If anything, turtling requires significantly less thought and creativity than great offensive play.
What about turtling against great offensive play?
Depends on the fighter. Most of the time I’ve very passive. I think I have to be since I use Sagat. Sagats slow as heck IMO. His literal turning around (to face opponent) time is a second it seems. I tend to sit back and wait on you.
definitely, turtle. i love to sit back and let my oppenents make the mistakes. though i will say against higher skilled opponents this playstyle is hard to pull off. id say a good 75% of my style is sitting back baiting and trying to fake them out, while the other 25%is throwing and wakeup mind games. id have to say that the 25% is where my wins come from though, idk what youd call me. “counter-turtler/mind games” i play dan gouken and fuerte only on sf4
Less thought and creativity? Rushdown doesn’t take a lot of thought either. Run at someone with a canned a mount of block strings? You call that creative? Most people who “rushdown” do exactly that. Just dash in an start attacking. Most people who play rushdown play in a very linear fashion. Not sure how linear=creativity or thought.
Turtling in contast is not linear. to even be a remotely decent turtle, you have to be mindful of your opponents attack, their position, their angle of attack, and proper counter pokes and punish. Also turtling relies on you punishing someone for even moving slightly.
Turtling takes far more thought then just running up and attacking.
Now I’m not saying that all rushdown is linear. Because there are some rushdown players who are very dynamic. But let’s be honest with ourselves. Most people rushdown because they have no real set strategy. And they feel that pressing buttons will help them win. Or the rushdown because they’re impatient.
Turtling requires patience, precision, timing, and anticpation
Rusdown requires mashing.
That’s all
I’ll have to respectfully disagree with both of you, at least partially.
Someone can play any style with or without much thought or skill, but to play either the turtle or the rushdown well takes a bit of skill. Call it skill, call it being mindful, call it chicken soup. Whatever you call it, playing a fighting game well against skilled players requires attention, adaptation, reaction, execution. You can’t simply walk or dash or jump linearly (I read that as do the same old stuff every time) because eventually opponents may adapt and punish. In contrast, there are ways a rushdown can adapt (learn more patience, for instance) to deal with a turtle.
I will say that in my opinion, turtles have to rely more on precise execution, because they wait for opportunities instead of pummel. That is definitely not to say execution isn’t important in any other style, but I believe it is slightly more important for a turtle.
Some rushdown people mash, and some turtles block themselves to a slow death. A good rushdown player knows the consequences of his or her actions and what punishment may come if a mistake is made. Constantly calculating risks and weighing possible rewards.
I love playing against any type of player that can beat me, because it gives me an opportunity to learn. I’ve been learning a lot lately… lol
I think I am a follower of the Obsessed-One True Style.
I like to stay in the neutral area of a fight, where I can either retreat or advance, and thread the needle so to speak when either way goes to my advantage, at the same time countering mistakes.
My attacks are known to be predictable however, and I think that is how I usually lose my fights. I always go for 2-3 high damage techniques or moves into throws. I have to admit to, maybe in my older age that my offense has lost a lot of improvisation. I can still go 60/40 online though, schooling some shoryu spammers etc.
You can turtle in a linear way just like you can rushdown in a linear way. Both require execution, both require spacing, and both require seeing certain openings. One needs more patience while the other needs slight more unpredictability and maybe some other minor stuff, but it isn’t like one is far beyond one of the other in terms of what takes more “skill”.
I would like to be a rush style, but I am more like a a defensive minded person that is just right outside of the hitbox instead of the other side of the screen throwing fireballs. I approach a good amount, but usually it is when I think I have some kind of advantage.
Fixed your quote for you 
But on a serious note, I used to be entirely rush down, the the point of almost suicidally attacking. Playing SFIV has made me up my defensive game, though I’m still mostly offense, I do so more carefully by picking my time and place then going balls to the wall offense till I lose the advantage.
Not saying I’m very good at rushdown mind you, but my goal is usually to push them into a block string and keep them on the defensive by mixing up my highs, lows and overheads and throws. I suppose thats common sense, but I really try to make a conscious effot to do so. Also throwing out a block string of high attacks, mixing in a quick low to ultra, that kind of thing. The longer they’re on the ground trying to guess, the better it is for me imo.
Rufus ftw…
I am an offensive player. I just cannot wait for the other guy to come near, so I move. I even try to rush down with keep away characters.
rush down or turtling you have to be careful and plan every move accordingly. One is just more offensive based one is more defensive. (obvious facts are obvious, I know.)
One style isn’t exactly better than the other when break them down. It’s how the character(s)/game(s) you play work and you have to adjust to that style.
Although, sometimes it’s the players themselves that’re overly cautious/aggressive and if they play a character(s)/game(s) are opposite of that it can be kind of a bitch to get over that hump.
It depends if I have respect for you ,if you are a jobber I love to smash on them try for perfect get them out in ten seconds .If you’re descent I play the match loose but still looking to take advantage of any mistake .If there good we both play like asshole and don’t move
If you’re going to simplify it like that, you might as well say turtling requires nothing but sitting in one place and holding back on the stick.
Which is obviously false; both sides of the extreme deserve respect if they do the gameplay type correctly. I personally can’t subscribe to either extreme though, because I feel I do best having a balance between the two, especially considering the characters I play.
controlled randomness, with bits of rushdown when applicable, and turtling randomly to confuse opponent. soooo yeah, controlled randomness
Adaptive, never limit your options by sticking to a single play style. How you play should depend on the game, characters, situation, and players present.
I consider myself a tenacious turtle, but I also rush down sporadically, only if notice that my opponent is certainly inferior (or circumstancially dumb) or commits grav, highly exploitable mistakes during their rushdowns.
When I’m attacking I don’t show off with long-ass combos, mainly because i’m not skilled at it, and secondly because I prefer to zone, poke the shit out of impulsive players on wakeup and inflict big damage with short combos. In fact, even if the vast majority of my mains aren’t intrinsically idoneous for that strategy. I use them anyways. I don’t choose pragmatically. Personally, I follow a simple selection pattern: like his/her personality and appareance, practice a little bit, try to master him/her/use the character sporadically, merely for diversity’s sake.
SF3: Q, Hugo, Ibuki (I suck with her)
Guilty Gear: Slayer (I play him in a peculiar way, besides he’s a countering beast), Baiken, Faust, Potemkin, Millia (I suck and I started to suck even more when I radicalized my defensive idiosincracy)
Street Fighter Alpha series: Rose (Her zoning tools are godly), Karin, Birdie, Rolento, Sodom, Mika
SF IV: Rose, Bison, Zangief
Last Blade 2: Hibiki
P.D: I have poor english skills. Notify me if something sounds incohesive.