Powergamer
A powergamer ( PG ) is a type of player among role-playing players who tries to make his player character as powerful as possible. It is particularly common in online role-playing games such as Ultima Online and World of Warcraft . The term is often used derogatory and insulting. In computer games that are not influenced by role play (especially first-person shooters, e.g. Counterstrike), the term is usually used for a person who is experienced and superior in the game and has positive connotations.
Typology
According to the GNS theory, there are several styles of RPG, e.g. B. the simulationist, which is about simulating a world as realistically as possible. Another is the narrative style, where the personal development of the characters and the experience of an exciting story are in the foreground. The problem-solving style, on the other hand, relies on overcoming challenges (e.g. by eliminating opponents) and therefore on the strongest possible player characters. Since the individual styles are extreme examples, a mixture of the three styles can be found in most role-playing groups. However, players who are strongly attached to the problem-solving style are also known as power gamers. They try to maximize their player characters and obtain the best possible equipment. One means of choice is to interpret the rules for your own benefit or to exploit loopholes in the set of rules. Also, weaknesses of the characters are not played out.
In online role-playing games, power gamers also often try to locate certain bugs , i.e. errors in system programming, and to use them for themselves. When "power gaming" begins to break rules (and not just bend them), that is, to openly cheat , these players are also called munchkins . This is also parodied in a card game of the same name .
Examples
From the role play The Black Eye :
- According to the DSA rules, a witch can coat a personal piece of wood with a special witch's ointment and thus make it flyable. The most credible is the well-known witch's broom. However, there are also known cases in which players insisted that their witch be allowed to coat a special hardwood armor with witch's ointment, which would give her relatively large armor protection when worn.
From the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons , 3rd Edition:
- An often cited prime example of rule abuse is the "Bag-o-Rats Fighter". At the beginning of a fight the character drops a sack full of rats, kills them with a so-called whirlwind attack, and thanks to another talent (Great Cleave) receives a free attack against every other enemy within range for every rat killed. This method corresponded to the letters of the rules, but not to their spirit. This rule gap was closed in D&D 3.5 by changing the whirlwind attack.
From the role-playing game Shadowrun :
- In earlier editions of this system it was technically impossible to die immediately from a single source of damage; In any case, there was still time for rescue measures. Technically, you could z. B. in the midst of a large gathering of opponents with several kilograms of plastic explosives trigger a huge explosion, thus wiping out the opponents, and then let the team's (initially under cover) magician comfortably heal their own fatally wounded character.
From the online role-playing game Ultima Online :
- Avoiding the maximum load capacity of an avatar by not putting a load in the backpack, but pulling it behind him with the cursor on the floor near the avatar (so-called "frogging", which has now been fixed on many servers).
- The forging of daggers to increase an avatar's forging skills as quickly as possible. Since a dagger requires considerably fewer metal bars than a sword, for example, power gamers can produce considerably more daggers than swords with 100 metal bars, for example. Since the engine only counts the forged items and not the necessary effort, it increases the forging ability considerably faster (also fixed on many servers).
literature
- Robin D. Laws: Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering, ISBN 1-55634-629-8
- Florian Don-Schauen: Ways of the Master, Ulisses Spiele GmbH 2009, ISBN 978-3-940424-33-4
