Without create any flame and just for the love of discussion I would please like to understand what does it mean that a yoyo has a “personality”, usually used talking about organics I have seen this term around a lot and never really understand that, also in contraposition with competition yoyos described mostly as cold and play all the same (which I highly disagree).
What I thought is that personality is mostly used to describe a yoyo that goes a bit out of what a player expect in the modern times, something that goes away the competition world and stay a bit more in the chill playing, again I disagree that this should be considered personality, it is just a different yoyo for different kind of players.
In my opinion the word personality can be used on the characteristics of the yoyo itself and pretty much every yoyo has it’s own ones, so every yoyo has personality.
For me competitions yoyos have lot of personality, some are more aggressive, some more fast, some more floaty, some ask to be thrown in horizontal a lot, some are more string tricks and tech friendly, some are more for body tricks, there are plenty of yoyos with a different personality
I am still impressed how sometimes yoyos based on performance get considerate negatively cause that, but as probably couple of you knows I am not that fond on organic shapes and I find them quite outdated and useless at least for my style of yoyoing, I find very curious also this phenomenon of “hate” between technical yoyos in favour of organics/old school shapes that I see a lot around.
I think saying a yoyo has (good) personality means the spirit that inhabits that particular yoyo is a benign spirit. Any yoyo that had vibe is probably inhabited by a malignant spirit.
I can’t find where he originally said this, but to paraphrase an idea I got from Markmont:
Yoyos with centering bearings are mostly designed to play the same. Performance oriented yoyos are like this. They’re designed to stay on plane, stay upright, and have your string engage with as little of the yoyo as possible. Essentially pushing for more performance creates a yoyo where you interact with the yoyo less.
When you put a flat bearing in a yoyo it immediately gives the yoyo more personality because your string interacts with the yoyo more. When you play a highwall design you feel when the yoyo tilts/precesses or just generally responds to each movement. The unique way the string engages with and controls the yoyo is the personality.
I understand this sentiment but really it’s not something I ever think about much. And I think despite more performance yoyos wanting to all play the same in a vacuum, we don’t play yoyo in a vacuum. So you still learn/feel how much performance yoyos respond to certain movements/how hey respond to the string hitting certain parts of the profile/especially their ease of horizontal play.
Personality being used in a way like “soul” though is just a buzzword used to describe the play of a yoyo by people who don’t want to understand how the specific design choices of a yoyo created that play feel.
I think of “personality” as feedback and quirks that a yo-yo has. You see this term thrown around more with old school/organics because they have higher walls which the string rubs against, maybe a little bit of vibe if it’s an older yo, less stability. You can really feel what’s going on through the vibration/behavior of the string. A yo-yo with a lot of personality can behave a bit unpredictably and keeps you on your toes. With a competitive yo-yo, it’s designed to have the least amount of string friction possible, maximum stability, maximum predictability, which is why that term is thrown around more with old school shapes.
A yo-yo with personality is more pleasant to play with, have dinner with, and even go see a movie with. It’s a yo-yo you want to spend more time with because its negativity doesn’t bring you down. It’s easy to talk to at the end of a hard day, and will always be there when you need it.
Unless it has a shitty personality. Then you just want to bury it 6 feet deep and hope no one ever finds the body.
I like to think of it like, “It plays quite a bit different than most yoyos”.
What I mean is, if you pick some random say 1000 yoyo players, then let them pick a yoyo they like the most, you will see a certain range of spec (shape/width/weight/etc) that comes up more than the other.
Let’s just call this combination, the “popular”. It is just those yoyos you can’t go wrong with.
A yoyo that has “personality” basically are the ones further away from this. They are unique, not just in “every yoyo is unique”, but it is hard to find other yoyos similar to it.
Part of this kinda echoes that same sentiment Markmont tried to express that I hope got across. The older yoyos that had higher walls and were less stable had more ways you could control how the yoyo moved in space through subtle interactions of the string touching the yoyo. Older yoyos that were less stable and had more places for string to come in contact with the yoyo, so they were easier to feel like you had direct and total control over.
