Genres of games INTPs are good at?

[Procinogen]

I know that you're not just naturally good at something, but I was wondering if there are any genres games that INTPs are usually skilled at. At the moment I play TF2 the most, and I'm told I'm okay at Medic and Pyro. I'm not particularly good at any kind of games, despite the fact I really love to play video games. So that got me curious to see if there are genres of games that INTPs are usually good at. If you can, give me a recommendation of a game (but preferably on Steam)!

 

[Reluctantly]

Whether I'm considered INTP or not,

For me, I like games that require learning from mistakes. So typically co-op games where I learn the mechanics and how to manipulate them to defeat an opponent. I can get really good at these games. Dark Souls 3, No More Room in Hell, Xcom games, Fallout, Mass Effect. Resident Evil (1 through 4), FFXIV, Command and Conquer (Co-op and single player though, playing against people online becomes about who can click the fastest, which is lame), etc.

I don't enjoy first person shooters competitively because there's no learning from mistakes. They are mostly about accurate fast twitch movements. Not at all fun for me. I don't get to use my brain at all. And sports games just don't have any depth, so I avoid those as well.

 

[Procinogen]

Whether I'm considered INTP or not,

For me, I like games that require learning from mistakes. So typically co-op games where I learn the mechanics and how to manipulate them to defeat an opponent. I can get really good at these games. Dark Souls 3, No More Room in Hell, Xcom games, Fallout, Mass Effect. Resident Evil (1 through 4), FFXIV, Command and Conquer (Co-op and single player though, playing against people online becomes about who can click the fastest, which is lame), etc.

I don't enjoy first person shooters competitively because there's no learning from mistakes. They are mostly about accurate fast twitch movements. Not at all fun for me. I don't get to use my brain at all. And sports games just don't have any depth, so I avoid those as well.

Yeah, me too. But one of the reasons I really play TF is because you have to be coordinated with your team, and have good strategy to win the round.

 

[Isor]

You have the potential to become highly skilled at TF2. I would say so more so that non INTP. TF2 requires logical thinking to win. Unlike most fps, your skill at aiming doesn't matter in TF2. What matters most is game sense, map control, logic, and of course teamwork. In call of Duty, (or even csgo), one person can win the game for the team, while in TF2, one person will never win by himself. Many times in TF2, it is the guy who does not fire a shot who is carrying the team.

When you learn all classes and maps you will be an unstoppable force. You will always know the most logical class to pick, or flank to take, or what action to perform, in order to win that specific situation. You will know what an enemy player is about to do just by looking at them, what they are holding, what direction they are facing etc. You will not be the guy dying the same way ten times by running into sentries, because you will be too busy with beautiful, game winning flanks and strategies to get rid of those obstacles so those dummies can run down the middle safely. Medic and pyro are both a great class for INTP.

In my 1000+ hours of tf2, id say 500 are medic. Medics require perfection when it comes to game sense and map control. After 100 hours, I was winning 90% of games and always top scoring. I just have to credit the intp here, I literally tuned out the real world for over a year. I lived entirely in a state of mind of mastering 100% of game mechanics, and learning every little thing before I quit. When I finally conquered tf2, I uninstalled it, and doubt I will ever play it again. On to the next thing.

My other favorite genre is turn based strategy, I find it very relaxing to not be rushed.


If you are good at thinking on a dime you can always try real time strategy, but you will be facing highly strategic players with 20years+ of experience.

TLDR: turn based, real time, puzzle, fps focused on map control, city builders, simulators.

Edit: sorry I forgot the most INTP friendly of them all: Kerbal Space Program is the only game an INTP ever needs to own. I swear I will be playing ksp when I am 75 years old. It is absolutely limitless when you add mods. You will never get bored or not have something to work on or start over on. I have 300 hours and have only explored earth and moon. I just made my first mars landing last week. I predict at 1000 hours I will be just getting my toes wet. My biggest tip if you get ksp, or any game for that matter, is to never ever watch a youtube video or tutorial of any kind. If you watch someone play it for you is the worst spoiler ever, but you wont realize it.

 

[Joe13414]

Honestly I have never played KSP, but I have played a space-station/Discover/Orbiter simulators, and I was decently good at them. I am exceptionally good at Portal with my best friend who is an INFP, and I'm a walking combat situation in a lot of open-world - strategy - fast paced games such as Far Cry and Assassin's Creed. I'm pretty good at Grand Theft Auto and I excel at Fallout 3 & 4.

 

[Dorian Tullus]

i have a thing for competition, so i play certain games with well thought out mechanics that favor individual wit and skill against others

not strategy though, ive always disliked those - games that involve combat is my preference
i dont like many games, video games are not a hobby

 

[Joe13414]

games are not a hobby

Video Games count as a hobby, look at portal, its science physics based game. I prefer games that need intellectual strategy and skill, it's a challenge.

 

[RobdoR]

Get Kerbal Space Program (KSP) and play it now!

