Timmy, Johnny, Spike, Melvin, and Vorthos

Current Fighting Games Fighting Game Discussion
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Timmy, Johnny, Spike, Melvin, and Vorthos

These are character psychographics made to model Magic: The Gathering Players

Timmy, Johnny, and Spike:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mr220b
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mr11b

Melvin vs Vorthos:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mr278

The combinations:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mr280

A Melvin article (meet a melvin):
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/futuresight2/jailer

Given this I thought it would be interesting to apply these psychographics to the fighting game community. As Mark Rosewater explains in the links above, Timmy/Johnny/Spike is the dimension of why you play the game, while Melvin/Vorthos is the dimension of how you evaluate the game.

Timmy:
Timmy in a fighting game is someone who likes to experience something. Timmy likes to play straight forward, fun characters. Juggernaut in MSH is a great Timmy character. What do you do with juggernaut? jump around, and HEADCRUSH! It’s fun! Timmy is the guy that, when he has the super charged, and you are low on life, will make sure to finish you with that super, so that he gets the big flash. Timmy is playing for the thrill of big hits, big damage, big super effects. Timmy doesn’t mind losing, as long as he gets to do his thing. Timmy hates playing against O. Sagat in ST, because he never even gets to do anything.

Johnny:
Johnny in a fighting game is someone who wants to express something. Johnny wants to play oddball characters and win. Johnny is the guy that combos nash’s neutral standing forward->super in SFA1 because that’s harder than cr. forward. Johnny picks Cammy to show that he can beat Ryu. Johnny wants to be recognized for what he can do with a character. Johnny picks Cody in SFA3 because he’s attracted to the dodge mechanic. Johnny likes the wierd characters, with highly situational moves, and he likes to play those characters to show what he can express with them. Johnny plays the infinite combo, even if it’s twice as hard to do as the 100% damage combo.

Spike:
Spike in a fighting game is someone who wants to prove something. Spike wants to win, pure and simple. Spike learns the combos not because they are fun, but because they are effective. When you are dizzy with little life left, Spike does the simple 2 in 1 instead of a jump in combo because there’s a greater chance of mistakes doing a jump in combo. Spike picks the top tier characters, because he wants to win. Spike didn’t play Dictator in Super because he was garbage, and then picked him up in Super Turbo where he’s great. If Spike goes on a 50 game win streak, but feels like he lost the 50th game because of a mistake, he walks away unhappy.

Melvin:
I think a Melvin in fighting games is someone who is interested in the mechanics of the game. T. Akiba is a great example. I would say James Chen is also a Melvin. Melvins want to dissect the game, understand its very nature, and discuss why wolverine’s 15 hit chain didn’t hit a bounced cyclops after his second throw. When melvin hears that Zangief takes 26% less damage than Ryu from Cammy’s crouching jab, his immediate reaction is “cool! I wonder if we can repeat this test a thousand times with each attack in the game!”.

Melvin stays up at night trying to figure out the longest possible combo in Cvs2, and then he uses input captures on MAME to prove it. Melvin wants to know what the minimal set of inputs is actually required to do a walk up 720 in ST. He doesn’t care if anyone can actually pull it off in a real game, he just wants to know if it CAN be done.

Vorthos:
Vorthos in a fighting game is someone who enjoys the flavor of the game. The art, the characters, the overall design package. Vorthos likes Marvel Super Heroes’s Captain America over Marvel vs Street Fighter’s Cap because the former’s shield is more “Captainish”. Vorthos is upset when someone picks Dark Grey Chun li in Super Turbo because that’s a damn ugly color, and everyone knows Chun Li should only be picked in Pink, Yellow, Green, or Lavender – GOSH (Napoleon Dynamite voice). Vorthos’s favorite SamSho game is Samurai Shodown 1, because Galford’s music is so great. Vorthos has Galford’s music as his ring tone, except when it’s Ken’s stage (when his mom calls). Vorthos plays Galford because he has a puppy, and he can say “hey poppy!”.

With that said, I thought it would be fun to analyze myself. What do I like? Why do I play? How do I evaluate the game?

Timmy/Johnny/Spike:
There’s a big Timmy element in me. In Super, I picked T Hawk. Why? Because he’s a HUGE INDIAN! He hits hard! I like hitting with the 360. If I played 10 games, lost 9, but won my tenth with my T. Hawk Touch of Doom, I’d walk away happy. This is about as Timmy as you can get. In SFA1/2, I played Sodom. Why? Because he was big! He hits hard! However, there’s also a big Spike element in me. I want to win. I played Sodom at B3, but Chun Li at B2 a year later, because, I knew the game had evolved and that Sodom was no longer a competitive character. In Super Turbo, I have Claw as my “back pocket” tournament character even though I prefer playing Chun Li. When it’s time to win, I just want to win. And I’ll play whatever I have to play to win. That’s very Spike.

So I’m a Timmy/Spike. I’m not really a Johnny. Although I like coming up with my own unique strategies, I’m just as happy learning from other players or improving upon a well known one. Being unique isn’t where I get my kicks. One might think that a T. Hawk player is pretty Johnny, but I don’t play Hawk to prove that I can win with lower tier characters. I play Hawk because he’s huge, hits hard, and fun.

