Johnny.. Spike.. What?

For those of you not familiar with Magic: The Gathering, the terms 'Johnny', 'Spike' and 'Timmy' sound a little weird, if not down-right insulting. However, these are terms coined by Mark Rosewater of Magic Design to describe how various players demographics enjoy playing Magic: The Gathering.

Timmy wants to experience something great.
Johnny wants to express himself.
Spike wants to prove himself.

Note that these definitions are broad enough to cover a vast number of gamers. Spikes tend to fall into more hardcore type gamers while Timmies tend to be more casual players.

What is interesting is that both Spike and Timmy tend to like the same type of game, but they like very different aspects of the game. How a Johnny likes a game tends to depend on the game itself, from my experience. In this entry though, I will focus on Spike and Timmy as they are far easier to grasp.

Compare the following descriptions of Mario...

There are millions of people who have played Mario. Mario is fun. It is an experience. It is running around in countless different worlds, saving princesses or most likely, finding out she is in another castle. Mario 64 brought this to a fore-front with countless worlds and new vistas to explore. Secrets and Shines and Coins lie everywhere to hunt and to find. You can beat Mario, see the ending and feel accomplished. It is a haven to casual gamers.

Or...

There are millions of people who have played Mario. Mario is a deep rewarding and above all, challenging game. There are ridiculous amounts of secrets in Mario for the player who must find it all. There are 120 Shines in Super Mario Sunshine. Even the original Mario games have secrets for the experienced player. Mario 3 games can even be beaten in as little as 12 minutes. Mario 1 speed-runs have gone under 7 minutes. There are even secret, super-hard worlds to play in. Plus, everyone's heard of Mario so it's not like getting an unknown accomplishment in some tiny niche game.

The first one was written in a Timmy perspective. The second one was written in a Spike perspective. A Timmy player sees the game as an experience for him. It's fun to play Mario to experience all that Mario has to offer. A Spike player sees the game as a challenge for him. It's fun to play Mario because there is a real accomplishment in beating Mario.

...I want to get across that it's not that the Spike player doesn't enjoy Mario because Mario is fun. Of course he plays Mario because Mario is fun. But Spike derives as much or more pleasure in Mario because completing Mario is a real accomplishment. Timmy might never complete Mario and still have a blast. Spikes will complete speed runs of Mario in under 20 minutes or beat entire worlds without dying. Timmy might never collect 120 Shines. Spike will definitely have close to them all.

Since the purpose of this article is simply to introduce the two terms, I won't go much more in depth than now. But think about this... Remember those Giant Huge Ridiculous Koopa in the Giant World in Mario? If you gaped and said 'Awesome!' because Giant Ridiculous Koopa are awesome, that's a very Timmy feeling. If you gaped and said 'Awesome!' because Giant Ridiculous Koopa are much more of a challenge to beat, that's a very Spike feeling.

If you gaped and said 'Awesome!' because you were wondering how awesome it would be if you could use those Giant Ridiculous Koopa SHELLS to wreak havoc, you might be a Johnny... (to be continued.)