Dilettantism vs. Dedication: What is more impressive?

As the topic says, I'm curious as to what people here appreciate more: People who devote themselves to a certain character, learn it like the back of their hand and fight through even very hard matchups with their chosen character, or people who master a plethora of characters to an impressive level and use that variety of roster to demolish a diverse opposition.

 

If they "master a plethora", then they're hardly dilettantes, are they?

I personally play around 6-7 people in this so far, but certainly not to counter-pick random online matches. This is VF, not SF.

 

Im a specialist. l want to have the strongest jacky that looks unique. To me when you try to master too many characters you'll find its hard to master even 1 completely. Your skills becomes divided.

 

Yea, dilettante isn't the proper term in this instance.

I think when you take the time to learn a variety of characters its helps you defend against them better. Though, a specialist I suppose would know what to look for and how to counter as well. I can't say I respect a character loyalist more than someone else.

 

I voted for 'Dilettante' based on the OP definition of the term. I think it takes more dedication to the game to make the effort of learning multiple characters to a 'pretty good' degree than it does to be almost perfect with one character at the expense of being ignorant of the rest of the cast.

I would say it's more useful to know the options/strings/set-ups of most of the characters, and be able to perform the 'bog-standard' combos from their launchers, than it is to know every tiny subtle nuance, stance-specific, character specific, wall-hit on that third punch in the string = an extra one frame advantage etc thing there is.

If you can work the core of your character, get a decent amount of damage from your launchers, and can apply the strings and mix-ups as they're designed, I think being able to switch-up between characters will help you to keep in recognition with each character's strengths. For example, as a 'I pretty much only use Jacky' player, after a while, I can tend to focus too much on his weaker areas and start to feel like they're a bigger deal than they are, and start to blame my character (yes, even as Jacky) for my short-comings. It's only when I go back to messing with Eileen that I realise how many more issues she has, and how I take for granted things like Jacky's ability to fight at all ranges, his full-circular mid, and his pretty good damage across the board. I start to think 'man, Jacky's just so much better than she is', and when I switch back to him, I appreciate his strengths and feel more confident in working with his core gameplay rather than trying to find overly-complex solutions to problems over which I've been stewing for a while.

So, if someone can switch between a lot of characters, they'll have an even deeper insight into how each area of their character's gameplay fairs against their opponent. Find yourself using Eileen against Kage? You'll appreciate her higher combo damage and stronger mids, and you'll know to respect Kage's evasive properties and ranged attacks. Find yourself playing as Jeff against a Lion? You'll appreciate your massive damage compared to his shitty amounts, and you'll be wary of his lows.


And that brings me to what I think is the most important part: by being able to play as multiple characters, you'll have a better understanding of how to play against them. From a personal perspective, I really only know the in-depth game of Jacky, Eileen, and Kage. I play Jacky and Eileen, and I play against a lot of Kage (my two main and toughest opponents are Kage players). When I'm playing against those characters, I know exactly what's going on, frame by frame, and I'm never in a situation where I just have to go by what it 'feels' like when I guard an attack or when they go into a stance or whatever. But when I play against, well, most of the rest of the cast - Vanessa, Lei, Shun, Blaze... I'm just watching the animations of the attacks and trying to feel my way through the fight based on the levels of the attacks, if they have circular properties, how fast they are, how much block-stun there is, if there are follow-ups etc - I'm just trying to apply my knowledge of the game's basic mechanics because I have no knowledge of the character. If I was even at the level of 'fairly competent' with each cast member, such that I knew the focus of their core gameplay and what they're supposed to 'work in', then I'll be much less likely to fall for rudimentary frame-traps and standard flowchart nonsense.


Just my view on it.

 

Genzen all you really need to do is play there command list and set the execution box. Thats what l do. Just go through all there moves and see whats safe, punishable, (+) etc.

 

Only playing certain people means more because you focus on 1 area how you adapt to things with this handicap and still win is a great virtue. It is still better to know many or all the match up by playing many characters that makes the game easier for you considerably once you know all the match ups and played as everybody. Those that dominate regardless only using 1 character or a select group of characters shows how dedicated the person is deep down considering how limited they are focusing on the move list of specific characters and how they adjust to the rest of the cast. Do they know anything specifics about the rest of the cast no and it will bite them in the ass alot but the specialist will always find a way to make it work anyway and win most of the time.

That is why you have to admire people who stay with 1 character or certain characters even if they despise how limited their characters are but they know they can do well and dominate just the same.

 

A true specialist knows all the matchups hence they know how to defend against all the other characters in the cast. A lot of times that means you end up learning the other characters, but you may not be able to execute those same types of moves if you were to use the character yourself. I think people are thinking that being a specialist means you're ignorant of how the other characters play. That is far for correct. Going really deep into one character means that you know how to counter everything the cast can throw at you.

If you have two players of equal skill, the specialist will almost always win against the person who spread themselves across the cast. Sure I can use other characters in the game and win, but I only study one character's matchup.

 

Fuck all that, Im just a player. Fuck the titles

 

Its a good thing to learn your character through and through, but you won't know how to best play against other characters unless you play them as well.

 

Well, there is of course the old fashioned option of playing against that other character played by different players a lot. That's just pretty hard in VF with the scene being so small an all.

Don't really know why I'd respect a singe character player more than a multi-character player. If you're able to push multiple characters to high level then obviously that's impressive but so is pushing a single character to a high level. I think the really impressive part is keeping up there, honing those skills and keeping on playing and learning, one character or more.