BEST
GAME
EVER

KSP is the game none of your friends will enjoy, but you will love it. You do have to enjoy orbital mechanics, and designing rockets, so if you don't like that kind of thing, you will hate it. But what self respecting INTP doesn't like orbital mechanics?

 

[Dorian Tullus]

Video Games count as a hobby, look at portal, its science physics based game. I prefer games that need intellectual strategy and skill, it's a challenge.

i wrote this with slight ambiguity and you misinterpreted the meaning - i presented no obvious implication of who i was pertaining to with that statment unfortunately

video games are not a hobby - of mine

despite a simple misunderstanding due to my poor wordplay, i feel a bit insulted that you would assume i held an opinion that suggested games are not a hobby when this is blatantly false by applying commom sense

<---- oh well ahahaha

 

[Architect]

TF2 isn't much of an INTP game - seriously? No FPS is as any INTP would know. Strategy? Piffle.

4X games come close to being engaging, but most are still too simplistic. Civ 6 actually is more complex and multidimensional than previous, and I call a worthy INTP game.

Dwarf Fortress probably. Too bad it's not a professional game with real assets.

KSP would probably qualify from what I hear, but haven't played it.

Interestingly INTP's (at least a handful I know) all like RPG's. Probably the complexity of creating a toon in a virtual world.

 

[Hadoblado]

I can see the stereotypical INTP skill-set being very good for speed-running games, which takes immense planning and precision.

Outside of that, real-time elements probably hold INTPs back a little? We don't have Se/Ni, we're not good at the present moment. Sure there are some things you can do well (my hobby is theorycrafting strategy games and pinpointing holes in balance), but the execution of most strategies would likely be better carried out by another type. I'm rubbish at FPS (even though there is a lot more thinking in them than is obvious), and basically any game where I can't access replays.

Turn based strategy should be an area of strength. The more time we have to make decisions the better those decisions will be. I find card games to be good, both traditional and collectible. Dealing with probability is a blind-spot for most people where comparatively an analytic mind-set can excel. In fact, I'll extrapolate from that and say the area at which an INTP is best is when flying close to the sun, where other less technically adept and rigorous minds get led astray. If there's bias bait with time available to navigate it, an INTP should be comparatively comfortable (though still fallible).

Dwarf fortress seems about as INTP as you can get IMO. I haven't played it yet, but I've played several clones. Rimworld was a barrel of laughs (and cries).

 

[QuickTwist]

I like RPGs mostly.

I've played TW3 on Death March
DA:O on Nightmare (with ease)
DA:I on Nightmare as well.
Skyrim on Legendary
And XCOM 2 on Veteran.

Out of these I highly suggest the INTPs here to play XCOM 2 and see how well you do on the harder difficulties. Its a hell of a game that is very strategic. If you have any kind of logical mind at all I suggest XCOM 2. I have not had anywhere close to challenge of any game other than this one (competitive games aside).

@Architect, I really suggest you pick this one up and play it with your son, you will not regret it. It has a scifi theme, is turn based strategy, is difficult and is customizable with mods and lots of customization in general for characters.

 

[WhatWasThat]

Kerbal Space Program is maybe the best game ever made but it is almost too good because once I start playing it I won't stop until it's sleepy time.

I really love the Dark Souls series too. They just have the best feeling melee combat I have ever seen from a game. It's all about positioning, correctly timing things, and above all learning from your mistakes. That combat is also slow enough that it can really be analyzed instead of just mashing buttons.

I generally prefer systems driven games where it's about experimenting with different game systems rather than just a straight linear narrative, and it's even better if they are "open world". I really liked Metal Gear Solid 5 for this. It's just an endless bag of toys to mess with and play with the AI, security cameras, scheduled patrols, observing their patterns, etc

I don't enjoy first person shooters competitively because there's no learning from mistakes. They are mostly about accurate fast twitch movements. Not at all fun for me. I don't get to use my brain at all. And sports games just don't have any depth, so I avoid those as well.

That's why the shooters I do play tend to be "combined arms" game with combinations of vehicles/air/infantry on big maps. It introduces a lot more strategical situations and variety of tactics to use rather than just relying on twitch shooting skills. Games like Planetside 2, Arma 3, or Battlefield. I'm usually not great at these games initially but then I figure them out and become pretty good. When I start out playing them I just "poke" at all the game systems and try every possible thing, and eventually start to see the pattern of what tends to work and what doesn't.

 

[The Gopher]

And XCOM 2 on Veteran.

XCOM the long war mod?

I don't see why INTP's can't exist in real time due to lack of Se. Ne Si is far better utility wise in a virtual environment even in some FPS games. If type mattered to this extent you would have to assume INFP's would be useless at everything but RPG's. Without preference bias I don't think there would be much difference. What makes the difference is probably due to what each type enjoys more than natural ability. (Okay with the exception of chess and star craft type games which at a high level would be IXTX mostly even if other types actually liked that game)

My little brother just got into KSP after I introduced it to him. He is an ENFP. I would have thought INTP's would prefer a more complex game though.

