The lore of the Elves in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is a rich one, no doubt. What you probably may not realize is that there's a lot more to these long-lived characters than story. A lot of the lore is grounded in Chinese philosophy and Jungian psychology as well.

Join us as we take a look at how the characteristics of the elves line up with the principles of yin-yang and analytical psychology. More psychobabble awaits after the jump!

 

Weekend Slowdown? Weekend reading more like it. An interesting and well written article on the Only a Game blog, attempts to outline the basic player patterns in an attempt to classify and categorize the different types of gamers out there.

We won't focus on the methodology and the references that the article drew upon, all the psychology stuff might bore you folks. Instead we'll present to you guys the 9 Basic Player types that this amazing work-in-progress has arrived at so far.

The 9 types are:

Conqueror - Conquerors seek to beat any challenge, the harder the challenge is to beat the more the satisfaction. Most commonly found in First Player Shooters, where the competition is against another human being - the ultimate AI so far - and where the competition is more often than not one against many, conquerors seek to be pushed to their limits and to triumph against adversity. The article notes that Conquerors on average are younger than most players

Manager - Managers seek complexity and thrive to discover how systems and how gameplay works. They derive satisfaction in discovering how things interact, and how actions within the game play out in the long term. Mastery is their middle name. Most managers find a home in Strategy games and RPGs.

Wanderer - Wanderers seek immersion and engagement in imaginary worlds. Good stories and great characters provide them more satisfaction than the challenge that the game's gameplay offers.

Get the rest of the types after the Jump!

Dr. John Charlton, Research Fellow in Psychology in the School of Health, Psychology and Sport, has recently conducted a study on refining the methods for diagnosing game addiction. The current accepted method to diagnosing gaming addiciton is by using symptoms found in people with gambling problems. Dr. Charlton has questioned this approach towards the topic.

In a press release that has recently surfaced, Dr. Charlton said "that several symptoms researchers had thought were important in diagnosing computing-related addictions were actually only indicative of high, but non-addictive, involvement." He added that "This means that taking them into account when conducting research gives an incorrect result - 10% higher than is correct."

In a survey conducted with 400 people from Asheron's Call there have been players who have complained about the negative effect of the game on their lives. The criteria that Dr. Charlton proposed was applied to this group, and the following results came to light:

• more than 40% said their social life was suffering
• 30% recognised gaming was interfering with their work
• 40% said it was causing arguments at home
• 50% confessed they were not getting enough sleep
• 35% said they missed meals to carry on playing.

It should be noted that of the respondents, 85% of them were male, so it would suggest that this is a largely male dominated pastime. It's good that studies such as these are being done. It's so much better to approach the problem in a scientific manner unlike a certain daytime TV show which shredded a disk to avoid gaming addiction.

Imagine this: it's 3:30 a.m. and the lights are out. In front of the television, locked in his room, is a hardcore gamer. Eyes red and palms sweaty, he's already loss track of the time. All he could think of is the futuristic AK-47 on his right hand and the enemies lurking in the shadows. He's forty five years old.

Creepy, huh? Certainly, we are all not like that. But the point is, games has this certain charm that is painful to let go of. Sure, we know how fun it is to play games, but the psychologists over at the University of Rochester kicked it up a notch for us.

According to their latest study, the fun of playing games is actually rooted in fulfilling basic psychological needs.The study was done in collaboration with Immersyve, Inc., a virtual environment think tank. More than 1,000 players served as the population and the systems utilized in the study included various consoles and some MMORPGs. Study lead author Richard M. Ryan has this brief explanation:

We think there's a deeper theory than the fun of playing. It's our contention that the psychological 'pull' of games is largely due to their capacity to engender feelings of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Some video games not only motivate further play but also can be experienced as enhancing psychological wellness at least short-term. Not all video games are created equal in their ability to satisfy basic psychological needs. But those that do may be the best at keeping players coming back.

The study was published in the university's journal Motivation and Emotion. Other co-authors include graduate student Andrew Przybylski and President of Immersyve and Doctor of Psychology Scott Rigby. And so with that said, gamers unite! Go and fulfill your psychological needs!