Do you care about tiers??

[Durxom]

What I am about to talk about mostly has to do with fighting games, but the same can be applied to most multiplayer type games.

For most fighting games, after they have been out for such a time, a tier list is made for them. Said tier list usually matches up how each character fairs against one another, with the ones with the better matchups usually ending up at the top. And what usually follows is a flock of people carefully watching these lists and only choosing the top characters regardless of if they actually like them or not.

Now for the longest time, I usually never paid any attention to these things, but since I finally got into the main fighting game scene with Street Fighter 4, I always seem to find my way coming back to these lists for my character choice. For the main part, I want to choose a character that I like, but on the other hand, I don't really want to choose an "easy mode" character or widely used character, and be herded into the same grouping as everyone else.[sub][sub]Which is someone stopping me from going with Zangief in SF4 D=[/sub][/sub]

So the main question is, do you care or look at these lists at all when choosing a character?
Or for a more broad multiplayer question, do you go with the flow, and choose the most used weapons/character/etc, or break apart from the crowd and try and do something different?

 

[NeutralDrow]

I find them to be a curiosity, but since I don't do competitive play in any game, the lists themselves are pretty irrelevant to me.

I certainly pay attention to some of the things that go into tier lists, of course (character advantages and capabilities, and the like), generally stuff that doesn't relate to matchups. And I will take pride if I wind up using a "low tier" character.

Spoiler: Fear the drow!

 

[Asdalan08]

I use who I like the most, I can't stand cocky top-less brutes who just grunt and put on an impossibly deep voice. I'd never even heard of tiers for a long time playing Soul Calibur II, IV and SSB Brawl and Melee. I think you choose your favourite character that you have played long enough to know him inside out. Raphael (Soul Calibur) and Marth (Super Smash Brothers) for example.

 

[SalamanderJoe]

I usually find a 'comfy' character and stick with them. Jin or Leo in Tekken 6, Ragna in Blazblue and Sagat in SSF4. I'm aware Sagat is quite high because he's pretty powerful and has high health, but I'm not sure about Jin, Leo or Ragna.

I don't mind Tiers. It's what makes matches fun to watch. On Super Street Fighter 4 I watched two high rankers fight. One picked Sagat and the other chose Dan. The Sagat player was mocking the guy all through the intro for choosing Dan, and the Dan player perfectly anhialated Sagat in both rounds.

 

[zaiggs]

I like to stick to character whose moves I know how to do. Playing a new character is tough sometimes cause i'll get to a really imperative point and think "Oh crap! I don't know this characters special move!"

I do like it though when it ends up that I learned a character that is of a really low tier and I'm able to beat people. It's a little satisfying.

 

[s0p0g]

nah, that's just boring to me; i choose my characters based on their (fighting) style. so i may end up with a char taken fairly often, or with a char the top-players consider to be omfg lol u n00b!!!!1111oneoneeleventyone

after all, i play games to have fun, which is not the same as winning, actually, so why would i want to take char i don't like? ^^

 

[-Seraph-]

Tiers are largely irrelevant because they are entirely a meta game concept. They take into account the full potential of said character and leave out the other crucial factor of the game; the players own skill.

Tiers are a measurement of a characters ability if they were played by god himself and pitted against the opposition who so happens to also be god. And therein lies the problem, no one is god, everyone have flaws. A high tier character pr low tier character is only as good as the person who uses them. Sure high tier characters may perhaps be easier to use and have better performance, but someone highly skilled with even a low tier character can topple the opposition.

Tiers still hold some vital information regarding things like priority, damage, advantages, ect... But in the end, it boils down to how good the player is with that character.

A weapon is only as good as the one who wields it.

I go with whatever "feels" right for me. I've played as widely popular characters and the more average characters and have done fine. I play a wide selection of characters before I am able to find my Main or Subs. Sometimes I do have my mind made up on who I wanna use, but in the end it depends on how much i enjoy using them or how good I think I am with them.

 

[ChocoFace]

i can play low-tier characters for as long as the disadvantages are bearable.
Thankfully i like playing a diverse range of characters in any game, if given the choice.

A high tier character pr low tier character is only as good as the person who uses them. Sure high tier characters may perhaps be easier to use and have better performance, but someone highly skilled with even a low tier character can topple the opposition.

That applies for casual online play only. Tournaments aren't won with the lowest tier characters, ever. Not that i'm disagreeing with you about player skill being a huge factor, but tier lists are formed after thousands of matches between AI characters, so naturally you will have a much harder time beating someone with a low-tier character, as opposed to a god-tier.

