Magic the Gathering has a system and established vocabulary for the types of players it designs towards to sell their game. To simplify psychographic profiling, it’s basically why the player is interested in their game and what motivates them. Every gaming company does this (or should if they don’t) but the lead magic designer, Mark Rosewater, has talked about their design process on several occasions. Let’s examine how we can potentially apply this type of profiling to the miniature game community.

You can read about Mtg profiling here https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/timmy-johnny-and-spike-2013-12-03

I’ll quickly summarize their profiles:

• Timmy is the casual player. Very interested in fun moments the game creates and is looking to have a good time despite wins or losses.
• Johnny is somewhat competitive but is more interested in showing off skill at the game by doing something unique or complex rather than what is efficient.
• Spike is the competitive player, looking to win as much as possible and will try to find the most efficient ways to win.
• Vorthos (not in the article) cares about the theme, art, and story of the game. They like the gameplay but are more interested in what’s happening behind the scenes.
• Melvin (not in the article) is focused around the mechanical nature of the game. They love unique and interesting mechanics that really enforce it’s thematic design.

In essence, everyone who plays Mtg fits somewhere in all of these profiles. Players are not relegated to just one profile either, they can care about multiple things but usually one aspect shows through a bit more if you break down their interests.

Let’s start defining miniature gamer archetypes using a similar system:

Spike seems to fit in just about any type of game. There is always a competitive crowd looking to be the best at the game. Here’s some traits they might follow regarding miniatures games:

• Participates in online discussion and always on the lookout for what people are playing and why. This helps improve Spike’s game.
• Travels to gaming events and tournaments to compete against other players for the sake of competition.
• Is always looking for the strongest things they can do in the game. Will buy miniatures specifically because of their rules over theme
• Looks for consistent mechanics over high risk-high reward mechanics.
• Participates in the hobby aspect at a bare minimum or at full capacity, they either just care about playing the game or care so much that they invest an incredible amount of time to perfect all aspects of the game including painting.

Timmy also fits in a lot of places. Every game has it’s own big flashy elements made to draw players in and deliver on the fantasy of wielding those cool things against your opponents.

• Will buy models based on visual flair and theme. Wants to play what looks and sounds the coolest despite mechanics( for example, If it was a game about godzilla vs an army, they would choose the godzilla side)
• Doesn’t really care about winning or losing. Is there just to hang out and have a good time.
• Loves high RNG mechanics that reward big plays.
• The hobby aspect is just part of the fun of the game, they might paint a few models that they like
• Travels to a tournament just to meet people and play the game

The hobby aspect of miniature games is a defining part for many people who play the game. This involves painting the models and building custom displays that show off these models that fall into a particular theme. Vorthos doesn’t quite fit as the profile mostly focuses on theme and not the time investment of this part of miniature games. Lets go with Hank as the profile name, his love of propane and propane accessories matches the enthusiasm these players show towards the painting, building, and the thematic elements of the game.

• Appreciates the work put into the hobby above actually playing the game. A well painted model is worth a lot more than winning or losing.
• Appreciates work put towards enforcing the themes and stories of the models. For example zombie models might fit best in a graveyard display.
• More likely to put together armies that follow a theme around both visuals and mechanics.
• Travels to a tournament to see other player’s handiwork. Wants to share their hobby with fellow hobby enthusiasts.

Hanks can probably be specialized even further into subcategories as there are different aspects of the hobby to focus on. We can divide them into Painters, who perfect their craft to rival traditional art, and Sculptors that build unique models or dioramas that really showcase their creativity. A lot of miniatures events cater towards these versions of Hanks with competitions in craft over gameplay or simply showing off their work to others.

The Johnny archetype exists in miniature games. Armies tend to be built around synergies between models, and with the size of some games there is a lot of room to be playing something unique that is rarely seen. The hobby aspect also contributes to this as even if someone is playing the exact same models, Johnny’s models can be customized to have a completely unique look that no one else has.

All of these archetypes share something in common. They have a very strong commitment to the games they play. Miniature games take a much larger time investment than most other games due to preparing the models, setting up the game space, and physically playing the game. In comparison, a video game takes maybe 5 minutes to download and start playing, so how do miniature games draw players in?

Just like MTG, miniature games offer a way for all of these player archetypes to play together and have their fun. Here’s a picture of a casual game of Age of Sigmar by Games Workshop.

Imagine what each player archetype does. Timmy is amazed at the pile of models on the table, the clash of armies will be epic. Spike is looking for the biggest threat on the table and possibly making allies temporarily to push for a victory. Johnny is ready to surprise his friends with the army list he concocted for this game. Hank is grabbing pictures of everyone’s models and admiring the vastness of the display before him.

They are all together in this experience and yet are having fun in their own way. Every player has some motivation for playing which is the purpose of psychographic profiling.

What’s interesting is that on release, Age of Sigmar had a focus on some players over the others. There were initially no standardized rules for assembling armies which put off the Spikes as there was no competitive structure. Hank didn’t care as the models are more important. Timmy had a great time playing with all of his models all at once. Johnny was initially interested in the unlimited freedom but without restrictions there was no real puzzle to solve. The designers eventually developed a points system for hiring armies on later updates which brought in these other types of players.

Guildball by Steamforged Games was primarily enjoyed by spikes as the game had very consistent mechanics that encouraged skillful play. The downside was that Hank and Timmy eventually moved on to other games as there was no support for their interests in how the game was both designed and maintained. There was eventually a breaking point where even the competitive crowd lost interest as a single dominating strategy took over the game and nothing was done to change it for an extended period of time.

It’s interesting to see how profiling players can affect a game and how designers can use profiles as guideposts to recognize and fix issues.