Johnny/Timmy/Spike

By Shaneth, in UFS General Discussion

People know this from MTG. People may remember this from the old STG forums. I wish to do it again.

These categories define what kind of player you are. ((credit to Mark Rosewater))

Johnny

Why does Johnny play CCGs? Because Johnny wants to express something. To Johnny, it is an opportunity to show the world something about himself, be it how creative he is, how clever he is, or how offbeat he is. As such, Johnny is very focused on the customizability of the game. Deck building isn't an aspect of the game to Johnny; it's the aspect.

Subgroups:
Combo Players - fascinated by card interactions
Offbeat Designers - driven by ideas instead of by cards
Deck Artists - uses deckbuilding as a form of expressive art
Uber Johnnies - builds their decks based on sheer stubborness

Timmy

Timmy wants to experience something. Timmy plays CCGs because he enjoys the feeling he gets when he plays. What that feeling is will vary from Timmy to Timmy, but what all Timmies have in common is that they enjoy the visceral experience of playing. As you will see, Johnny and Spike have a destination in mind when they play. Timmy is in it for the journey.

Subgroups:
Power Gamers - enjoys the thrill of dominating a game
Social Gamers - thrive on interacting with the community
Diversity Gamers - always wants to try something different
Adrenaline Gamers - embraces the joy of variance in the game



Spike

Why does Spike play? Spikes plays to prove something, primarily to prove how good he is. You see, Spike sees the game as a mental challenge by which he can define and demonstrate his abilities. Spike gets his greatest joy from winning because his motivation is using the game to show what he is capable of. Anything less than success is a failure because that is the yardstick he is judging himself against.

Like Timmy and Johnny, Spike has his own subgroups. What separates these subgroups is how Spike has chosen to try and dominate. Different Spikes focus on different aspects of the game.

Subgroups:
Innovators - prides himself on the ability to judge new cards
Tuners - dominates by fine-tuning the known decks
Analysts - wins by reading the meta, playing the environment
Nuts & Bolts - believes that the key to victory is flawless play

Hybrids

Timmy/Johnny & Johnny/Timmy

Timmy wants to experience something. Johnny wants to express something. Put them together and you get someone who wants to show others how much fun he can have. Timmy/Johnny wants to enjoy himself, but likes to be innovative in how he has his fun. Timmy/Johnny enjoys making up new formats or deck constraints. He likes to build decks specifically for offbeat and fun formats (which often includes multi-player).


Timmy/Spike & Spike/Timmy
Timmy/Spike is torn. He wants to win, yet he also wants to have fun. To solve this dilemma, he searches among the viable decks for the one that seems like it will be the most fun to play. Timmy/Spike is the guy who goes out of his way to play a dragon in his deck. Not one that shouldn't be played, mind you. But if there's a dragon that makes sense, Timmy/Spike is all over it.


Johnny/Spike & Spike/Johnny
Johnny/Spike wants to win. He just wants to win with style. Johnny/Spike is the rogue deck builder. He's the guy that comes up with the crazy decks that just might work. But Johnny/Spike takes the next step; he actually plays it. Johnny/Spike is out to prove that he can win while having the limitation of also being innovative while he does so.


Johnny/Timmy/Spike

Johnny/Timmy/Spike wants it all. He wants to prove that he can win while being innovative and having a rousing good time. This is a rare breed because it's hard to stay centered between all three desires. Most players that have a leaning towards all three profiles tend to lean more towards one or two than the other. But the triple-hybrid does exist and is the AB Negative of player profiles.

I am a Spike/Timmy.

I play to win, to prove that I am one of the top players in the world.

I also play because I love the community. If I would have never traveled, I would have never met amazing friends like Olexa, Jeremy Ray, Omar, the list goes on forever.

Hmm perhaps I should dig out my old test. However, I'm definitely a Spike all the way, with small doses of Johnny and Timmy thrown in here and there. I play to win and because I enjoy the mental challenge inherent in the game, and the pressure of intense competition. I play to earn my credibility, to make what I write more than just elaborate fiction and to win the big prize. Most of all, I play to have fun, and there is nothing more fun than winning to me! :-)

I would have to say I am the rare breed of all 3 in one. I love card interactions, combos, and interesting decks, I love winning and fine tuning my decks to perfection, and I also love playing this game with all of my friends simply because I get more enjoyment out of card games than any of my other hobbies.

I am a pure spike.
Only one thing matters and that is results.
It doesn't matter how you get them as long as you win. I always try to play the optimal deck or what I think is the strongest atm.
Hence why my playgroup hates me sometimes cause I frown on fanboys.

