Keys, Player Types, and Cranium is still boring.
The games I've previously been analyzing are Set, Cranium, Yelp, and Casablanca.
Set -
Under Bartle's 4 types of players, Set clearly is skewed towards the Achiever type. The rule set and the mechanics are too simple to support exploring. There is no way for one player to attack a second player, so there is no room for Killer's in Set. Conversation in Set grinds to a halt, so Socializers have no place in this game, either.
From the persepective of Lazarro's 4 keys, Set falls under both the Hard Fun and Altered States categories. Set is absolutley a strategy game, that requires quick thinking under pressure. That's the Hard Fun in Set. Set also induces what I've come to call a Tetris effect - all you see is the game, you don't notice anything else. Constantly focusing on an ever changing group of cards, racing your brain to beat the competitors, drives the Altered States status of Set.
Cranium
Is stupid and I don't want to review it any more. So I won't. It's not the fact that the game focuses almost exclusively on The People Factor / Soft Fun, while trying to engage the Socializer in all of us. It's that the game doesn't pay any attention to the Achiever / Hard Fun aspects, which is what I like. Oh hell, I went and reviewed Cranium anyway. God I hate that game.
Yelp
As a social networking site, Yelp obviously targets the Socializer game player. But, in it's heavy use of stat tracking and bragging, it also introduces an element for the Achiever player. As a non-game, Yelp doesn't fit easily under Lazarro's graph, but it should come as non surprise that the best fit is The People Factor. What I find most appealing about Yelp, as opposed to other social sites, is the Achiever aspects. It's what makes me interested in The People Factor in Yelp.
Casablanca
Casablanca targets Killers, Socializers, and Achievers. The Killers are interested in "breaking" each other's social circles, or exposing those who would break social circles. Socializers are interested in the game's central mechanic, which is to socialize. Achievers like that the game tracks how they're doing - they can easily brag to their teammates.
Casablanca also falls under Hard Fun, Easy Fun, and The People Factor. Hard fun because it's just hard to crack social circles, but rewarding when you've been invited in. Easy Fun, because reading the posts of anonymous people trying to talk to each other is funny, and The People Factor, because the whole game is about socializing.
As for myself, the type of gamer (under Bartle's system) that I am has been gradually changing over the past several years. In high school, I absolutely would have called myself an Explorer first, and an Achiever second. RPG games were my favorite to play, and I would always try and get every rare, hard to get item in the game. As I find myself with less and less free time to play games, I've been transitioning to an Achiever / Socializer - I like to play and finish games, and I like to hang out with my friends.
This is probably why I like Xbox Live so much - it allows me to do both of these things, even when I'm not playing an inherently multi player game.
I identify with the first three keys that Nicole Lazarro names. Civilization, the game I've played more than any other game, falls under Hard Fun, Easy Fun, and Altered States. What I think is interesting is while I call myself a Socializer, I don't identify with The People Factor. What that tells me is that while I like playing games with others, it's not a selling point for me - I just like having the option to talk to somebody else.