# Testing personality objectively using video game behavior



## tailcalled (May 5, 2021)

Hi! I'm a computer science student with an interest in personality psychology.

One thing I know personality researchers struggle with is in getting direct, objective, behavioral data. Obviously, behavior is pretty important to personality research, so that's a bit of a problem. For my master's thesis, I got the idea that one could perhaps set up a game to record the player's behavior, and this behavior might then be useful as an indication of personality.

I've modified a game to (hopefully) better allow the behavior to reflect one's personality, and set it up so that it's records the in-game behavior. But now I need to actually test how well the game behavior matches the personality. I was wondering if anyone here would be interested in participating in this study? Here is a link to it; though do note that it might take quite a bit of time to participate, as you probably need to get a hang of the game and such, so perhaps expect a minimum time of 40 minutes.

Unfortunately, due to privacy laws, I cannot give personality feedback. But hopefully this line of research will eventually lead to the construction of an objective personality test that can give you feedback. (If there's interest in the concept, I'll try keeping you updated with any future tests I make.)


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## eeo (Aug 25, 2020)

How can I start playing the game? I can't place the extractor anywhere. Or is that kind of the point? Because I can create pixel art of all the thingies on the map for the next 2 hours...


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## tailcalled (May 5, 2021)

You should be able to place the extractor on the circle tiles. Does that not work?

If this does not work for you, then that indicates a technical problem. I don't know whether I can fix this technical problem online, but I can try if you can tell me your browser and operating system so I have something to work from.


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## eeo (Aug 25, 2020)

tailcalled said:


> You should be able to place the extractor on the circle tiles. Does that not work?


It's working now.


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## eeo (Aug 25, 2020)

Ok, that was fun. Thanks for sharing your test!


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## OneTriz (Jul 17, 2019)

tailcalled said:


> Hi! I'm a computer science student with an interest in personality psychology.
> 
> One thing I know personality researchers struggle with is in getting direct, objective, behavioral data. Obviously, behavior is pretty important to personality research, so that's a bit of a problem. For my master's thesis, I got the idea that one could perhaps set up a game to record the player's behavior, and this behavior might then be useful as an indication of personality.
> 
> ...


Don't know if you remember me, but I recognize you from Discord, Lol. Interesting test, I remember one of my friends played Factorio before. Had to give up early cuz I was kind of dumb with the painter thing haha.
The concept of a game monitoring your behavior kind of reminded me of the book Ender's Game although I didn't really pay attention to it because it was assigned reading so idk how true that is. Anyway I wonder what the applications for this are.
Hope to see you post more interesting stuff around here.


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## tailcalled (May 5, 2021)

I do remember you! Hi!

And yes, I will likely post more stuff here, at least if people are interested in personality tests, which I assume a lot here are.


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## DOGSOUP (Jan 29, 2016)

cool idea & I see how it would work (I was really bad at this game but that was to be expected).


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## Eset (Jun 7, 2016)

Finished the test.
Game was fairly fun.
Seems like a game I could get really good at if I played further. Figuring out the mechanics and then how to make efficient conveyor belts was engaging.


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## tailcalled (May 5, 2021)

If you want to play the game outside of the test, you can find it at shapez.io. Though it's a somewhat different version for various reasons.


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## ENTJudgement (Oct 6, 2013)

tailcalled said:


> Hi! I'm a computer science student with an interest in personality psychology.
> 
> One thing I know personality researchers struggle with is in getting direct, objective, behavioral data. Obviously, behavior is pretty important to personality research, so that's a bit of a problem. For my master's thesis, I got the idea that one could perhaps set up a game to record the player's behavior, and this behavior might then be useful as an indication of personality.
> 
> ...


Was keen to do the test until I read that I can't get results from doing the test. Does this prove I'm a Te dom? Since it looks like a complete waste of my time now?


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## ENTJudgement (Oct 6, 2013)

tailcalled said:


> If you want to play the game outside of the test, you can find it at shapez.io. Though it's a somewhat different version for various reasons.


Actually your game is pretty fun, especially for a Te dom LOL


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## DOGSOUP (Jan 29, 2016)

tailcalled said:


> If you want to play the game outside of the test, you can find it at shapez.io. Though it's a somewhat different version for various reasons.


I'm completely hooked on this game now, thanks


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## Astrida88 (Jun 6, 2019)

I am leaving a message so the topic stays in my followed threads, since I am busy now and I might forget about the test when I get back from work.


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## Astrida88 (Jun 6, 2019)

Done. I was playing like... I quess the game said 260 minutes or so. It was pretty funny. Till the numbers reguired for next tier building reguired a lot of the same type of structures and you need to travel the whole map to look for specific shapes (building the pathway was annoying). 

I wonder what my playstyle tells about me. Too bad I will not get my results. I am curious.


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