Guild Wars 2

In Magic the Gathering the card game the developers a long while ago identified three personality profiles of its players: Timmy, Johnny, and Spike. I believe this concept can be easily adapted to GW2 PvP.

If you are unfamiliar with where this is going, basically each name identified a reason for which these types of people play the card game and how they enjoy its aspects.

A Timmy in GW2 would most likely be identified as someone who loves to see the big hitting numbers. They probably run burst builds and most of their pleasure is gained when they decimate an opponent without losing much health. Timmys are social and enjoy playing with friends in PvP and probably play casually.

A Johnny is a player who loves the theory of PvP such as making builds and testing them. So long as the build manages to do what it was designed to do, whether a win or loss, a Johnny will be satisfied. A Johnny will try and find ways to make traits and abilities considered useless by the general population work into a viable build. Build synergy is important to a Johnny.

A Spike is the competitive player. They play to win at any cost and only use the best builds known. A large portion of the competitive scene would fit this profile. Like said in the article linked below, if they win 9 matches out of 10, they will be unhappy that they didn’t win that last match.

These profiles can overlap, and create what the article refers to as hybrids such as a Timmy/Johnny, Timmy/Spike, etc. or even a combination of all three.

So, with this said, what profile do you fit? Or perhaps you fit into a new category not mentioned?

The article: http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr11b

I think I fit quite tightly into the Johnny profile. Making a build is very fun for me and getting it to work highly synergistic is a great feeling.

I play glass cannon and like seeing big numbers I theory craft extensively, and I’m extremely competitive. TimmyxJohnnyxSpike. Good thing I live in California and people are pretty accepting of that kind of thing.

I do my best to create my own builds, play with my friends, and play competitively.

Guess that makes me all 3

@Dreztina + HappinessFactory (and anyone else who posts in the future):

Everyone wants to win, and almost everyone gets competitive about something they do after they play it for a while. However, the profiles are about what drives you the most.

For example, when you play is your objective almost entirely to win? Will you sacrifice things you have more fun using in order to ensure you’re using the ultimate min/max meta? If so, that’s Spike.

Timmy is casual in the sense that his objective isn’t his overall performance, while Johnny’s and Spike’s are. Spike wants to win, period. Johnny wants his cool, unique build to work. Timmy wants to have fun.

Here’s another way to look at it:

-Spike is concerned with the end result. (To what extent did I win/lose?)
-Johnny is concerned with the process. (How did my build do? How were the skill/trait interactions?)
-Timmy isn’t concerned with overall performance (Did I have fun?)

It’s all about which of these you play for the most. Which can you not sacrifice?:

Are you willing to get facerolled in order to use the big flashy (albeit simple) builds? (Timmy)

Are you willing to lose to less-skilled players because you want to use a unique, and complex build? (Johnny)

Are you willing to sacrifice individuality and styles you prefer in order to win? (Spike).

I’m a Johnny/Spike hybrid. (a hybrid is a clash, not a compliment or additon btw)

Primarily I want to use unique builds and find interesting connections that other people missed. But, I’m not satisfied just if my build does what it was meant to do, I’m only satisfied if my build works AND if it is meta-level effective in combat.

It goes the other way as well. I’m also not satisfied if I win with the FoTM/meta-builds. I have to win with a build that is my own. I can’t be uneffective with a build that is my own, and I can’t be effective with a build that isn’t my own.

As you can imagine… it’s very difficult for me to find a set-up I like for more than a few days.

I put style first at any cost, it’s not about the win, it’s about how you win. Also, I’m a bit of an elitist sometimes.

Also: no tryhardin’

I’m easily a Johnny.

I take the most OP build out there for the class and stick with it because that gives me a huge advantage over other builds, plus I play asura, because it gives a (slight) advantage too.

Spike.

I’m totally a Johnny with a little magic bit of Spike.

I’d be a Johnny. I do like to win and have a tendency to dump builds after a few losses even if I had great success with it in the past (never permanently of course, I always go back to them eventually), but this serves to broaden my repertoire of builds.

I rarely play with the “best” build, in fact I tend to actively avoid FotM builds. Uniqueness is more important to me than winning.

I don’t care much for big numbers as long as my opponent dies in the end. Unfortunately this means my builds don’t do that well in tPvP due to the burst vs bunker meta.

in gw i used to be a Johnny in RA and Spike in GvG/HA . Now i don*t know at all what i am in Gw2 as I random . there is no build to create.

I’m a total Johnny, I always take the least used builds or traits and try to make something fun out of it.

100% Johnny. I mean, I play an engineer.

Vile.5678:

In Magic the Gathering the card game the developers a long while ago identified three personality profiles of its players: Timmy, Johnny, and Spike. I believe this concept can be easily adapted to GW2 PvP.

If you are unfamiliar with where this is going, basically each name identified a reason for which these types of people play the card game and how they enjoy its aspects.

A Timmy in GW2 would most likely be identified as someone who loves to see the big hitting numbers. They probably run burst builds and most of their pleasure is gained when they decimate an opponent without losing much health. Timmys are social and enjoy playing with friends in PvP and probably play casually.

A Johnny is a player who loves the theory of PvP such as making builds and testing them. So long as the build manages to do what it was designed to do, whether a win or loss, a Johnny will be satisfied. A Johnny will try and find ways to make traits and abilities considered useless by the general population work into a viable build. Build synergy is important to a Johnny.

A Spike is the competitive player. They play to win at any cost and only use the best builds known. A large portion of the competitive scene would fit this profile. Like said in the article linked below, if they win 9 matches out of 10, they will be unhappy that they didn’t win that last match.

These profiles can overlap, and create what the article refers to as hybrids such as a Timmy/Johnny, Timmy/Spike, etc. or even a combination of all three.

So, with this said, what profile do you fit? Or perhaps you fit into a new category not mentioned?

The article: http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr11b

I think I fit quite tightly into the Johnny profile. Making a build is very fun for me and getting it to work highly synergistic is a great feeling.

I would consider myself a 50% Johnny, 50% Spike.

i know my pvp personality :

I am a beater

Ultima.8673:

i know my pvp personality :

I am a beater

A beta testing cheater?

Raijinn.9065:

Ultima.8673:

i know my pvp personality :

I am a beater

A beta testing cheater?

This. Needs a nerf.

On topic, I think this is a real cool thread, I feel like I have all three personalities clashing in me though… but what concern drives me the most..? I’m going to have to sort that out!