FAQ

Q. What's this test about?

See the article What's the purpose of BrainHex?

Q. I don't understand the icon - what does it mean?

See the article What does my BrainHex class icon mean?

Q. What's this "if you were an animal business"... it seems pretty stupid.

This part of the results is just for fun! It's not part of the model, and is purely for entertainment value. If it annoys you, just ignore it.

Q. Why did my classes' favourite games not match my tastes in games?

The "favourite games" represent the most popular favourite game titles averaged among respondents who were assigned that class. Because there are a great many people being averaged in each case, any one individual is likely to vary significantly from this mean result.

Q. I forgot my results... can I take the test again without it messing up the study?

Yes, as long as you register with the same email address that you used the first time, you can take the test again without it messing up the study. And if you can't do this for some reason (e.g. you didn't enter an email address) it will still not have a serious affect on the data since the number of data points is sufficiently high that one duplicate respondent wouldn't give us major problems.

Comments

[Andrew]

What if I forget my test results? Can I take it again without messing up your study?

[Chris]

Andrew: if you take the test again and enter the same email address, it will not mess up the study. Thanks for asking!

[Peter Crowther]

1) Will you make the BrainHex data set available to other researchers, or allow other researchers to tie in to your site?

For example, I've passed it on to my guild in World of Warcraft. I'm seeing some very interesting correlations between the raider / non-raider split and the Conqueror class, but the number of data points is far too low to draw any statistically significant conclusions. I'd love to set up a larger study, but that would be rather difficult without some co-operation!

2) Given that you have very strong visual imagery in the class icons, have you thought of going after a large "casual" dataset by turning the survey into a Facebook / Myspace app and allowing those who take the test to display their results as part of their profile?

(Feel free to delete this comment if it's an inappropriate place for either or both questions)

[Chris]

Peter: I'm not against allowing other researchers access to the data. Make me an offer! :) (In terms of data sharing, not money!)

I have considered a Facebook app - but I don't have the time or money to do it right now. I'd need a partner who knew what they were doing.

Commenting here isn't inappropriate, but you'd have got a quicker response if you'd emailed me. :)

[Ted]

I must say that this is an awesome quiz/study/effort. I would STRONGLY encourage you to try to make a Facebook app--the potential audience is huge. I've seen so many stupid quizes ("What Color Are You?"; "Which 80s Cartoon Show Are You?"; "Who Is Your Ideal Future Spouse?") take off. One person takes the quiz and posts the result in Facebook, then all their friends see it in their news feed and several click on the link to try it out, and then their friends try it, and it just spreads. This is a short, fun quiz with an intelligent outcome; I am sure it would do extremely well.

[Chris (BrainHex Admin)]

Ted: we are looking into a Facebook app - but right now we lack the resources to make it happen. Thanks for sharing your views!

[Shark]

I'm a dev who's currently unemployed. We can talk about that Facebook app if you want. Send me an email and we'll take it from there.

[Justin]

Sorry to post this here, but cannot see a contact us section (You might want to think about adding one.)

I noticed a slight annomoly (probably brought about by my being a very odd person. :p ) My score in Social is very low:
"
Your scores for each of the classes in this test were as follows:

Mastermind: 15
Conqueror: 15
Survivor: 14
Achiever: 12
Seeker: 8
Socialiser: 5
Daredevil: 3
"

And I can agree with it mostly: I do dislike socialising with others. Yet most of the behavioural aspects of Socialiser:

"tends to be trusting, and you get angry at those who abuse your trust."

"hanging around with people you trust, and helping people."

Describe me even better than any other class. And the Survivor describes me better than the two main results too:

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

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

Just thought you mike be interested.

Justin

[Chris (BrainHex Admin)]

Justin: thanks for sharing this! There isn't a contact address because it's most useful if people provide their feedback here on the site where it can be sorted by type. You issue doesn't quite fit into one class though, which makes it tricky. No problem with posting it here. :)

No test of this kind is perfect, but when we produce the 2.0 version we hope to iron out a lot of the problems that people have raised.

Thanks for sharing your feedback!

[Unclever title]

I obtained an even split between Mastermind and Seeker when I took this test (Fear the mighty Octo-Cat!) and I'm curious as to what makes me a Mastermind-Seeker as opposed to a Seeker-Mastermind.

Is it as simple as a hierarchy in the way the program runs, as in the order in which it "checks" things?

I doubt that the other scores would change things but for completion:

Mastermind: 18
Seeker: 18
Conqueror: 15
Daredevil: 12
Achiever: 7
Socialiser: 5
Survivor: 3

As an experiment I took the test again (under the same email address) and attempting to input the same responses (Which probably accounts for the minor differences instead of If I had just taken it again normally):

Still Mastermind-Seeker

Mastermind: 18
Seeker: 18
Conqueror: 16
Daredevil: 11
Achiever: 10
Socialiser: 5
Survivor: 2

It's not a problem or anything both describe me quite accurately, quite evenly as well, I'm just curious.

Interestingly enough more often than not when I take a Left-Right brain test I also come out even, though I'm not sure if there would even be the slightest correlation there.

[Golden Russet]

I too noticed a couple of things that might reflect on the survey. Specifically with regard to speed, I actually enjoy downhill skiing in real life though I haven't paid money to do it in several years. The key here is that I'm in control of my speed; it's not being imposed on me.

Something similar applies to talking to other people while playing. I would quite possibly enjoy talking to friends and family, or playing with friends and family -- but not strangers or the young male hordes of MMORPGs. The survey eventually did ask specifically about strangers so maybe part of that is covered. Also, my interest in games (card and board games my family plays regularly) dropped substantially when I acquired a new family member who is a very competitive player - so that says something too.

I am very intrigued by the neuroscience angle of this model & hope to gain enough experience with it to gauge its usefulness. I note that some elements (speed, vertigo) don't apply to MUDs and so unsurprisingly are missing from the Bartle categories.