So what about Johnny?

So, I hope I've left you with a basic understanding of Timmy and Spike from the previous article. Just a quick re-cap though in Mark Rosewater's own words:

Timmy wants to experience something.
Spike wants to prove something.

But what about the third type? Johnny?

Johnny wants to express himself.

In Magic: The Gathering this is the type of player who loves the fact that he can build millions of decks from thousands of cards. He looks for interactions between cards or the coolest theme deck he can imagine. He is about discovery, he is about finding new ways to use familiar tools. He is the person who makes you go 'I didn't even know you could do that.' Magic is a creative outlet for him. This is by far the hardest player type to generalize into normal games. The main difficulty is...

How does Johnny express himself in the context of a static game?

1. Discovering something new -- This is the hallmark of creativity. How does one express oneself? By saying something no one else has ever said before. By doing something no one else has ever done before. Massively Multi-player Online RPG's have this in short bursts where, in isolated communities, many simultaneous discoveries are made.

2. Embracing the ignored -- This is a mark of a stubborn Johnny. He WANTS to be the fire mage, even in a world where fire is ridiculously horrible. That is his thing. And you know what? This is the type of player who frequently discovers how to play the fire mage correctly that everyone else ignored. You thought fire was bad?

3. Embracing a Style -- Sure. He *could* bump you off with a red shell right now. But it's so much cooler when it knocks you out of a sharp turn into the ice water so you have to wait for the little cloud guy to pick you back onto the race track. It's about doing it right. If that means he fails 9 times out of 10, so be it. But that 1 out of 10 he nails you with the red shell on a really bad ice corner that he's been waiting ALL DAY to... he will have triumphed.

Johnny loves potential. The potential to express himself. The potential for the existence of tricks and fun stuff. A game that allows him to play his way. It isn't that Johnny doesn't play for fun, or that Johnny doesn't like winning, but the important thing is how he plays. He will play to express himself. He will play for that creative edge. He will play because the game is something that he can build into.

That's not to say there aren't cross-breeds. Everyone has a mix of Johnny, Spike and Timmy in them. I, myself, tend to think of myself as a Johnny-Spike. I want to win, but I want to win my way. I want to win in a way no one's ever thought of. I want to show that terrible strategies can be salvaged. Creativity and Innovation lead to perfect victory.

So, what do you think you are?