Survivor

“I'll find a way to get through alive.”

You like escaping from hideous and scary threats, pulse-pounding risks.

Your behaviour rides on the edge of your fear – you love to be terrified and then feel safe again.

Your major brain region is the amygdala, an ancient part of the limbic system (the so-called “reptile brain”) that controls fear by influencing the adrenal glands.

Your chemical messenger is adrenaline (epinephrine), which enhances the effects of the reward chemical dopamine.

If you were an animal, it would be a snake.

Favourite games of Survivors surveyed so far include Bioshock, Grand Theft Auto, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, and Silent Hill.

Your BrainHex class is related to the Serious Fun Key (4 Fun Keys), and Ilinx or vertigo (Roger Caillois), as well as possibly being related to Tactical play (Temperament theory) and Immersion-Escapism motivation (Yee).

Your BrainHex Icon depicts the amygdala ("fear centre") as a large diamond and the adrenal gland as a small diamond, both linked to the nucleus accumbens ("pleasure centre") in the centre, representing that experiencing and overcoming fear brings you pleasure.

Feel free to take a copy of your BrainHex icon and display it anywhere you wish! Simply right click and choose "save as". All we ask is you provide a link to BrainHex.com anywhere you use our images.

Comments

[_]

I can't take this test seriously because of the "If you were animal" part of the description.

[Chris]

_: The "if you were an animal..." part is just for fun - some people enjoy this sort of thing. :)

[Drakey]

Considering That the seeker comments are full of glee and cat-play, I presume these downers are a direct result of 'No-Fear' syndrome, and many shirts by the same name crucified each of the writters in they're youths.

Am I right? Am I on? Are these comments a treat, or a threat?

[Alex]

I didn't expect this as I don't like the cheap thrills of Doom, Resident Evil, etc. I loved Thief, Bioshock, and Eternal Darkness, but more for the immersion that lead to fear than the scary setting or plot itself. If most games were as immersing, most games would feature that adrenaline-rush aspect. One would be nervous jumping platforms, scared solving puzzles, or afraid of building structures out of goo. So I take this "survivor" more as "immers-or." Also, I never owned a "No Fear" shirt, they were trite even then, and if you're going to try and be clever, Drakey, at least check your grammar so your comments make sense.

[Hanna]

Cheap Scares aren't my forte. But I love the feeling of games like Thief, Call of Cthulhu and, to draw it further, a good roleplaying session when you can almost touch the mood in the room. The Immersion-Escapism label suits me well.

[Tommi]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: SoC is one of the games I really enjoy. The fear as an atmosphere is way more fun than a quick brick-shitting because a zombie suddenly came out of nowhere. I haven't found too many these types of games though.

[dogsolitude_uk]

Hm, whereas I agree with the diagnosis Doc, the list of favourite games is a bit off the mark.

Bioshock, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, and Silent Hill all seemed a bit too simplistic for me.

I much preferred STALKER, Thief and Call of Cthulhu.

[Nomrah]

I get into immerssive surrealistic games like Silent Hill and STALKER, theres definatly a divide between cheap thrills and psychological horror that should be noted.

[John]

I found this to be a very enjoyable test on my own psychic character.

I try to explain these findings to the guys in the white coats all the time but the message just doesn't seem to get through to them. They keep saying that I have a chemical imbalance.

They need to take this test. There the one's who are chemically imbalanced.

Peace to all!

[Angela]

Hrm...I've never played Bioshock before, and I absolutely hate Grand Theft Auto games, but other than that it's mostly on the money. However, I do agree with most of the commenters here in the sense that the games I enjoy are about more than shallow scares or contrived moments of 'shock'. My favourite genre is probably the Survival Horror subset, but I'd say it's mainly because they tend to be some of the few games which evoke a sense of danger.
When a colossal, Giger-esque dragon/steamroller hybrid is spewed out of a volcano, it means nothing in a JRPG.Devil May Cry's legions of slobbering hell-beasts might as well be made of paper mache, they're just fodder to be cut down using your ridiculous (but impressive) magic sword skills. But in Fatal Frame, the visually unremarkable spectre of a middle-aged Japanese clerk is somehow terrifying.

Maybe, just maybe, it's because in games like Silent Hill, Clock Tower, and the early Resident Evil games, the threats you encounter are actually, y'know, threatening. There's a deliberate limit on the amount of times you can heal, the amount of ammunition you have, and in some cases, the amount of times you can save your game. You've only got so many chances to make a mistake. If you waste too many bullets, suffer too many injuries, or miss picking up certain items, then it's possible to end up with a game file which is nigh unwinnable. It's more this fatalistic sense of difficulty, and the knowledge that even the most generic encounter could potentially stop you surviving later on down the line that makes survival horror so much fun. Because what the player does from moment to moment actually matters.