
Do you not even gravitate towards one, naturally? I'm probably the same as you, but definitely my default is Narcissist in VI, aside from in specific cases. I'd say this has changed over time though, I'd probably have been The Diety or Social Historian back in the Civ VI days.
It really varies on the civ and leader for me... Which do I find more memorable.
 
I'm a Painter - I want the entire map to be coloured in my colours, and see how deep I can get into the city list before everything is fully colonized.
 
Personally, I am a builder at heart. I build MY civilization. The opponents I want to let be alone as much as I can, dealing with my own lands.
But when someone interrupts your peaceful building with pointy sticks, do you tend to curse the leader, the civ, both, depends?
 
But when someone interrupts your peaceful building with pointy sticks, do you tend to curse the leader, the civ, both, depends?
It should always be the leader. I mean, poor Aztecs, they also want to live and prosper in peace. But somehow that stupid Monty got to power over there and is oppressing his own people. Now that he's bugging me as well, it's time to finally liberate the Aztecs from Monty and let them live in (supervised) freedom.

Come to think of it, this narrative will even work better in civ 7 with its mix and match leaders. Every civ wants/needs to be freed from colonial oppressors like Ben, Napoleon & Augustus.
 
But when someone interrupts your peaceful building with pointy sticks, do you tend to curse the leader, the civ, both, depends?
Depends, really. The leader is the face up in the right corner, but the civ is who I am invading. So hard to say one over the other.
 
This isn't something I seem to every really focus on or thought about until I've seen it argued a few times here the last little while. It's most likely I'm always changing depending on the match or game.
I voted for The Deity, but in reality it is a bit modified.

All that the light touches is my domain (Maybe I'm more the Lion King), Augustus is my Prime Minister and has some nifty powers and together we guide the Romans, who have some cool abilities that set us apart.
We'll show those dastardly Australians and their smug faced John Curtain ,or whatever his name is, and prove our people will be the strongest most refined people in this beautiful world. Now where are the people with all the gold bonuses so I can be their friends and leach off of them with my trade routes.
 
Narcissist, I guess. I don't really roleplay. I am an immortal, omniscient being guiding a chosen people through a world filled with other dangerous immortals who have followers of their own.
 
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