It’s unavoidable in any space/community that an amount of toxicity or disagreements over “how the game should be played” will arise. But damn if I don’t see it on near every post here. It’s normal and healthy to have a diversity of opinion and preferences - for any game - on what you consider fun! But ultimately if we all want to enjoy this amazing game, and have a community around it that’s welcoming and fun, we should try to understand why we disagree and find ways to respect each other and enjoy the game our own ways.

Let’s start with player archetypes, and anyone familiar with Magic the Gathering may recognize these names. Importantly, none of these archetypes are bad, or wrong, it just comes down to individual motives. There are three (technically four) broad types of players in almost any game. Timmy, Johnny, and Spike.

-Timmy is what would be derided as “the casual player”. They enjoy big, splashy plays, and are less focused on intricate strategy or the meta. Constantly playing against the same decks, or “unfun” decks (for Gwent Timmies usually refer mainly to NG with this) is antithetical to their play style and enjoyment. After all, we’re here to play a game, for fun, not just tryhard ourselves to victory right?

-Johnny is the inventor. They pride themselves on finding new ways to play, new strategies to test, new interactions others might not have seen before. Win? Lose? Does it matter so long as they did something cool? And if something isn’t working, that’s fine, because they’ve already got three other decks to try out!

-Spike. Oh Spike. The bane of the Timmy. The tournament grinder. The meta player. THE NETDECKER!! Spike plays to win. After all, this is a competitive card game! They care deeply about pushing to victory through any odds, but notably not by any means. Beating up on players less skilled or with less competitively geared decks is NOT what a Spike wants to do (that’s just a jerk). Spikes would rather actually test their skills, work their brains, and achieve victory because they outplayed their opponents, not just because their deck is “OP”.

But here’s the twist. Nobody really fits cleanly into just one archetype. We all get excited with cool plays, or building a unique deck that works, or getting a hard-fought win. But why specifically we play can be very different from one another! Remembering this and not denigrating the differences we have is the only way to keep a healthy community!

But if these play styles have to so often rub up against one another, it does lead to friction. How could that be solved? Well, with the way ranks in Gwent works, most of the Spike players aren’t going to be preying on Timmies. But I do think we need to have a stronger voice against how Training Mode is currently being ruined by endless bots. That should be a safe haven for those not looking at all for the competitive scene, and currently it’s not an option if you want to actually play a real match. The Balance Council is great, being community led to address potentially toxic/unbalanced cards! Even if you can’t vote yourself, trying to make your voice heard about changes is important, and for those who can vote we should remember that this game isn’t just for us.

Hopefully this overly long post at least led you to think more about how you play and how you interact with other players. And for any that made it this far, the fourth type is Vorthos. They play because the art or setting is cool to them!