 

[RobfromtheGulag]

In my experience there are two kinds of tier lists.

I. The debatable kind that people make because they feel every fighting game needs a tier list.
II. The lists that are blatantly obvious before anyone even makes them.

Stuff like Marth being the best in SSBM, everyone knew this so it's not like it's a revelation.

I like the listings, but in the former type I find them just too amorphous to really follow. Of course the first type is far better because you can actually play whoever you want without worrying about their tier.
The second is kind of nice in that you know who to look out for, and generally more counter-strategies get made for certain characters, but it ultimately results in a huge imbalance of played characters.

Either way, I like the dynamic tier lists create, as long as people can agree on them.

 

[-Seraph-]

That applies for casual online play only. Tournaments aren't won with the lowest tier characters, ever. Not that i'm disagreeing with you about player skill being a huge factor, but tier lists are formed after thousands of matches between AI characters, so naturally you will have a much harder time beating someone with a low-tier character, as opposed to a god-tier.

It's not just for casual play only though. The reason most tournaments tend to regress to a few common characters is because they tend to be the safer bet and these players used to be scrubs as well, and chances are they took up these higher tier characters and stuck with em too.

While watching an SF4 tourney a few days ago I remember seeing a few mid tier characters pound the shit out of high tier fighters because that player knew what the hell they were doing with that character.

It really doe boil down to player skill regardless of what competitive level you are playing at, just when there are high stakes people tend to play it safe ya know.

 

[ChocoFace]

That applies for casual online play only. Tournaments aren't won with the lowest tier characters, ever. Not that i'm disagreeing with you about player skill being a huge factor, but tier lists are formed after thousands of matches between AI characters, so naturally you will have a much harder time beating someone with a low-tier character, as opposed to a god-tier.

It's not just for casual play only though. The reason most tournaments tend to regress to a few common characters is because they tend to be the safer bet and these players used to be scrubs as well, and chances are they took up these higher tier characters and stuck with em too.

While watching an SF4 tourney a few days ago I remember seeing a few mid tier characters pound the shit out of high tier fighters because that player knew what the hell they were doing with that character.

It really doe boil down to player skill regardless of what competitive level you are playing at, just when there are high stakes people tend to play it safe ya know.

Actually, the difference between mid and high tier isn't big, only like 1 more win per 10 matches average. Again, im not arguing over player skill being a factor or not. You should also know that in high competitive play, there practically aren't any who choose a low-tier character and expect to win it all.

 

[water_bearer]

I only care about tiers if they actually seem to be true.
I only play SSF4 so I can't speak for other games, but it just seems to me that tier predictions in SSF4 are often overcome by player skills. Rating character A higher than character B doesn't take into account the possibility that the player playing character A may make more mistakes in a match than the player playing B. Tiers can't calculate the human factor.

SSF4 is probably one of the most competitive fighting games on the market right now, and when I search for tournament play, I always see a big variety of characters being used.

 

[Zyxx]

I'll occasionally glance at a tier list out of curiosity, usually after I've already decided on my play style for that game.
I'm against the idea of tiers in general, though, because I believe firmly - as others have stated - that any character can be a winner in the hands of the right player, and that people should be able to play as whichever character they want without ridicule.

I generally suck at fighting games no matter which character I choose (except Smash Bros., which for me isn't so much "fighting game" as it is "social drug") so from my POV it's an academic question...

 

[p3t3r]

well all the characters in brawl defiantly aren't balanced, i'm not saying you can't beat metaknight with ganon or anything but it is defiantly easier.

 

[Space Spoons]

I only care about them when other players start to bug me about it. I main Gen in SSFIV, for which I don't get complaints so much as I get pity, but Ryu is my secondary, and for that, I catch a lot of hell.

It's all pretty stupid, in my opinion. Tiers really only matter at the highest level of play because that's where the data is coming from. You can't choose Honda and be guaranteed a win just because he's top tier; it takes an extremely high level of skill and execution to play him to his fullest. In short, tiers mean nothing to average, everyday players like you and I.

Incidentally, I think you should know that Zangief is mid-tier at best. He's 15th down the list, at last check. If his tier positioning is the only thing keeping you from playing him, you're in the clear.

 

[Polaris19]

Don't really play fighting games so not really.

 

[Dexiro]

Well I usually just go with the character I like best. But generally I'll stay away from the overpowered and underpowered characters.

 

[Terry Diamantis]

I don't play in tournaments, so like most people here, they don't contain any useful information for me. I still like reading the in-depth details of why Ike is terrible and you're a terrible person for using him, but I don't base any of my gameplay decisions on the tier list itself.