In today’s culture we live in what the book calls a “Warrior society”. The world is becoming an increasingly competitive place to live in, whether or not people are striving to be the best they have goals and aspirations they are reaching for. But so many people have these dreams that we must compete with each other to take our “rightful” spots in the world. “The Warrior is both a dominant and unpopular archetype today” (Awakening the Heroes Within 98) because while the world is filled with competition, people have the wrong view of the Warrior. They see mainly the aspects of the Shadow Warrior: the greed of politicians, the ruthlessness of markets and the business world, and the obsessive need to win seen in nearly every business and sport. However, like the book says, “we need a higher level of the Warrior” that doesn’t fight simply to win and throw others down in the process.
The Warrior has many positive aspects as well. Courage and bravery come from the Warrior. Morals, the need to protect and fight for what we believe is right also come from the Warrior. Without the true form of the highest level of the Warrior the world would fall into decay and corruption.
The Warrior has not always been active in my life. When I was young, in grade school I loved competition. When I played soccer during recess I would always join the smaller team (there was no team-picking and people joined sides at will, often ending up in lopsided teams) because I liked the challenge of fighting for the “little guys”. However I was a rough player. Since I was outnumbered I often played hard in order to win. I also didn’t do well with bullies. One time a kid made fun of me and started pushing me around, so I tackled him to the ground and we fought. Over the next few days we actually ended up becoming friends. Since then, until now, the Warrior has been pretty dormant in my life and I can feel the Warrior starting to act in my life again, but this time at a less crude and more high level. Instead of just seeking competition and fights, there is more strategy in my tactics and whenever I “defeat” someone I try to make sure that we both come out with our heads held high.
Recently I have picked up a card game called Yu-Gi-Oh. More and more I notice my concentration areas (Psychology and Business) in this “simple” card game. After reading the chapter on the Warrior I can see that this game fits perfectly with this archetype. Yu-Gi-Oh is a card game about strategy. You need to manage your resources, bluff, and make the correct plays in order to defeat your opponent. Each game is called a “duel” and like many games the objective is simple: to defeat your opponent. The game caters to the Warriors at mid-high level, but like the rest of the world, low-level Warriors (who seek only to fight and destroy their opponent) and Shadow Warriors (corruption, cheating, and obsessive need to win) are ever present.
“Clever Warriors try to control the battle zone and do not fight until they are prepared enough to have a good chance of winning” (Awakening the Heroes Within 102) is something that all good players know. Let me explain a bit of the game mechanics to clarify. There are three basic cards in the game. There are Spell cards, which at their most basic level are support cards. They aid the player by letting them draw cards, increase their Life Points (the “health” of each player. When it hits zero that player loses), or destroy an opponent’s card. Trap cards are usually for defense or to interrupt your opponent. Monster cards are used to battle with your opponent’s monsters and to attack their Life Points. There are two “zones” on the field of play, Monster Zones where Monster cards can be played or “summoned” and Spell/Trap Zones where Spell and Trap cards can be played or “set” (meaning played face-down so your opponent can’t see it. This is the only way that Trap cards are allowed to be used). If someone has a card set in their Spell/Trap Zone, a good player will not use a Spell card like “Mystical Space Typhoon” (which destroys an opponent’s Spell or Trap) unless they have a Monster card they wish to play and attack with. There is no need to waste resources for nothing.
Already the competition and strategy of the game is calling out to the Warrior archetype, but how can Psychology and Business be applied to this? Well, remember the previous example of a player having a card set in their Spell/Trap Zone? Well, that player could have set his own “Mystical Space Typhoon” as a bluff in order to make his opponent think that he has a powerful trap like “Solemn Warning” which can negate the summon of any Monster card. Figuring out how the mind works is a big part of Psychology. How people think and how they react to situations they expect or don’t expect. Not just in general, but the psychology of the Warrior is easy to observe in a game of Yu-Gi-Oh. If you observe and get a glimpse of the cards in each players hand you can analyse their plays and thought patterns. Continuing with the previous examples: Player A summoned a monster and set a card in the Spell/Trap Zone. Player B set a Monster card and a card in the Spell/Trap Zone. If you had seen what cards both players had face-down you would be able to know what they were thinking based on how each player played their cards.
Like I said earlier, in every form of competition there are Shadow Warriors. Even in Yu-Gi-Oh there are people who’s only desire is to win via any means necessary. People will “stack” their decks so that they draw all their good cards, or stack their opponent’s deck so that their opponent draws poorly. To help prevent this during a tournament there are “judges” who walk around the room and respond to players when called. However, not all cheating gets caught, so some players have made YouTube videos on anti-cheating and how to catch your opponent if they’re cheating.
Of course, Yu-Gi-Oh is not only a playing card game, but it got it’s start as a trading card game. Because of this you also have business-like negotiations when trading cards with another person. You need to know what your card is worth and what the other person’s card is worth in order to assure that you are making a fair trade or getting a good deal.
Like in any business there are Shadow Warriors who seek only to profit, no matter what the cost. Even when trading cards there are those constantly trying to rip people off, especially the more inexperienced and younger players. Luckily there are a decent amount of higher level Warriors who are fair and let the more inexperienced player know what’s going on.
On a whole, most of the Yu-Gi-Oh community are fair and try to play by the rules so that everyone can enjoy either aspect of the competition, whether it be playing or trading.
Here is a site I found to be relevant. It’s a link to one of the biggest Yu-Gi-Oh communities on the internet. The link below is to the Strategy Forum. You can see all the different kinds of decks that people play, strategies to use with them and how to improve.
mkraynik 