Comment

Even if new classifications have been proposed in the last 2 decades, the old classification of "players" of Bartle is still relevant. Bartle divided the players of video-game and virtual spaces in 4 categories, alongside two axes: an action/interaction axe (for those interested into the history of tools of personality evaluation, or on the history of things such as ther MMPI scale, we are close to the concepts of Tellegen of narrow vs. extended, of internal vs. external focus), and a others/world axe (akin to a human/environment axe). The four categories were: "achievers" (action/others), "socializers" (interaction/others), "explorers" (interaction/world), and "builders" (action/world). Latter on, he added a third axe to go with 8 categories (including the Second Life highly popular "griefers", or the World of Warcraft as popular "killers"). However, the 8 categories classification somehow works less than the original 4 categories, which I think is still the best so far ...

Something else, my colleague Lynn Köller from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Florida, lucky people !) pointed to me today a very interesting paper which document how actual people "perceive" the usefulness of e-media support, in this case how patients perceived the usefulness of online electronic medical records.

Winkelman WJ, Leornard KJ, Rossos PG (2005) Patient-perceived usefulness of online electronic medical records: employing grounded theory in the development of information and communication technologies for use by patients living with chronic illness. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 12:306-314.