Why do so many people only play 1 character?

[The_Trust]

Everytime I go into ranked, 80% of the matches I play are against people who only play one character which has 1000-4000+ wins. Is there a reason why people don't want to switch/learn a new character?

[Dave]

I got a feeling he ran into one of the many 3K Wins Alisa/Xiaoyu players in green ranks

[The_Trust]

Originally posted by Ryoda:

It's not that easy to swap characters in tekken. Have to learn a whole new movelist, often completely different combos and a different game plan. Other games make it easier to switch trough characters.

Isn't that the goal of a new character? To learn a new movelist and sometimes a new gameplan?

[Xero_Daxter]

Then you’ll be a “Jack of all Trades”. You know the basics of every character but be a master of none.

It’s better to focus on 1 character, master him/her, know all of the weaknesses and strengths of that character, and use his/her full potential to win.

Kazuya is my Main but once you use his full character potential he is basically low S Tier.

“DORIYAAAA!!!!”

[JK]

Fighting game players have typically a "main", which they aim to master, and "alts" to play more casually if they have lot's of time on their hands.

After playing a lot of fighting games I can't bother to play many characters and rather just stick with one. Playing many characters tend to expand your knowledge but makes learning one particular character slower.

[PJ]

I only play the toppest of the top tier characters. I do a lot of research to find out which character is overall the statistically strongest character with the most tournament wins, and will be the easiest to play in the highest ranks. That's why I play Lili.

[Yallus]

If you find a character that really clicks, experiencing the game through that character is more fun than if you had just settled for one of the less compatible ones. This could be for many reasons - as we've seen from people like that Gigas player, people can get attached to a character's visual design and fighting style (and I mean how it looks, more than the actual frame data and such).

[Wolfchoker]

Maybe people just dont find anyone else they want to put time into, personally I did pick Josie at first because Lord Aris played her and I liked his style, but after a while I started trying Feng, I always liked him very much and wanted to learn how to play him, so now I'm equal rank with both, but if not for Feng I would never pick another character... And there is also the challenge of learning a new character, I would say the more you play one charachter the more difficult it is to try another. The muscle memory just makes it hella hard.

[Squerol]

Why pick other character if there is only perfect one?

[Tshask]

Originally posted by Yallus:

If you find a character that really clicks, experiencing the game through that character is more fun than if you had just settled for one of the less compatible ones. This could be for many reasons - as we've seen from people like that Gigas player, people can get attached to a character's visual design and fighting style (and I mean how it looks, more than the actual frame data and such).

Truth!

Originally posted by Dionis:

I would say the more you play one charachter the more difficult it is to try another. The muscle memory just makes it hella hard.

For me that's even true when switching games. I'm playing DOA and I automatically try to do some Tekken move in some situations. That's why I focus on playing only 1 fighting game.

[Suntorias]

Originally posted by The Trust:

Originally posted by Ryoda:

It's not that easy to swap characters in tekken. Have to learn a whole new movelist, often completely different combos and a different game plan. Other games make it easier to switch trough characters.

Isn't that the goal of a new character? To learn a new movelist and sometimes a new gameplan?

In competitive games with good depth and balance, characters have a high skill-ceiling(or often practically infinite) so anyone who tries to get better will keep to 1 character.

Playing at a level with 50 characters will give you no advantage over an opponent since you're fighting 1v1 anyway, and the opponent presumably plays against the other characters either way, so it won't make a reasonable difference who you use. On the other hand, the time and effort you spent at learning those other 49 characters would be better spent getting even better at the 1 you like the most.

This is why players usually look for a main, then stick with it, until maybe long after they find someone they might like more, as it's quite a commitment to get the new character up to level the higher level the first one was to begin with.

Tekken is a special case, since the general tools are pretty uniform among characters, with standard movement being so important, so you often see pros switching it up, but this is mostly unheard of in other fighting games. You know a pro is a Ryu player, or a Sol player, or a whatever, but you rarely(if ever) see them play other characters in tournaments.

[MW]

I play mostly Anna, Lars and M.Raven. I keep those three close to me, Anna is my main but the other two is very dear to me as well. I dont want to be good at every character. I play the characters I love.

[The_Trust]

Originally posted by Suntorias:

Originally posted by The Trust:

Isn't that the goal of a new character? To learn a new movelist and sometimes a new gameplan?

In competitive games with good depth and balance, characters have a high skill-ceiling(or often practically infinite) so anyone who tries to get better will keep to 1 character.

Playing at a level with 50 characters will give you no advantage over an opponent since you're fighting 1v1 anyway, and the opponent presumably plays against the other characters either way, so it won't make a reasonable difference who you use. On the other hand, the time and effort you spent at learning those other 49 characters would be better spent getting even better at the 1 you like the most.

This is why players usually look for a main, then stick with it, until maybe long after they find someone they might like more, as it's quite a commitment to get the new character up to level the higher level the first one was to begin with.

Tekken is a special case, since the general tools are pretty uniform among characters, with standard movement being so important, so you often see pros switching it up, but this is mostly unheard of in other fighting games. You know a pro is a Ryu player, or a Sol player, or a whatever, but you rarely(if ever) see them play other characters in tournaments.

So after reading most of these comments, i'm one of the rare people who play a handfull of character at a pretty decent level. Noice.

[Suntorias]

Originally posted by The Trust:

So after reading most of these comments, i'm one of the rare people who play a handfull of character at a pretty decent level. Noice.

It's not like someone can't play plenty of characters at a decent level, but at the same time it's true that you'd likely be way above your current level with your best character if you concentrated all the effort there.

It's all about priorities, there is no right or wrong answer for allocating effort unless someone's express goal is to be the best they can be. Then it's "concentrate on 1 character". The majority of fighting game players lean pretty hard towards that, so they usually stick to few characters only. Hell, sometimes the player doesn't even care about being as good as possible, just really wants to get better with that one character, because that's the one playstyle they really enjoy.

[Eternal Wanderer]

Originally posted by Dave:

I got a feeling he ran into one of the many 3K Wins Alisa/Xiaoyu players in green ranks

Could have run into my Gigas too. I am still masochistically enjoying the grind and I have already entered the realm of embarrasingly high play counts.

[strike478]

I find it noble to stick to 1 character.