What Type of Player Are You?

by Crazy Ivan

First of all, I should apologize for getting to the blog so late today.  I'd love to have a solid story about how I was off rescuing orphans from a burning bus with no breaks that couldn't go below 60 mph or it would explode... but alas, it's just really nice out and I've been outside playing all day.

So I apologize if I left anyone feeling neglected.  Sometimes, you just have to get on your unicycle and go.

But as I was one-wheeling my way around the neighborhood today, I was reflecting on the growth and evolution of the game over the last 6 years.  Back in the day there were so few people in the game that it didn't make much sense to break them down into categories.  If you were specific at all, there would only be 2 or 3 people in each category.

That's not to say that we didn't break them down.  We did, it's just that it was essentially pointless.

The big dividing line back then was between the "athletic" player and the "skill-toy" player.  We noticed early on that people who played a lot of team sports and really athletic games usually took to the toss and catch aspect of the game but were slower to pick up on the tricks.  People who did a lot of skill toy stuff like yo-yo, hacky sack or juggling usually took to the tricks aspect really quick but were slower to learn the toss and catch.

These days, most people fall more into the "tricks" side rather than the "catch' side.  There are still plenty of athletic Myachi players, but most of them still spend the bulk of their Myachi efforts on tricks.

But there's also been a big shift toward other games in Myachi.  When we first started noticing the difference, the only Myachi games we regularly played were MYACH and Golf.  MYACH was the trickster game and Golf was the athletic game (not that it's particularly athletic, but it does require a different type of skill than MYACH).

Today people play a lot less Myachi Golf and instead they play a lot more Fu, Net, Chaos and Table Pong.  In addition, there are a few more "trick" games that we play as well.  MYACH is still the king of the castle but it has a few competitors like Chain and Tricktionary.

If we wanted to, I suppose we could break Myachi players down into a dozen categories, but the old school dichotomy of athletic/skill toy or external (tossing back and forth, playing with someone else, tossing into a target) and internal (learning new tricks, inventing moves, setting records).  of course, nobody is all of one or all the other.  Pretty much all of us have elements of both, but generally you'll be more internal or more external as you play more and more.

A third category should really be added these days, though.  For some people it's not about learning tricks or competing in games, but rather the purpose of Myachi is social: STWAKOJ, collecting, trading, interacting with the online community... for many Myachi Maniacs, this is a far bigger part of the game than anything that involves actually playing Myachi.

So which are you?  The easiest way is to imagine that you're in a situation where you're hanging out with a bunch of great Myachi players.  Maybe add a few Myachi Masters into the mix.  Everybody brought their collection.  Everybody has mad skills.  And everybody has to leave in about 20 minutes.  Suddenly, everybody turns to you and asks you to decide what to do with that time.

You have three choices:

1. Big game of MYACH
2. Big game of Fu
3. Make some trades

So which are you?  Give it some thought and leave your answer in the comments section below...