"Who is your main"

[Dark Geist]

I don't know if I put this in the right forum, if not I appologize.

After being gone from fighting games for about 8 years some things seem really weird and foreign to me.  The whole "who is your main" or "i only play XX game cus I main it" confuses me.

I never thought that I would only play 1 or 2 characters and thats it.  I would always try most of them out...of course I would have my favorites but I need to switch it up. Playing only one character is boring.   Plus, actually playing all the characters really lets you know what to expect fighting them...and build strats against them.

Also "maining" a game..I could not do that, I would play some more then others, but variety is a spice of life!  Before I quit, I played SF3:3s mostly, but would play/tourney CvS2, MvC2...and play the hell out of Garou, SamSho 2/4, whichever KOF was good at the time SvC:Chaos.

Maybe I'm just weird thinkin this way.

[THE ANSWER]

I think this is more of a general conversation, hope you don't mind me moving it over here.

[Shinra Shiranui]

People main characters because they want to have a fixed focus on a character to learn them better and faster. Also because they simply just like the character or feel that a certain character fits there play style like a person who prefers "zoneing" would feel comfortable with Duo Lon or a person who feels better with a "rushdown" character would look towards kyo or K. As for maining a game, it's hard to get better if your constantly switching fighting games that have two completely different game mechanics so it's better sticking to one

[Lygophilia]

I maybe of the minority, but I do prefer characters that have 2 or more type of styles to change from, like Xiao Lon, Shion, Jhun Hoon, and Orochi transformations. Characters like that offers more to me. That never stopped me from trying to learn the rest of characters from a few other fighting games.

[Dark Geist]

I guess I never really had problems with this.  I mean, I would use a character for a couple days then switch to another, etc.   With games I spent alot of time with I would, of course, have my favorites to play/prefer but I wouldn't only just play 1 or 2 characters.  I also never had a hard time game hopping....I would play 3s for a couple hours and hop on over to MvC2 for a couple, then bounce over to SamSho 4, and then to CvS2.  For me it was just a different frame of mind when sitting at each game.

It could also be when I was younger I spent WAY too much time at the arcade...everyday after work and all weekend long....I miss those days lol.

[Aenthin]

Talking about KoF XIII, I main Ash. That's it. xD

In reality, I just pick whenever I want to use that day and see if I can go far with them. I would normally pick Kim, Ryo and Andy for team members but I've been trying out a few other characters as well. Duolon, for example, has interested me even though he's hard to use. On the other hand, Hwa's normals are making me feel awkward. The only reason why I pick him is because I want to see him crazy-drunk. xD

Characters that attract me most of the time though are those with good normals and mixups. Someone with a command overhead, throw or confusing-looking attack would do well for me. It also helps if the character isn't insanely popular as I have a tendency to use overlooked characters. I guess this is true for any game as well.

Ash though is a special case. I just want to learn how to play him properly. I just have a hard time adjusting since most attacks and attack properties I like to use and abuse in previous games are gone now (his jump C, Messidor, Vendemiaire, etc...) but I do like to learn a few new tricks for him and improve my pressure game.

Also, sticking to a single game? Single to a few games work for me but I usually focus on one game at a time if it still interests me. Sometimes though, I feel the need to use a character who is not in the game I'm currently playing so whenever I can, I'd play a different game with said character. This is actually effective in order for me to play different versions of KoF, for example. I know I'd play CVS2 if it would mean satisfying my urge to play Kyosuke and Hibiki.