Add nu V13, the robot chick, to a my favorite characters list!
v13 (or Nu as the announcer says) in BlazBlue is awesome. Add another name to the top tier characters I play
Anyone who plays fighting games with me knows that I'm quite the tier whore (someone who chooses, learns and plays characters based on how high they're rated or how much better they are in relation to the other characters in the game and not how aesthetically cool he/she/it looks; someone who typcally wants to play the best characters in the game because of the advantages that come along with doing so.)
Anytime I pick up a new fighting game and learn it, one of the most immediate things I ask is "So who's top tier?" Most of my friends moan and groan and bitch about this. They usually counter with, "Goddamnit why can't you just play the fucking game...play someone that's appealing to you." Then I counter with, "Well...characters who are top tier appeal to me :D"; Oftentimes my inquiries go unanswered. This is when I go on forums, lurk, find the answer to my question, find the reasons and strategies as to why said character is top tier, watch videos of these strategies in action, and finally do my best to both learn and imitate these strategies. Btw this oftentimes compounds with the fact that I'm a tourneyfag - another topic that my friends often react to with much consternation. (This is for a different discussion altogether though...)
Now I know this might sound shallow. My friends and other players online like to argue about this. The most common arguments are literally - 1) "All of these character's have their own charm. Why does it matter if he/she/it isn't as good as so and so, pick someone cool!" 2) "Why does it matter that so and so is low tier?! Why can't you just give so and so a chance and just learn to get good with him/her/it?! Besides, it's more rewarding and fun that way!" 3) "You fucking tier whore, so all you ever do is pick the best fucking character in the game and exploit every advantage you have; you're not playing for fun, all you care about is winning! Besides, all you're doing is picking the I win character!" oh and my favorite 4) "Tiers don't exist nub!"
So yes, I'm quite guilty of picking the top dogs in every fighting game I play, yes you might have a low opinion of me regarding fighting games now but do let me explain. It's true, I like picking top tier characters becuase I like to win. Top tier characters are top tier because they possess advantages that lower tier character's simply don't; that's the nature of the beast. Is that saying that top tier are better than lower tier characters? Gameplay wise, fuck yes! This is fact, not opinion. Again, that's why they're fucking top tier. Now, are they more fun to play than lower tier characters due to how it's oftentimes easier to win with top tier than lower tier? That's debateable and is specific to each fighting game - I am not nor have ever disputed that. But it is true that it's easier to win with the top tier. This is why I pick them. Now, again, you might be thinking...well damn so he's admitting to only caring about winning. In some sense yes. And now you might say, damn that's pretty shallow, this is where I draw the line and say fuck you! Let me illustrate with a few anologies:
Analogy 1 - When you want to get into a long term relationship with a person, what is it that you look for? Are the only things you look for physical appearances? Do you only care that someone is hot or cool looking? Or do you look for other qualities? Like how adept a person is, how intelligent that person is, how well you mesh with that person, all the subtle hidden qualities that make a person great. I oftentimes ask my friends, well why do you pick so and so...a lot times they come back saying, well so and so looked cool, or he has an awesome looking move, or well "He's the manliest character in the game!" Isn't this the definition of shallow? Do you see what I'm getting at? I'm not arguing that a lot of the popular characters in fighting games look cool, and I'm not arguing that these are valid reasons as to why you pick a character. If that's why you want to play someone then by all means do so. But when it comes to character selection for ME, it's much more than that. I look at why so and so is top tier - because of all the advantageous subtle strategies and abilities that a character possesses; I could give a flying fuck as to how the character looks (Zangief is a fucking 7'0 russian dude in a speedo for fucks sake!...though he is pretty manly.) Do you see what I'm getting at?
Anology 2: Not done yet >;D To me, the character selection screen is like going to race track, and having a choice between a BMW, an Aston Martin, a Porche, a Nissan Skyline, a Ferrari, a Lambourghini, a NASCAR car, and a Formula Car. All of these choices are free, and they're all going to race each other. Now, you know as well as I do, that every fucking weaboo is gonna wanna choose the Skyline, every Euro trash is gonna want the AM, the Ferrari, or Lambo, and most every hick is gonna want that NASCAR. Well I want the fucking F1 car because allthough it looks like a fucking gokart, damnit it simply performs better than any of the others and outperforms the others on ANY racetrack. Again this is what I'm getting at! I'm not picking somehting because all these weaboos think something's cool...none of that shit matters to me! Give me the car that's got the highest chance of winning the race. Though I am in no way advocating against picking that skyline; it's a wonderful car, and I'm sure it has a lot of charm, and that it's really fun to drive.
Now, some facts that I want to set straight - 1) I have never only picked the absolute best character in a fighting game. I do not play Steve Fox in Tekken 5, I do not play Hayabusa in DoA, I do not play Hilde in Soul Calibur (too damn complicated), and I do not play fucking Sagat in SF4 (damnit he handles like a fucking tank!); the only "best characters" I play are Metaknight in Smash and v13 in BlazBlue. Again, several subtle things contribute to my overally choice of a character to main. As mentioned before, how well a character meshes with me is my second biggest deciding factor. (Btw Nu handles a lot like that F1 car...like a dream but if you crash, you're probably gonna die...)
Well so that's all I have to ramble about. Just got home from playing some friends in BlazBlue...got home Jim went to bed, wasn't particularly sleep myself since I took a nap earlier, and decided to ramble and have a few beers...
Anyways, feel free to leave your thoughts and comments. And if I seem elitist, if that's how you define elitism...then so be it.
tl:dr version: I'm a tier whore for good reasons and I'm not ashamed about it (actually quite proud). Add Nu v13 to the list of fighting game characters I'm in love with. If I mispelt some shit, my grammar is bad, or if you're just plain wondering why I'm rambling about this, I had a few beers, cut me some slack, I'm really buzzed.
