In an attempt to understand where players are coming from, here is a code for World of Warcraft which lets you tell folks about your passion. Who are you, your attitude, how often do you play, what classes, what levels, what style, etc.

Initially I was thinking of a Myers Brigs personality test to tell people how I’d rate them as players, but that is just making subjective judgments about players. Never good. So instead using this you can classify yourself, and tell others what you think you are.

Up front disclosure: this is darn geeky. Its akin to having an IBM monogrammed pocket protector in 1985, so if you’re one of those “chic” wow players I apologise – you may not get it.

TyphoonAndrew is

N: Mortgen, M:DK75, Mb: 8/0/57, Mr: Dr,  S: Nagrand-Oceanic-Pve, G: Epilogue, Pvp–, Pve+, Y2005.6, D+C, Ori-ZG, TBC-Gru/TK, L+, RP+. ,  V0.2

A few conventions used here are:

• {term}! = not interested, never will do or participate. eg. Pve!
• {term}++, +, present, -, — = basically gives a 5 point scale for how you view/like something.
• {term}? = if you consider the activity silly. eg. RP?
• Subterms are added after the main modifier. eg. D++H
• Sub values or multiple values are separated by a “/”. eg. R: Hu+/Gn-/Dw+
• Commas are the Term separator, which is a switch from v0.1.

And the terms are:

• N = Name. eg N: Mortigen
• Mc = main class. eg. Wa, Ro, DK, Wl, Pr, Ma, Dr, Hu, Pa, Sh
• Ms = main spec. eg. Resto, Unholy, Prot, Shad; or P, S, A added to the class descriptor.
• Mb = main build. 7/0/59
• Mr = Main race. Hu, Gn, Sw, Ne, Dr, Be, Tr, Or, Tu, Un.
• All combined the M statement might be: M: DK74, or M:DK-U-74, UDK74-Un, or M:DK74-7/0/57. All which mean an Unholy Undead Death Knight at level 74. Or could be broken into the separate items, if you prefer. Given how important our mians are, it was better to give a few options.
• Alt = listing any major alts: Ro70, Pr72. Can also have spec: SPr72 (72 Shadow Priest), RPa 55 (55 Ret Pally)
• S = Server name, location, and mode of your main server. Eonar-US-Pve.
• G = Guild name and ranks like M = master, O = officer, R = raider, G by itself means guilded, G! not interested in joining a guild. Class and role specific officers should add: +L = loot, +class. eg. GMO+Pa is the Guildmaster and Paladin class leader.
• Pvp = You’re a gun pvp’er Pvp++, or hate it Pvp!
• Pr: Pvp ranking. Bracket / Season / Top rank
• Pw: Pvp win/loss ratio. eg. Pw: 222/47
• Pk: Pvp kills. eg. Pk: 1024
• Pt: Old pvp title in pvp eg. Pt: Seagent
• 2v2 = rank and record
• 3v3 = rank and record
• 5v5 = rank and record
• Pve = You do a little raiding
• Sk: Skill abbreviation, and score. EN, BS, LW, SK, HE, AL, JC, TA, MI, with the score. Also may add the specalisation if present. eg. TA375-Sh for a Shadow Tailor. eg SK:BS200/MI225/FA375/FI90/Co15
• Y = Year.month you started playingplaying, such as Y2006.5 means May 2006.
• D = dedication, such as ++ all the time every night, — very rarely play, H consider yourself hardcore, C consider yourself casual. A D with no adjustments means you try to play a few times a week, for at least 3 or so hours each session; but work and life can and will get in the way.
• Ori = List most difficult instance fully cleared, then the instance you were working on before moving to the next expansion. eg. Naxx, BWL, MC, etc. Add a B if you were in the Beta. eg. Ori:B-ZG/BWL
• TBC = List highest/most difficult instance fully cleared. eg. Kara, Mags, Sunwell, etc
• WLK = List highest/most difficult instance fully cleared, with a number for size (10/25), and H for heroic mode. eg. Naxx10, or HNaxx25.
• L = ++ to — for how passionate about the game lore you are. L+.
• C = class of love or hate. Pick a class abbreviation above, and add the typical notes. eg. C:DK++/!Hu
• R = race of love or hate. Pick Hu, Gn, Sw, Ne, Dr, Be, Tr, Or, Tu, Un and add grades. eg. R:Dr+/Gn?
• RP = ++ to — as normal. Then add H if you’re always in character.
• = Sensitiviy, almost never offended, not easily offended, good natured, I’m sensitive, :X no sense of humour.
• V = version of this code. This is 0.3.

Additions and suggestions welcome. I don’t do pvp so I’m unsure of how best to classify the ranks and achivements of pvp players, especially the old rankings.

I first saw this concept in an Ars Magica roleplaying forum many years ago; thanks to the ArM Code for the basic idea.

Edit: will be updated soon, so throw in you suggestions for PVP classification. Also I’m thinking that an XML version that is parsed by a web script might be a great way to kill my time offline over Christmas.

And thanks to Massively for the 1000 hits in a day on the 23rd, nice to see a traffic spike.