How do you choose your fighting game characters?

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Usually style of play. With the exception of Thor I usually look for what looks fun and mentally stimulating (Fuerte/Guy). Or who looks cool (Strider/Guy)

I usually pick Low execution high damage characters. I don’t like to memorize lengthy combos so I rely on counters and resets mostly.

1: Speed Characters. I hate playing slow (PHAT) people.
2: Characters that I LOVE. It’s why I use Phoenix Wright

I dunno:
VS: zabel
JJBA: jotaro
XVS: wolvie, mags
Mvc2: mags, sent, doom, tony
Cvs2: bison, rolento, kyo
ST: ryu, rog
3S: ryu (denjin)
SF4: guy
MVC3: dante, mags, nova, thor, doom
Kof: clark, k, kim, gato

…Looking at it, maybe I am just a tier whore. I usually just play whoever feels right.

It depends if the character has a mix of Long and Short ranged attacks.

I usually pick arrogant characters or characters that show off a lot. I picked Ibuki if SF4 because she had a win quote about cake.

Characters that show off a lot? Well, that sounds like someone who likes Dan to me.

Yeah Dan is a lot of fun.

I like excellent damage output, and stylish combos from them.
UMvC3: Magneto, Dormammu, Wesker (The Villainous Ones)

SSF4AE: Only the 4 new ones…

SFXT: Ken x Raven, Rolento x Raven

MvC: War Machine, Strider

MvC2: Magneto, Doom, Psylocke

3S: Urien, Akuma, Ken, Remy

Generally,

Good normals with straight-forward hitboxes
Good AA (I fucking hate people jumping on me, seriously)
Not too flimsy feeling (this rules out most girls) and not too clunky feeling
Not a fan of stance changes or gimmicky stuff (oiling up)
No charge moves
Modest execution requirements

Generally drawn to the more straight-forward characters who need to make things work with fundamentals and not rely on the other player not being used to my gimmicky shit.

Yeah, I’m boring.