Anyone who plays fighting games with me knows that I'm quite the tier whore (someone who chooses, learns and plays characters based on how high they're rated or how much better they are in relation to the other characters in the game and not how aesthetically cool he/she/it looks; someone who typcally wants to play the best characters in the game because of the advantages that come along with doing so.)
Anytime I pick up a new fighting game and learn it, one of the most immediate things I ask is "So who's top tier?" Most of my friends moan and groan and bitch about this. They usually counter with, "Goddamnit why can't you just play the fucking game...play someone that's appealing to you." Then I counter with, "Well...characters who are top tier appeal to me :D"; Oftentimes my inquiries go unanswered. This is when I go on forums, lurk, find the answer to my question, find the reasons and strategies as to why said character is top tier, watch videos of these strategies in action, and finally do my best to both learn and imitate these strategies. Btw this oftentimes compounds with the fact that I'm a tourneyfag - another topic that my friends often react to with much consternation. (This is for a different discussion altogether though...)
Now I know this might sound shallow. My friends and other players online like to argue about this. The most common arguments are literally - 1) "All of these character's have their own charm. Why does it matter if he/she/it isn't as good as so and so, pick someone cool!" 2) "Why does it matter that so and so is low tier?! Why can't you just give so and so a chance and just learn to get good with him/her/it?! Besides, it's more rewarding and fun that way!" 3) "You fucking tier whore, so all you ever do is pick the best fucking character in the game and exploit every advantage you have; you're not playing for fun, all you care about is winning! Besides, all you're doing is picking the I win character!" oh and my favorite 4) "Tiers don't exist nub!"
So yes, I'm quite guilty of picking the top dogs in every fighting game I play, yes you might have a low opinion of me regarding fighting games now but do let me explain. It's true, I like picking top tier characters becuase I like to win. Top tier characters are top tier because they possess advantages that lower tier character's simply don't; that's the nature of the beast. Is that saying that top tier are better than lower tier characters? Gameplay wise, fuck yes! This is fact, not opinion. Again, that's why they're fucking top tier. Now, are they more fun to play than lower tier characters due to how it's oftentimes easier to win with top tier than lower tier? That's debateable and is specific to each fighting game - I am not nor have ever disputed that. But it is true that it's easier to win with the top tier. This is why I pick them. Now, again, you might be thinking...well damn so he's admitting to only caring about winning. In some sense yes. And now you might say, damn that's pretty shallow, this is where I draw the line and say fuck you! Let me illustrate with a few anologies:
Analogy 1 - When you want to get into a long term relationship with a person, what is it that you look for? Are the only things you look for physical appearances? Do you only care that someone is hot or cool looking? Or do you look for other qualities? Like how adept a person is, how intelligent that person is, how well you mesh with that person, all the subtle hidden qualities that make a person great. I oftentimes ask my friends, well why do you pick so and so...a lot times they come back saying, well so and so looked cool, or he has an awesome looking move, or well "He's the manliest character in the game!" Isn't this the definition of shallow? Do you see what I'm getting at? I'm not arguing that a lot of the popular characters in fighting games look cool, and I'm not arguing that these are valid reasons as to why you pick a character. If that's why you want to play someone then by all means do so. But when it comes to character selection for ME, it's much more than that. I look at why so and so is top tier - because of all the advantageous subtle strategies and abilities that a character possesses; I could give a flying fuck as to how the character looks (Zangief is a fucking 7'0 russian dude in a speedo for fucks sake!...though he is pretty manly.) Do you see what I'm getting at?
Anology 2: Not done yet >;D To me, the character selection screen is like going to race track, and having a choice between a BMW, an Aston Martin, a Porche, a Nissan Skyline, a Ferrari, a Lambourghini, a NASCAR car, and a Formula Car. All of these choices are free, and they're all going to race each other. Now, you know as well as I do, that every fucking weaboo is gonna wanna choose the Skyline, every Euro trash is gonna want the AM, the Ferrari, or Lambo, and most every hick is gonna want that NASCAR. Well I want the fucking F1 car because allthough it looks like a fucking gokart, damnit it simply performs better than any of the others and outperforms the others on ANY racetrack. Again this is what I'm getting at! I'm not picking somehting because all these weaboos think something's cool...none of that shit matters to me! Give me the car that's got the highest chance of winning the race. Though I am in no way advocating against picking that skyline; it's a wonderful car, and I'm sure it has a lot of charm, and that it's really fun to drive.
Now, some facts that I want to set straight - 1) I have never only picked the absolute best character in a fighting game. I do not play Steve Fox in Tekken 5, I do not play Hayabusa in DoA, I do not play Hilde in Soul Calibur (too damn complicated), and I do not play fucking Sagat in SF4 (damnit he handles like a fucking tank!); the only "best characters" I play are Metaknight in Smash and v13 in BlazBlue. Again, several subtle things contribute to my overally choice of a character to main. As mentioned before, how well a character meshes with me is my second biggest deciding factor. (Btw Nu handles a lot like that F1 car...like a dream but if you crash, you're probably gonna die...)
Well so that's all I have to ramble about. Just got home from playing some friends in BlazBlue...got home Jim went to bed, wasn't particularly sleep myself since I took a nap earlier, and decided to ramble and have a few beers...
Anyways, feel free to leave your thoughts and comments. And if I seem elitist, if that's how you define elitism...then so be it.
tl:dr version: I'm a tier whore for good reasons and I'm not ashamed about it (actually quite proud). Add Nu v13 to the list of fighting game characters I'm in love with. If I mispelt some shit, my grammar is bad, or if you're just plain wondering why I'm rambling about this, I had a few beers, cut me some slack, I'm really buzzed.