 

[Cognisant]

I like shooters, Battlefield 1942 was an excellent combination of skill and strategy, I really enjoyed being a small part of a large team effort looking for ways to have the most leverage on the battlefield.

Rimworld is good if you're more into enjoying the emergent story than over analyzing it.

SOMA and Event[0] were good puzzle/story games, like Bioshock but less "gamey", speaking of Bioshock every INTP has to play System Shock 2 at some point, sure it's old but if you can look past that it's a great game.

 

[davidintp]

I used to be a pro at counterstrike. Totally addicting and some nights when I was so tired from playing and my reserves kicked in I was literally unbeatable. I remember playing cs_office. Me vs. 6 enemies. I had the deagle and a full mag. 5 headies, 1 regular kill. All with one magazine (7 bullets). I wish I could find the equivalent of being really good at something in real life... Seem to suck at most jobs

 

[WhatWasThat]

My little brother just got into KSP after I introduced it to him. He is an ENFP. I would have thought INTP's would prefer a more complex game though.

Depends how deep you get into it. Eventually you can be designing spacecraft with hundreds of parts which requires a lot of creative planning for how it's all going to work together. I've talked to people who have played KSP and basically just got into orbit, then there are people like me who have missions/spacecraft heading all over the solar system, leaving satellites all over the solar system, creating rovers to explore the planets, creating space stations and refueling stations, etc. Plus you can can also create atmospheric "space planes" to use on planets with atmosphere, which is a whole different set of challenges than traditional spacecraft. A lot of people also just build stuff too look cool too.

There are also a lot of mods for it that make things harder and more complicated, adding in stuff like life support that you have to carry around and design your craft around (especially difficult when you are doing missions that last months). Plus there are mods that just give you more technical detail on everything, like thrust/weight ratios, DeltaV values, planetary alignment data, etc.

And the really cool thing about KSP is so much of it is based on how real aerospace and orbital mechanics stuff works. It's not exactly the same as reality but it's a really fun way to get a more intuitive understanding of it all.

/END KSP fanboy rant

 

[Procinogen]

Dead thread, but I've just come to say that I've come to really like roguelike games. I'm not sure why I like them. Perhaps it's because of the analyzing of upgrades, abilities, and weapons/gear and memorization of the three that make it appealing.

 

[TheManBeyond]

i was super good at call of duty, mostly in first black ops and modern warfare 1, damn great games, campaign in mw1 was epic, i still remember crawling in chernobil stage blown away by radioactivity and the grass and all that grey ambience. amazing.
in multiplayer i used to get super easily 50-2, 35-3 scores.
in newest cod i'm really bad, i stop playing for some years, my brother bought recently blackops3 and i suck so much, everyone is jumping around all the time, i don't really get used to it, it's too fast, i mostly grab the microphone and sing songs to other people, sometimes it's really fun.
then i used to be good at dark souls, not so good at the last one, but i still enjoy playing so much, mostly because of the art. bloodborne is superior in everyway tho.
i was always really bad at fifa, extremely awful.
same for formula 1 games.
i'm more about enjoying the story and ambience so the witcher 3 is awesome for me.
i sucked at starcraft, ageofempires, and similars, i was not patient enough, i kind of hated it, so i guess i was not good because i wasn't interested.
not interested in mmorpg.

 

[Haim]

Good? I kind of suck.
I might be good in games where you need to build a character,items or a deck, as it easy to see game imbalance.It not like I try to be good at most games as that will be no fun and might make the games even more broken.In fact I rarely play strategy games as it is easy to find optimal path, and where it hard it is lazy hard, they just raise the stats of the enemy or lower your stats.

 

[bobkalonger]

I know that you're not just naturally good at something, but I was wondering if there are any genres games that INTPs are usually skilled at. At the moment I play TF2 the most, and I'm told I'm okay at Medic and Pyro. I'm not particularly good at any kind of games, despite the fact I really love to play video games. So that got me curious to see if there are genres of games that INTPs are usually good at. If you can, give me a recommendation of a game (but preferably on Steam)!

I'm similar to you in the fact that I love video games but struggle to find a game that's actually fun since I only game causally. I used to play more when I was a teen, but now in my late 20s I have limited time and I am very difficult to please in terms of gameplay quality.

Recently my brother introduced me to the Uncharted series. About 50/50 split between exploration/puzzles and shooting evil jerks. Limited options for stealth but it is an option. Primary game mechanics rely on your reflexes, but it feels natural and lights a fire under your ass as a player making it harder to be bored. Within the first hour of playing the first game I was legitimately furious with myself for not trying the series years ago.

I also like GTAV to dick around, heinous crimes are so cathartic especially after a rough day. Overwatch is fun except every other player is the absolute worst. It's a hard game to pick up IMO because the seasoned players have created a very hostile dynamic to newcomers/casuals, just like every other mainstream FPS.