GamerBlake90
Blue Blurs for Life!
I did classify this thread under the section for Injustice, but what I'm about to describe can apply to any existing fighting game.
As someone who attempted to play as many characters as possible since the days of Mortal Kombat 9 (you can ask anyone who has watched my videos and streams), I feel very familiar with what we can call the "character crisis," which can be defined in more than one meaning...
1) Your inability to discover the character that suits your playstyle more than others.
2) Your answer to boredom that could develop from playing one character for an extended amount of time.
3) Your attempt to prevent players from choosing an effective counter-pick against you.
Other reasons exist alongside the ones listed above. In my case, I see it as a way to test myself, to show that my skill is not limited just to one character, that I can adapt to any set of tools that I am provided with. I might also say that out of the criteria listed above, I fall under the second and third options...maybe under the first as well, although I did find that I work best with Batman and Aquaman in Injustice (currently, anyway).
The upsides to being a "roster whore," as I call it, is that it makes you unpredictable, thereby preventing players from drawing an accurate blueprint of your consistencies. Also, in the eyes of casuals, it keeps you from becoming "boring" to watch, to keep the crowd entertained with flavor after flavor of gameplay from each different character (believe me, I have met people who are like this). And as I already outlined, it covers up for uphill match-ups that you are likely to be confronted with.
Now for the downsides...
It takes a lot of time to fully master a character in terms of their abilities, their match-ups, and adaptation to the overall game mechanics. By rapidly altering between each character, you are potentially limiting yourself in maximizing your skill with one or maybe two characters, and as a result, your growth as a player could suffer.
This is because you are constantly having to re-adapt yourself between the many match-ups that the game presents. You can do well with this if you really are committed, but after a while you'll start to suffer from periods where you pick one character and do so bad with him/her, you are forced to make a switch that gets you back in your stride. And if you should start to focus more on the character with which you initially failed to handle a match-up, then the roles will be reversed: your second character will begin to slack and your first one will do better. You'd need to exhibit an equal amount of effort between each of your characters, and the more you pick up, the harder it becomes to do so.
Whether you're a casual or tournament player, if you intend to get yourself out to a local or major tournament for competition, this dilemma may be something to consider if you want to adequately prepare your skills - and your mind - for what is to come.
I have started a poll for you to cast your votes. Of the following three methods, which do you recommend the most? Be sure to post with your vote and present your reasoning.
Option A - commit yourself to one character only. It's not worth the stress from balancing more than one. However, you risk facing uphill match-ups with this option.
Option B - the more characters you learn, the better! Doing this will heavily decrease the possibility of you being faced with a disadvantaged match-up, but you'll need to dedicate plenty of time to each character and not focus on one more than the other...or else this will fail.
Option C - two or three is okay, but no more than that. You'll cover maybe most match-ups at best by doing this and you won't overwhelm yourself as much. A sort of balanced option, so to speak.
If my message is not quite clear, say so and I'll try to re-explain it. I've been trying my hardest to pick the right words, LOL.
As someone who attempted to play as many characters as possible since the days of Mortal Kombat 9 (you can ask anyone who has watched my videos and streams), I feel very familiar with what we can call the "character crisis," which can be defined in more than one meaning...
1) Your inability to discover the character that suits your playstyle more than others.
2) Your answer to boredom that could develop from playing one character for an extended amount of time.
3) Your attempt to prevent players from choosing an effective counter-pick against you.
Other reasons exist alongside the ones listed above. In my case, I see it as a way to test myself, to show that my skill is not limited just to one character, that I can adapt to any set of tools that I am provided with. I might also say that out of the criteria listed above, I fall under the second and third options...maybe under the first as well, although I did find that I work best with Batman and Aquaman in Injustice (currently, anyway).
The upsides to being a "roster whore," as I call it, is that it makes you unpredictable, thereby preventing players from drawing an accurate blueprint of your consistencies. Also, in the eyes of casuals, it keeps you from becoming "boring" to watch, to keep the crowd entertained with flavor after flavor of gameplay from each different character (believe me, I have met people who are like this). And as I already outlined, it covers up for uphill match-ups that you are likely to be confronted with.
Now for the downsides...
It takes a lot of time to fully master a character in terms of their abilities, their match-ups, and adaptation to the overall game mechanics. By rapidly altering between each character, you are potentially limiting yourself in maximizing your skill with one or maybe two characters, and as a result, your growth as a player could suffer.
This is because you are constantly having to re-adapt yourself between the many match-ups that the game presents. You can do well with this if you really are committed, but after a while you'll start to suffer from periods where you pick one character and do so bad with him/her, you are forced to make a switch that gets you back in your stride. And if you should start to focus more on the character with which you initially failed to handle a match-up, then the roles will be reversed: your second character will begin to slack and your first one will do better. You'd need to exhibit an equal amount of effort between each of your characters, and the more you pick up, the harder it becomes to do so.
Whether you're a casual or tournament player, if you intend to get yourself out to a local or major tournament for competition, this dilemma may be something to consider if you want to adequately prepare your skills - and your mind - for what is to come.
I have started a poll for you to cast your votes. Of the following three methods, which do you recommend the most? Be sure to post with your vote and present your reasoning.
Option A - commit yourself to one character only. It's not worth the stress from balancing more than one. However, you risk facing uphill match-ups with this option.
Option B - the more characters you learn, the better! Doing this will heavily decrease the possibility of you being faced with a disadvantaged match-up, but you'll need to dedicate plenty of time to each character and not focus on one more than the other...or else this will fail.
Option C - two or three is okay, but no more than that. You'll cover maybe most match-ups at best by doing this and you won't overwhelm yourself as much. A sort of balanced option, so to speak.
If my message is not quite clear, say so and I'll try to re-explain it. I've been trying my hardest to pick the right words, LOL.
