I am a big fan of Mark Rosewater's columns. Rosewater is the Lead Designer of Magic: the Gathering and has written a lot about game design, over ten years worth of weekly articles. Most of the articles deal with things specific to Magic design, but sometimes he does more general articles. One of the big tools for design he talks about are the psychographic profiles for Magic players. Essentially he breaks down the player base into reasons why people play. He also has named the three Timmy, Johnny, and Spike. The nice thing about these profiles is they can be easily applied to other games as complex as Magic, like MMOs.
"Timmy wants to experience something." At the heart of what drives a Timmy is the need for fun. Be it acting out the dream of being a space pirate, letting out one's inner LeeRoy Jenkins, or simply shooting the breeze with friends, Timmies are looking to enjoy the game. Things like efficiency, amount of Gold, or killboard stats are of secondary importance.
EVE online is a mixed bag for Timmies. Some of the most obvious things that Timmy would find fun, like the massive and incredible powerful Titan class ships, are incredibly time and resource intensive. For Titans it takes literally years to train into the ship, the pilot is stuck in the ship as he can't dock, and moving the ship around requires coordination with other players. But Timmies still have a place, even if it not in the most obvious locations. Many are social creatures and just enjoy hanging out with friends, regardless of the activity. Others are looking for the raw adrenaline rush of combat and engage anything that looks fun regardless of if thinks he can win or not. Still others are happy to sit in NPC corps because it lets them fly their space ship in relative safety.
"Johnny wants to express something." Johnnies tend to be the explorers and inventors. They are looking to show a piece of themselves through their actions in game. This expression ranges from off beat constructions, to in game art, to finding a new way to do a mission.
Johnnies have the most to do right after new content is released because there is new things to explore and tinker with. At this point old assumptions can be proven wrong and new ways of specing characters with new synergies emerge. This is not to say that Johnnies have nothing to do in-between patches, there are always things to test or self-imposed challenges to lay down. Often Johnnies are the players that stumble upon a new concept in their constant quest to carve out their niche in the game.
"Spike plays to prove something." Spikes are easily stereotyped as the jerks that just want to win. Though there are many different types of ways to quantify winning and each Spike picks a different one. Some go for raw killboard efficiency. Others use only the optimal way to run missions and accumulate resources. Finally some want to master the politics and control a large empire.
In many ways EVE Online is a game built for Spikes. The entire idea behind the game is ruthless competition in any arena a player wishes, be it combat, politics, or commerce. Often well know players will be Spikes exactly because spikes are out to prove something which goes hand in hand with fame.
This post was meant to be a brief overview of the player types and how they can be adapted to other settings. In the future I hope to go into detail on them more. In particular there is a dimension of leadership, apart from the political dominance, that it is not clear to me how it interacts with they types. The existence of groups and group activities is one of the big differences between MMOs and Magic. The closest analogy for Magic would be player groups testing the meta-game and selecting decks to complement each other.
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