New yoyos “lack personality” because they’re so stable that they won’t let you as easily break plane with them. They’re harder to control in a way because they’re less receptive to your movements to create a yoyo that’s more forgiving to play. This leads to these performance throws all feeling the same (in a vacuum). This idea furthered by the idea that a centering bearing is just directly trying to help the string touch and interact with the yoyo as little as possible, where with a flat bearing you really get to feel how stable the yoyo is, and just how the string moves around in the gap.
I don’t totally agree with this viewpoint, since modern performance yoyos have all types of different pacing and design choices that affect the types of tricks players want to do with these yoyos. But I understand the point that was being made about people preferring the yoyos that feel more immediately unique from one another, because of how much more control you had over every aspect of how the yoyo moves, instead of the yoyo just wanting to force itself upright stay on plane.
But in this case we cannot just speak about outdated design for modern tricks instead of “personality”?
I mean if the whole personality thing is reduced to be “high walls” than is not something that you can apply to every yoyo but exclusive not only to organic but organic with high walls which makes the category of “personality” yoyos even smaller.
Idk but to me seems just another name to sell more of them like the “fun” in the organic
This for me can be a description of “personality” of a yoyo, the way it perform and the tricks it adapt the most
I agree with this. I don’t really apply any label to this, I don’t call it personality, it’s just “the yoyo.”
In my mind one of the most interesting things about looking at yoyo designs, especially modern signature models for competitive players, is seeing how their style of tricks influenced the design of the yoyo. From more technical players like Zach and Takeshi having yoyos that skew in the 42-44mm width range, to the speed demons and horizontal monster players who are rocking things 50mm wide like it’s normal.
In my mind that’s just as much of a personality trait of the yoyo, although I’d never use the word personality to describe that. That’s just a well designed yoyo being tailored to how a specific player wants to play yoyo. And that makes good signature models feel super unique and identifiable to individual players.
Determining or defining a yo-yos personality is inherently personification. Yo-yos don’t really have a personality but assigning them one based on their specs is super helpful when talking about yo-yos because there are so many factors that make up how a Yoyo feels. I definitely think of my yo-yos having a personality because it helps distinguish them from each other. Sometimes it’s just easier to describe a yoyo as “fussy” instead of saying it has high walls, flat bearing, and a narrow gap that makes it easier to fumble a trick.
I also see how people hate on the yo-yos in that op bimetal range and see how they mean that—cold, like they are robots built for performance. I also don’t think that’s bad, like usually want that from a yoyo. Other might see cold as unfun or something but a lot of people like that cold crisp feel.
I think you’ve focused too heavily on Mables exaggerated example to get the message across and are missing the message a little.
Personality is how the yoyo responds to your movements. Its not a “performance vs fun” thing, performance yoyos have personality too, its just a different type of personality.
I would argue there are competition yoyos with tons of personality, just like there are high walled organics with a ton of personality.
I’ve also played, and immediately sold, yoyos thst were great but felt like they lacked personality lol
To illustrate this a little better with a car metaphor
The VW Golf GTI is an incredibly performance oriented car. But they are full of personality behind the wheel.
The Jeep Wrangler is without a doubt designed to be a fun vehicle you drive literally anywhere. It also has a ton of personality behind the wheel.
The Nissan Sentra is a perfectly fine car but it is absolutely devoid of personality. Every one I’ve rented felt like the most soulless vehicles (i blame cvt transmissions)
Edit: changed from porsche 911 gt3 to vw gti becauee I realize after making this price is hugely different between these 3 cars and its not about price here lol
I’ve never driven that Nissan but I like the analogy. Isn’t that mundane play by the rules normcore feel it’s self a personality though? Just kind of a simple one you might not want to hangout with.
I would argue the standard Golf is a beautiful example of the feeling you bring up, while having personality behind the wheel. Something about CVT plus poorly integrated electric assist steering/braking/etc the Nissans just feel lifeless to me.
I was going to make the car comparison as well haha. Like a new Lamborghini with a bunch of computers to help with traction and steering. Paddle shifters, etc.
Vs an old aircooled Porsche 911 with just an engine and manual transmission, no power steering. Both are fun to drive, but which has more personality? Kinda up to the driver I guess.
I’ve driven Nissan Sentras from the 90s before they had any of that technology and they were boring then too. It’s kind of a triumph that they packed in so much technological advancement without losing the classic Sentra “spirit”!
