At the end of the day, the name of the game is picking a character you want to be a boss with, and trying to win against the opponent’s character, who’s also trying to be as boss as you.
If you’re a low-tier hero, you’ll feel like an extra boss for picking shitty characters. If you like goofy characters, you’ll feel like an extra boss for picking zany characters. If you like cool characters, you’ll feel like an extra boss for picking suave characters. If you like manly characters, you’ll feel like an extra boss for picking giant muscley men.
You can’t usually feel like a boss without winning, though. You have to be able to feel Real Extra Boss to balance out the fact that you play a bad character. If you can satisfy the thematic extra-boss-quirements while covering your matchups (Pink Robot Seth in SFIV does it for me), then you’re gold.
I’ve been going thru the game bringing up all the characters I don’t use to C rank online and i got Dan to C rank way more quickly than Akuma Play for fun&play to win. Any Character can beat any other character.
I don’t care if people want to play bad characters. Just don’t bitch when my gdlk top tier beats your try-hard low/mid-tier like he/she stole something.
That is why I find a fun top tier. I find somebody like Vanilla Gief, Super Akuma, AE Gief/Sagat, and in 2012 I rock the same as AE. They were all near the top. They don’t have too many bad matchups (If I play against a sagat, I play either Akuma or Sagat and not Gief). Those are the characters that I have the most fun playing.
I use tier lists to help me decide characters but I never let it be the end all be all. If I find it absolutely impossible to pick a character on my own sometimes I’ll just play through them all starting with the “best character” according to the first tier list I find and work my way down until I find one that I have fun playing.
Fun has the edge, but then again winning is pretty fun.
As a Hakan main (and I’m sure some people like Krackatoa can testify), I can definitely say that winning when nobody expects your character to be capable of doing so makes the win that much more sweet. However, I have also heard it said that you should believe that your character is top tier. I used to main Chun, and one of the reasons that I switched from her was because I saw far too many weaknesses. I’m not suggesting that you tier whore, but you should find a character that you believe can win (unless you find losing fun, which is why I always shoot for Bowser spaces in Mario Party…tangent). I am convinced that Hakan’s only really bad matchups are Honda, Dan (ironically), and Bison. I’m sure that many would disagree with me. This brings me to the heart of my argument:
Tier lists are subjective.
The closest to objective that I’ve ever seen tier lists is SFIV, where top players played all of the characters and recorded out-of-ten what the results were. Yes, it suggests objectivity, but it’s still not perfect.
TL;DR: If you are okay with losing, lean more towards fun (which isn’t to say that it’s impossible to win, but certainly more difficult). If you want to win and only win, pick a character who YOU PERSONALLY BELIEVE is top tier. Screw what everyone else says.
P.S., this is all saying nothing of your personal playstyle. Sometimes top-tier characters just don’t gel with how you like to play, and it leads you to not have fun with them and may also lead to losses, since you’d be trying to play them “wrong” (subjective). I believe that, no matter which way you go, you should find a character that gels with how you want to play the game.
True. Maybe Super Fantastic Marvel vs. Capcom 3: This Is The Last One We Swear version will have a Hsien-Ko that is actually as good as she was in Vampire Savior.
Then again maybe by then BB Hood will be added to the game and I won’t give even a single fuck about trying to play Hsien-Ko anymore.
Play for fun. Who cares if your characters are good or not. If you really want to win you can put in the time with your favorite characters to win.
I’ve played Guy since the release of SSF4 regardless of his ranking in the tier list. And in Marvel I play the characters I enjoy using, even if they’re considered to be strong or weak.
You play “Wesker/Frank, Taskmater, Spencer” none of which are bad characters at all. Don’t even try to say Frank is a bad character. For awhile I mained Frank/Dante/Wesker. That shit is too good.
Though I think I understand what you’re trying to say. I always play characters I enjoy playing, whether they’re low or high tier. It just so happens that those characters tend to be on the higher side.
Frank is a bad character until he levels up but that’s kind of the point.
It was put really well earlier in the thread: high tier characters tend to be a lot more flexible in their battle strategies. It’s what makes them high tier in the first place. This flexibility makes them much more fun to play than the bottom of the barrel characters that don’t have any real options available to them (especially if said low tier doesn’t have a quirky aesthetic that keeps him/her interesting. Lord knows there would be even fewer Hsien-Ko players than there are if she wasn’t such a goofball).
Not to say that there isn’t extremely satisfying stuff beyond “I beat you with a low tier” with the mid/low tier characters. I main Tron and there is really nothing more satisfying than catching someone with her level three.
i think that people would choose tier because they enjoy winning and find it satisfying, and i think that satisfaction and enjoyment have some connection with fun, so i’m pretty sure that no matter how you look at it “fun” is the most important.
trollface
but if i were to make a gut call i’d say play what you find fun, you’re probably going to win more that way anyway. unless you pick a random non synergistic low tier team like hsien/tron/nemesis. then you’d have to work your butt off to win. and for most people that’s not fun.
I wasn’t trying to justify my character choices in Marvel. I know all the characters I play are strong, but that’s not why I play them. I was simply saying play whoever you like to play regardless of if they’re good or not.
And honestly in UMvC3 I feel that all the characters are viable and strong in their own ways.
Play for fun&play to win. Any Character can beat any other character.