I'm very much a mixture of all three.

Usually I'll start a deck concept with a Johnny/Timmy mindset of making something that I know I'll enjoy that'll be cool and possibly janky, but I also work hard to try to make those decks functional and win - things like my infamous Seichu-***Ryu*** and locally notorious Phantom Loop *Siegfried* are huge examples, as both were based on a janky concept that I worked hard to win with, and both decks were piloted at majour events and BARELY missed the top 8 at said tournaments, despite being totally off-beat and about as far from top tier as a successful deck can be.

sir_shajir said:

I am a pure spike.
Only one thing matters and that is results.
It doesn't matter how you get them as long as you win. I always try to play the optimal deck or what I think is the strongest atm.
Hence why my playgroup hates me sometimes cause I frown on fanboys.

So...cheating is ok as long as you have results to show for it? :P

Timmy here, I don't mind losing as long as its a fun game

Sol Badguy said:

sir_shajir said:

I am a pure spike.
Only one thing matters and that is results.
It doesn't matter how you get them as long as you win. I always try to play the optimal deck or what I think is the strongest atm.
Hence why my playgroup hates me sometimes cause I frown on fanboys.

So...cheating is ok as long as you have results to show for it? :P


No Of course not... sad.gif
What I was getting at for instance... is playing a deck that is not fun for the opponent to play against ...like a lockdown deck (Gill) or a very strong control/mill (Mill Yun Seong) deck that they feel they don't have a chance against.

I'm feeling like the mix of three is far less common. Or maybe forum goers just tend to be more fully into this game.

I am Certainly a mix of all three. I love playing card games, especially UFS, in fact theres nothing I'd rather do with my friends. I find it's a great joy to Dominate people with Combo's they'll never see coming which characters everyone writes off as bad or unplayable. (still working on that Rikuo Deck)

Shaneth said:

I am a Spike/Timmy.

I play to win, to prove that I am one of the top players in the world.

I also play because I love the community. If I would have never traveled, I would have never met amazing friends like Olexa, Jeremy Ray, Omar, the list goes on forever.

llorando.gif llorando.gif llorando.gif

I am a Johnny/Timmy. I like to try out new things and have fun. If I win while I'm doing it, then cool.

I did Hanzokick before it was cool. And failed because of block 2 cards but hey.

Then again I'm something different from a Timmy. I'm an Offbeat Designer/Social Gamer, to be exact. So... while it sounds weird I'm only having fun if the opponent is having fun too. Which makes it more annoying when people at my meta complain about how unfun a certain deck is. It makes me nearly want to quit the game when that crap happens.

Shane you missed a category.

(A wild Ben approaches!!!!!)

I play to win, but I'll be damned if I dont have fun doing it. Notably. GCC 08 = T8 hammered. Worlds 08 T16 Hammered T2 completely forkin hung over. GCC 09 = Missed cuts, then proceeded to come in 2nd at drunken master only to the feline spike deck and procure myself some alcohol posion.

I start fun with a deck, and make it competitive. RIP Huitzil
I love the mental excercise and competition that to me makes it even more fun.

(Back into the pokebottle.)

I never loved these things, but it does fit some people.

I guess me and Olexa and most of our playgroup are all 3. We have to be the most credible fanboy players in the games(Me and Andrew refuse to play people we do not like, Andrew has never made a exception in major events, I have once due to ridiculous circumstances).

I am both loyal to the chars I like from the games and to a lesser extent certain symbols(I love playing All, and I've done so at every worlds since I started playing, regardless of what all's powerlevel is considered at that given point in the meta).

I have made many lasting friendships through the tournaments I've traveled to, UFS house being the most notable considering they have far and beyond transcended being like cardgame friends and are definetly just regular friends that live far away, Foxhound and Omar both also fall into this group . Not to mention the bromances shared with Tapout, ATL, Garret, Wisconsin, New Yorkers(black and white!), some snazzy brits, and everyone else who has crossed paths with us and ended up just being ridiculously awesome.

At the same time, I am a highly competitive person in a very competitive playgroup, We play to win and it's no secret the success we've had. Me, Andrew and Matt like to take chars we like/love and build the best possible decks we can with them, and if those won't take us far enough to win a championship so be it, if we wanted to take generic decks with no emotional attachment to card tournaments and win cool stuff, we would be playing magic instead.

Tribrid

I guess im a Timmy o_o. I just like to play, hope i win, and hope the opposing player has fun. I don't really like to completely destroy someone

oops, double post.

