I think 3D fighters are alot more easier to pick up. And so are easier for 2d fighting fan to convert to.
The other way around is alot harder for people. In 3D fighter most attacks and ground strings move your character forward. And fluidity (Which I like about 3D fighters) makes it easier to pick up.
While in Germany (NO ARCADES!) I had a few locals around for a Capcom Vs SNK 2, Street Fighter 3 and JoJo battle. we had alot of fun, but the seasoned Tekken players the most trouble with the stiffness of the games. And complained how they couldn’t get there “flow”.
And after a strict diet of 2D fighters. I went to a friends house for some Tekken against some intermediate players and got my ass handed to me at the start. But then employed some of the mind game stuff I learnt from SF and started acutally winning a few games.
Not saying that there aren’t mind games in 3D fighters. I think that in 3D games you feel like you have more options and control of your character. Whereas in 2D you NEED to rely alot more on mind games since your openings in your foes defence are alot more harder to come by. in 2D you have to know where a kick or a move ends and control your space. Taking all this gameplan stuff over to 3D is alot easier for players than going the other way around where players feel more restricted
2d players have a hard time with 3d because their minds get hard-wired into the controlling space theory. It’s the best way to win in 2d. Not so in 3d. Putting together strings of moves that do decent damage while maintaining some sort of frame advantage is the key in 3d. You poke with something that wont get you killed (mid hitting moves, cant duck em, gotta block em high), you stay on the positive until you counter(especially with some sorta special stun), then you try to bust out a big combo, and wait for you opponent to freak out because they have to make up so much life, and do something you can exploit!
Now, ive never been more that slightly above average in either field, but to me, a good mid/low game in 3d seems to work pretty well. If you can mix your mids and lows, people have to pick where to block, puts them on the defensive. Circular mids are best, but they tend to have the worst disadvantages.
One of the reasons 3S players make decent 3D players and vice-versa is that 3S has a high-low game, and most 2D fighters really don’t. In most 2D fighters low blocking is very safe. There might be a slow jump attack and maybe 1 character specific overhead to look out for, and that’s it.
I would also say that in 2D games matches tend to be character vs. character, and in 3D games more move vs move. As in, you really need to know specifically what move beats what move, what move can punish what move, etc etc. Whereas a 2D game is focused more on overall gameplan. (Like: Keep Honda away) This is basically what Seth was stating in the linked articles.
In Tekken I might be worrying about what moves I have that can avoid being stuffed by a jab, or what moves I can punish with the Mishima 112. Whereas in SF there are much wider varieties of ranges and fighting styles.
In most 3D games (and in 3S, another similarity) most characters have pretty similar overall ranges. You don’t find guys that can literally attack from all the way across the screen. That’s what is meant by controlling space. All the fighting takes place at about 2 or 3 character widths apart or less.