I chose Dhalsim cause his awesome life philosophy is awesome.
Juri cause she has an attitude problem, and once you start to rushdown, she can get some decent burst damage, but yet she has the option to play lame and wait on you I’ve really gotten used to her normals, and I’m kind of comfortable playing spacing games with her now…looking forward to her buffs but I’m actually looking for another character to pick up in AE 2012.
as far as 3soe, I’m still looking for someone, but right now i’m on Mak, cause I like her mix up and her high stun (if I can get the juggles down)
I actually mained chun for a long time because I liked how much pressure she could put on, but then I switched to Bison because his pressure is simply DELICIOUS!
I main Juri because she’s my favorite character in the cast. Her personality, her style, her looks, everything about her is awesome and luckily for me, her playstyle is perfect for me. I like balanced characters that can stand their ground in zoning and close-quarters, and that’s just what Juri is. Her fireball game is really unqiue, sometimes she gets out-zoned but she’s also one of the most effective at zoning on other characters. I also like neutral jumping, and her nj.HK is the best.
I’ve also been playing as Rose a bunch, just because she’s a solid fundamentalist character and can use everyone’s fireballs against them. Her Ultras are also great. She’s just a lot of fun to play as, and she looks bitchin in the blood red Alt 3 dress.
Long story short from 1992 to 2011: Chun Li > Vega > Dan > Vega > Dhalsim > Vega > Gen > Fei > Makoto > Guy
[SPOILER= Long boring pointless post I wrote without realising]
SF2: Chun/Honda
SF2turbo and SSF2: Vega (claw)
SFA2: Dan (no vega and I thought it was too awesome to have the same name as the character, never knew he was a joke)
SFA3: Vega
Very long break. Missed the StreetFighter 3 buzz altogether, but played it in a friends house once or twice, we sucked and complained about the weirdness of the characters and the “terrible hiphop”. But along came this new online play thingamebob and the internets had a real use:
Street Fighter 2 HF: Vega
SSF2HDR: Vega (later Sim)
Exciting times 
finally could bring my Vega online. I lost… a lot. Turns out Im crap.
SFIV: Vega (hated how he turned out in 4 :() > Sim (never stuck) > Chun Li (nah) > Gen (loved Gen)
Bought a Fightstick and was determined to get better but Gen proved too hard to relearn on a stick.
Settled for Fei and relearned the game all over again. Started taking it all a little too seriously.
SSFIV: I got bored of Fei, really bored, moved to Makoto. Mak and Fei still get picked.
As I got to a better level on the stick I went back to see if I could use Gen again… somewhere along the line I tried out Guy and i fecking loved him. He played excatly how I want to play. I really want to try pick up Alpha 2 and 3 to see what i was missing or found so hard back then. I cant see myself chaning from my current Guy/Mak picks.
I played (a very shitty) Cammy in HDR, and HDR was my first fighting game.
When I saw Cammy in Street Fighter IV, I was happy.
And now that Cammy has her real spiral arrow back, I’m even happier. 
Good topic!
Anytime I decide to pick up a new fighting game I immediately start going through the cast WITHOUT checking anyone’s move set to see who feels the most natural for me.
This is because in the heat of the moment we all have “our own” tendencies and things that we almost unconsciously do.
If I can do well with a character before knowing their entire moves list, then I know I’ll be able to use them competitively just fine.
I main Blanka/Dhalsim, and then I freaking love using Dee Jay, and Gen.
Those are my favorites , but some of the most fun I have playing this game is just picking Random Select.
My best advice would be not to let your Player Points or Battle Points ever dictate how much fun you have.
See you on XBL!
My first choice was Ibuki but she just wasnt for me so im leaving for as a WIP but im maining Cammy mainly for that ass. But also i found her easy to pick up.
i messed around till i found people i like, my team was dante,trish,chris before i played, no i run wesker,zero and wolverine
in sf4 i was gonna wing it with the old akuma j.roundhouse-> sweep, now i play gen,rose and seth
The idea of a Chun-Li appreciation campfire is simply mind blowing.
find a character you are comfortable and passionate about.
I pick lame characters that can fill the screen up with shit. Naturally I would go towards Guile, Sagat, Blackheart, Dormammu, Chris, and the like.
Often time that requires more work than just using the character you’re best with. All the extra effort makes tough successes feel fantastic.
i used to play ryu in hyper fighting back in the day because he was the only character i could beat my cousin with.
when vanilla came out i eventually switched to chun, i wanted someone faster, and i like the fact that her play style is about pokes, zoning and footsies
I haven’t yet, but since I’m planning on cosplaying Rufus at one point (fat people cosplaying fat people) I figured I could pick him up since my last two characters were Gouken and Guy (and even then I’d still play Guy at times). I’m only now starting to be decent with him, but fuck if I don’t love playing as the fat dude. Definitely thinking of making him my main and Guy as a sub.
All you need to find is a character you like. Look up each character, try them out. If you start blowing up people (or noobs, either or) and you like playing that character, just keep playing him. Eventually, he’ll become your main.
When first looking for your main it’s more important to start off finding which character types you don’t play as much as finding the one you end up with. I can tell you I will never main charge, grapplers, and zoners not to say I won’t pick up any as secondaries. That eliminates ~half the cast. Which characters rely on setups, footsies, projectiles etc and trim down once more. This should lead you with a handful left and then have fun at it playing each one. And just when you think you’v found your main, you may end up realizing that may not suit your playstyle at all and you get to repeat the whole process all over again. :DDon’t worry though the info you gathered while playing him/her still transfers over so it’s not a waste at all and will develop your new main with skills you may not have gathered if you started off and chose him/her in the beginning.
I’d dare say that any time you play is time not wasted.
I wanted to play a female. You’ll be looking at your character all the time, so might as well pick one that’s appealing right?
-Juri, Chun, CViper, Cammy, Ibuki, Makoto, Sakura, Rose
Didn’t pick Juri, because I wanted a character I could play on pad. Didn’t pick Chun, because I hate playing charge characters. Didn’t pick Makoto because she was F tier at the time (though I may consider alt-ing her in AE 2012). Didn’t pick Rose because she hits like paper, and she didn’t have high execution requirements (1f links and etc.).
-CViper, Cammy, Ibuki, Sakura
CViper was too intimidating at first because my execution was terribad (Ryu main in vanilla). Cammy and Sakura are alts of mine. Decided to go with Ibuki because she was a ninja and therefore, the coolest.
Method Used to be to check out the characters that arent the most popular and see what potential they had…(used to main Rose is vanilla and Super. Played Luigi and Yoshi in Smash)…Then i realized that most of the time people dont mess with those characters because they suck. 
Now I just choose who “Feels good”. The only other character that was considered beastly I ever decided to play in a current competitive game was Baiken in GG. I suck at choosing characters. -_-
this might sound funny but i dont have a main i just have a list of characters i like to play soo it starts with ken then evil ryu then ibuki then chun then ibuki then yang then cammy then dan then geif when i feel happy xD then dan again when i wanna be a taunting jackass