I'd say I'm mostly all three, but I've strayed a bit from Johnny over time, although it's still there im limitations. I'm a very competitive player, but as a core I'm a Timmy; I'm a very social gamer and it's the reason I play. But I also really like to have something innovative to show off (like that void akuma lock).

Johny/Spike or Johny/Timmy, it really just depends on the tournament but theres always some silly combo involved, always

I'd say I'm an Uber Johnnie, I am stubborn when it comes to decks.

I'll play a deck only for certain reasons.

First if I like the character. I don't care if the character is horrible, if I am a fan of him or her from their game, I will play them in UFS.

Second, I like under dog characters. I will play a character solely because they are terrible. Now this doesn't net me many wins, but I feel that the wins are better when you get one with a character no one saw coming.

This is probably why my main deck right now is Nina. When I got my first box of Tekken 6 I heard my play group talking about her like she was bottom tier with christie. So I just had to play her and make her work. It took a while but I finally got a deck going that was able to beat a king deck and a paul deck this weekend.

And why didn't I pick christie if I like under dogs?

See first reason, then factor in she's an idiot. If I don't like I character I wont play them, even if they are god tier, which luckily christie is not, so I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything.

And Finally I don't like playing popular characters. So I won't be playing Paul / King and the lot. It's a big turn off if the character is overused.

I'm not surprised that we have more than a few identifying with the complete hybrid, Johnny/Timmy/Spike.

I also think that although some can come out and say they are 'pure spike' that they are actually a bit less than 'pure spikes', granted that if they were they'd be trying to show dominance in a much more popular game (the more fame/respect given to a spike the better a spike they are).

In other words I think every player of UFS is at the very least a small Timmy/Johnny, in that they want to experience a card game while indulging in a well established character/motif/franchise. I think with the inclusion of Shadowar in our game sees it slowly moving away from this norm, and probably for the better, but I highly doubt there are many players that started playing the game because of mechanics/competition alone, there was almost certainly some association made with the 'universes or fighting' that helped facilitate the transition into the game.

I also think that this is the reason we have swinging opinions and experiences with respect to the health of the game at the moment. In standard right now we are missing out on the best way to attract Timmy/Johnny, that being the ability to offer them variance in 'universes', or even variance in play experience. Don't get me wrong, I love the 'beat them up quick mentality', but we aren't thriving in diversity (and maybe that is good, diversity sometimes breeds imbalance) and I know my Timmy/Johnny isn't having quite 'as much' fun with block 4 as he did near the end of block 3. Not a complaint, this is natural and expected during the infancy of a block, just saying it as see it, careful to note that as more sets are released these players and sides of these players will be attracted and emerge more so than what we see now.

The nice thing about being a spike is that you can be fulfilled no matter the state of the game, there will always be a best, as a spike all you have to do is find it. There isn't always going to be something that matches your idea of an experience, and there isn't always going to be something that matches your artistry.

Ok... a lot of preamble. What am I?

I haven't really YET spoken to our meta in that other thread, and part of that goes with what we/I am in this thread, so hopefully I get to posting over there too. (good threads btw Shane ^^).

I am heavily weighted to a Johnny, I like tech, I like discovery, and the best part about UFS or any game is having someone come to me and say 'I didn't see that before' or 'I've never thought of that', especially if it works... (enter Timmy). I love the experience of variety, of finding out about everything that works, because only then can my Johnny decide what is best... (enter Spike or lack therof).

I actually dislike winning, almost as much as I dislike losing. That being said, am I ever happy? The answer is... not really. If I win it just means that everyone else is a dissapointment and needs to get better, if I lose the opposite is true, but re: myself. The thing I enjoy most about any game is 'improvement', and for that reason I am very much the antiSpike, I don't like knowing I am the best at something, it is a very unsettling idea. I like to see others improve, I relish in being beaten by an improved player, and I am never content with where my own play is at. There is always a better, and only realizing this can a player truly win at a game.

This is what any game means to me, it is the challenge to better oneself, to operate within a set of constraints and continually improve ones performance, but most importantly the ability to adapt to the opponents performance in relation to your own. Gaming is learning, and this is why it is and will continue to be ever-important to me.

Summary: I am a Johnny first, a Timmy second, and the antiSpike.

- dut

I would say i am almost pure johnny. I try not to build a deck that other people play. generally i am the only one playing the char i am playing at a tournement or local. I never run a deck that is considered to tier. i also usauly only finalize my deck design the day before a tournement. because of this my results are wildly inconsistent. some times one of my gimick decks works to perfection, other times they fall flat on thier face.

obviously i have a little spike in me. there would be no reason to play if i didn't want to win, but i will only play a deck that is creative.