The results for which 4E6 element is regarded as the most challenging:

• Ponies: 4 votes

• Accountants: 6 votes
• Crystals: no votes
• Explosions: 1 vote

As I expected, the opinion was split between ponies and accountants as to which is the trickiest, with accountants just tipping ahead. Interestingly there was a late vote for explosions, which I also think the difficulty of including has been understated by those posting in the GameDev forums. I’ll post a more detailed view of what I think about these four elements over at my GameDev.net journal in a little while.

The new poll is now up. I’m interested in seeing what toy and game preferences people have, as there’s a whole world of play that doesn’t involve staring at a luminescent screen.

Results for the poll: Which player suit are you?

• Diamonds (Achiever): 2 votes
• Spades (Explorer): 6 votes
• Hearts (Socialiser) 0 votes
• Clubs (Killer) 1 votes

This was pretty much the result I expected. As of now I expect my main traffic comes from people at GameDev.net, and game developers are very much the explorer stereotype. I know I’m the kind of person who sometimes buys games just so I can analyse them, sometimes even when I know they aren’t a whole lot of fun. While I don’t play MMORPGs myself I am sorely tempted to try one purely to see what they are like.

I also expected a few Achiever types, as figuring out the optimal way to play is another strong trait I’d expect. No Socialisers, it seems, and one lone Killer type, just to freak me out slightly.

My next poll is one I’ve been waiting to post for a while, and now the Four Elements VI contest has started it’s now its time. For those of you who don’t know GameDev.net’s Four Elements contest, here’s a link to the competition page. It’s basically an annual contest to make a game in six months that contains some of four elements. This year competitors need to choose at least three out of the four elements, “Ponies”, “Accountants”, “Crystals”, “Explosions”.

The relaxing of the rules to allow just three elements plays nicely into the poll topic I had planned - Which 4E6 element do you think is most challenging? I expect there’s a few of you who are planning to enter who have a particular element you feel too difficult to implement or mesh with the other three. I’m interested in seeing which element wins this one, as I’m not particularly confident you’ll agree with me.

Although pie took an early lead, cake has sprung ahead in the last few days to narrowly take the win. I’m sure this is all very informative for… something. (I’m a cake guy myself; I’m quite fond of pie, but good quality cheesecake, fruitcake and carrot cake are hard to beat).

I’ve been meaning to put up a more meaningful poll, perhaps something asking about a game I’m making, ideas for the MAGIC contest, or possibly something regarding 4E6. However with the Four Elements contest still not started and my lack of brainstorming into MAGIC I’m forced to put up another more general poll.

This one is based on Richard Bartle’s card suit breakdown of playing styles in MUDs. It’s a good read for anyone interested in online game psychology. While I don’t play MMOs myself I am fascinated by the whole social dynamic of the phenomenon.

For those of you who don’t have the time to read the article, here’s a summary of the breakdown of playing styles:

• Achievers or Diamonds (treasure-seekers) regard points-gathering and rising in levels as their main goal, with other activites being subserviant to this end.
• Explorers or Spades (to dig up information) like to figure out how things work, look for interesting features within the game, and push the boundaries of the game.
• Socialisers or Hearts (for empathy) are interested in other people and what they have to say.
• Killers or Clubs (to beat people with) like to impose themselves on others, usually in the form of player-killing.

The final poll results for what is more important for the MAGIC game dev contest:

• Holding another as soon as possible: 2 votes
• Improving the contest: 3 votes
• Waiting for 4E6: 4 votes
• What’s the MAGIC contest?: 2 votes

Waiting for the Four Elements contest is the winner, but it’s pretty darn close with improving the contest. Given that the Four Elements contest has been confirmed to start some time in September, the prudent thing to do re: MAGIC is to wait to see what flavour this year’s contest takes, how much interest there is in it, and whether a small auxiliary game contest can supplement or compliment it. This means I’ll delay holding the contest to probably November, October at the earliest.

I’m going to try and put some more time into the website this month, so as part of that I’ll try to put up a new poll every week. This week I’ll put some time into brainstorming ideas for improving MAGIC, as that will make a decent poll topic. To tide everyone over, I’ll put up one of the deeper philosophical questions of our age, one that my brother and I both independently submitted to Nintendo’s “Everybody Votes” channel but to my knowledge hasn’t been used yet - which do you prefer: cake or pie?