Melvin/Vorthos:
What can I say, I’m a Vorthos! Although I love to read about the mechanics of a game, and I learn the mechanics, I do it because of my Spike nature. I’m interested in learning damage differentials so that I can win, not so much out of inherent interest. But flavor? Aah, that’s a different story. I’m very compelled by flavor. SF3 might be the best game ever made, but I’ll never touch it, because I think the graphics are ugly and pixellized. I care about a game’s overall package. I’m making a home arcade with COTA and XMEN, not because they are good games, but because they are beautiful games. I was upset when I heard Guile’s menacing “SONIC BOOM” in HF turn into a pipsqueak “sonic boom?” in Super. I like the backgrounds, the stage music, and the quality of the art in the games that I like. My favorite games, ST, COTA, MSH, and Samurai Shodown, all have that quality.

So in the end, I’m a (Timmy/Spike)-Vorthos. Whew!

Julien

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kinda interesting. def most the people I play are spikes.

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Fun. This is probably most of everybody in FGD

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i am def. a spike/vorthos

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i think over time i’ve become a Melvin/Johnny combination, somewhat less concerned with winning and more concerned with showing people odd games they’d never try otherwise and the cool things that oddball characters in them are capable of
also a Vorthos in the sense that i really like hyper-stylized and flashy games / characters

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Dude!!!

Johnny:
“Johnny in a fighting game is someone who wants to express something.”

Check.

“Johnny wants to play oddball characters and win.”

Check.

“Johnny is the guy that combos nash’s neutral standing forward->super in SFA1 because that’s harder than cr. forward.”

I did that all the freakin’ time. Check.

“Johnny picks Cammy to show that he can beat Ryu.”

Ummmmm… check!

“Johnny wants to be recognized for what he can do with a character.”

Ummmmmmmmmmmm… see my avatar. Check.

“Johnny picks Cody in SFA3 because he’s attracted to the dodge mechanic.”

Dude, I love Cody in SFA3! Uhh… check!!

“Johnny likes the wierd characters, with highly situational moves, and he likes to make those characters successful.”

I also play R.Mika in SFA3. And Maki and Yuri in CvS2. And I can go on and on. Check (well, up until that “successful” part).

“Johnny plays the infinite combo, even if it’s twice as hard to do as the 100% damage combo.”

Check.

And in Guilty Gear, I use Johnny!!!

Melvin:
“I think a Melvin in fighting games is someone who is interested in the mechanics of the game. T. Akiba is a great example. I would say James Chen is also a Melvin.”

I would agree outside of that fact that every example you used to describe a Johnny is something I have literally, word for word, done. It was almost freaky reading that. :rofl:

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“Johnny likes the wierd characters, with highly situational moves, and he likes to make those characters successful.”

I’ll have to clarify the successful part. It’s wrong. Johnny cares that he successfully played his strategy for his wierd character, not that he won or was successful in the tournament sense.

BTW James, Johnny and Melvin are not mutually exclusive. They are two different dimensions. You definitely seem like a Johnny/Melvin. Check out the links above to read more.

Julien

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Johnny–Vorthos

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Interesting thread. I’ma Spike my nigga.

I’m also a D Dude.

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TIMMY!!!

If I could only win more often…

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Cool. Sign me up for a Johnny-Melvin, then! :slight_smile:

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spike/melvin

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great and interesting article!

but i don’t fully agree with the fighting game examples you gave.

if in magic he talked about big creatures that doesn’t mean juggy is a timmy character. in fighting games it translates 100% to the super i guess. i know a 3s “timmy” that will pick his favorite character (ken), and hitting with his favorite super (shoryu-reppa) will be the highlight of his match. the ultimate goal. THAT will make him happy.(even better if he will finish the opponent with it)

that is a big difference from a guy who plays to win with his favorite character. maybe that type is a spike/johnny. he wants to prove he can take that low tier char to the highest level there is.
to quote from the article:
"Johnny/Spike is out to prove that he can win while having the limitation of also being innovative while he does so."
or maybe he’s a spike/timmy, since playing to win with t.hawk his favorite char will be the most fun way of “playing to win” for him.

i think a melvin doesn’t have to be hardcore about it like t.akiba or something.
this can be a melvin too:
some guy: "how do you combo into banishing strike with raoh you ask? well you do 2k 2d and kara cancel the 2d into banishing strike and that way you it’s like you canceled the 2k to a banishing strike"
melvin:“awesome!”

and unlike you mentioned it, most of us aren’t extreams we can be a melvin and vorthos at the same time… somewhere in the grey area.
i’ll take Hnk as an example. the fact that the game stays so faithful to the anime is half of the fun for most of us right? its great to see “that attack he used vs that guy” but its also fun to see how it fits into the gameplay. for ex kenshiro’s pressure point special that makes normals do chip damage.

and i think all the ST players in the world prefer the old sonic boom voice. it won’t make them give up on the game, cuz we aren’t extream vorthos about it.