Very demure, very mindful, very competitive

Writing about The Competitor play type filled me with dread. It’s my personal experience that when some of them get into the competition, they suck the fun out of everyone.

Sometimes it starts as a light-hearted way of spending time with friends. You set up a Monopoly game just so you can have something to do over lunch and then an hour later, you find play money strewn all over the floor and one of your friends leaving in a huff.

Or after a close basketball game, someone approaches you and shouts at you because of a bad play when you’re only the spouse of the coaching team and had nothing to do with the outcome.

Not very demure, not very mindful, and not at all cutesy.

Admittedly, Competitors can bring out the fun and liveliness in activities. They are the ones who can rally for your team and push you to do things out of sheer belief that YOU CAN DO IT!

Sports and games are created to bring out the competitive side in all of us, whether you are just a spectator on the sidelines or part of the players. When there’s competition, there’s also a feeling of camaraderie and shared emotions, whether you are on the winning side or not.

But what if, you’re like me who is wary of testing out the waters because I don’t want to hurt anyone or have become skeptical of how competition is being used for us to become addicted to apps and media?

You can channel your inner competitor by using gamification principles when trying to make something fun. Knowing these principles can also help you be mindful if you’re getting hooked by platforms.

The Bartle test can help you know which multiplayer character type you are (even if you’re not into online games) and the gamification mechanics that work best for you. There are four major player types: achievers, explorers, socializers, and killers.

In the “real” world, here’s how they can be spotted being competitive:

♦ Achievers

Achievers love to collect all kinds of points and the words “upgraded”, “platinum”, and “top tier”, are music to their ears. Elite memberships are like beating boss levels of consumerism. They are the ones who thrive in team challenges with leaderboards even if the reward is just a box of pizza for the whole team. For them, the journey is more important than the destination.

♠️ Explorers

Explorers like to discover hidden gems and are great bounty hunters. They love off-beaten paths when traveling to new and old places. They want to be the first to know and are early adopters. They stay away from the mainstream and look for loopholes and easter eggs, be it typo errors in signs or an out-of-place mic onscreen on their favorite TV show.

♥ Socializers

Socializers are the darlings of social media apps because they drive use. They are also natural networkers and join meet-ups to be around people. Introverts can also be socializers since they spend most of their time liking and commenting on the posts of their friends and favorite brands.

♣️ Killers

There’s nothing like the thrill of pwning someone! You don’t necessarily hurt other people but you love chaos and deceit in safe doses. Trash-talking is flirting for you and is always game to get into (hopefully) friendly competitions. You like to stand out for your prowess and unafraid to showcase your talents.

If you want to know more about Bartle’s studies, his official website is a nostalgic look at how the internet used to look like. It’s a treasure trove of random stuff that doesn’t care for algorithms and optimizations.