Personality corresponds to player choice

[Holla]

The more new people I play against in smash, the more I think there are subconscious reasons that we pick the players we do and play the styles we do, does anyone have any type of proof behind this?

 

[ELRACj]

im guessing... no proof

 

[FalKoopa]

What exactly do you mean by 'subconscious reasons'? Reasons which can't be expressed by words?

 

[Dwanny]

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[Nixon Corral]

I mean, I think the answer is almost certainly "yes." There are definitely subconscious reasons. Something about playing the characters we play activates reward pathways in ways we can't entirely consciously rationalize.

As a thought exercise, I'll consider myself and a few of my mains. For Captain Falcon, I know I like Falcon for his speed, his hard-hitting moveset, his voice acting, and the fact that he's from F-Zero, one of my favorite series. For Luigi, I really like him mostly because he's from my favorite video game series and he's goofy. That's all there is to it. Recently, I've gained an interest in Puff because I really enjoy opportunistic play options in any game, and Rest is a perfect example (this applies to Luigi's FJP too).

So I can list all these reasons I like these characters, but that doesn't tell us why I like those things. The answer to that question is what I think is hidden away in the subconscious. No matter how far you try to explain the things you like, eventually you arrive at the conclusion that your brain is telling you that the subjective experience you're having with a stimulus is good and you should keep doing it, and the neural mechanism behind that is not conscious.

What exactly do you mean by 'subconscious reasons'? Reasons which can't be expressed by words?

Pretty sure he/she means this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subconscious

Which is to say, he/she is wondering if there are parts of the brain that derive utility from playing certain characters that we aren't fully tapped into or aware of. I think there are, as I explained above.

 

[JGR]

Of course there are. The subconscious is always at work and is at work in all areas of our lives.

 

[DunnoBro]

Most of our choices are effected by our subconscious, not sure why our main would be different.

 

[MarioFireRed]

Well I tend to gravitate towards characters who have tools to be rather versatile and appeal to nearly any situation.

Shulk's Monado Arts just clicked by my subconscious right then and there.

 

[JohnnyDelMidwest]

The more new people I play against in smash, the more I think there are subconscious reasons that we pick the players we do and play the styles we do, does anyone have any type of proof behind this?

no. I pick characters based on speed- I have poor motor skills and slow processing so slow characters that hit hard are the ones that I pick.

I picked DK as a main in 3ds because of his massive damage output and controllable speed.

 

[Xivii]

As Dwanny said, for me it's generally about the feel of the character. Some character styles are just more enjoyable to play as more than others. In the same way that we each enjoy different video games from each other or different hobbies entirely. In smash I've always tended to like floaty characters. It's just the way I play the game.

If we were to gain any insight with regards to personality, I wouldn't say there aren't many direct links you could make. I wouldn't say that any of the characters I choose to play as have any direct revelation about my personality. For example, I mained Jigglypuff in melee and brawl, but I never liked Jigglypuff as just a pokemon. I like the feel of Mario in P:M and Doc in melee, but I've never really been much a fan of Mario as a character (I usually pick Luigi in Mario Party and other characters in Mario Kart).

In most new fighting games, I generally go by who I think looks cool or the physical attractiveness until I find someone who I like the feel of.

Now we may be able to gauge something about a person's personality based on more subtle aspects such as (a) their criteria for picking a character and (b) the underlying aspects of the type of characters they tend to use.

Examples of criteria would be:

• Chooses character because they are a fan of the character
• Chooses a character because they like the feel of the character
• Chooses a character because of their physical qualities
• Chooses a character because of the character's persona
• Chooses a character because they are easy to use
• Chooses a character because they are powerful

Examples of character aspects would be:

• Floaty
• Speedy
• Sturdy
• Flexible

Ultimately, I would hypothesize that there is little to no correlation between character choosing and personality, but it would be interesting to see a survey done.

 

[Nixon Corral]

Ultimately, I would hypothesize that there is little to no correlation between character choosing and personality, but it would be interesting to see a survey done.

Personality is not the same thing as subconscious.

 

[LarsINTJ]

Any of our decisions can be justified ex post facto, it can't be automatically assumed that those same decisions are pre-determined by one's personal traits.

 

[Holder of the Heel]

Naturally. Rosalina mains are all assholes.

Kidding. Everything says something about who we are, albeit most likely in the smallest and most insignificant of ways, given what these decisions are predicated upon. Selecting characters in Smash Brothers is not special in this regard.

 

[Robertman2]

So... What does it mean if I pick ?

 

[JGR]

It means you have good taste.

 

[Nixon Corral]

It means you prefer playing as your waifu to playing as a character with the objective awesomeness of tipper hype.

 

[plasterbrain]

I'm not sure what's being asked here. Do you mean subconscious in the Freudian sense (marthmarthmarthmarth) or just as in the involuntary associations and preferences cumilated from our life experiences which influence decisions but which we can't articulate? Because I think you've basically got the prefontal cortex there and I'm pretty sure that's involved in most decisions, like picking Marth, to reach for a wild example.

 

[Xivii]

Personality is not the same thing as subconscious.

I was responding to the title of the thread.

However, that is not correct. Personality is primarily an aspect of the subconscious (a somewhat measurable aspect at that). This can be most shown by the affects of hypnosis on personality. Subconscious is a broad term that can underlie a great number of things. If we want to discuss there influences of subconscious factors on character choice, we will have to restrict the range of meaning provided by the term into something that can be measured: personality. What you mention in the third paragraph of #5 relates to this.

 

[Sucumbio]

Strange topic but funny enough i always took jago users to be casuals hardcore real players chose riptor. Cheap players chose orchid.

Or in tekken 3 button mashers went eddie gordo.

Oh right i remember why i avoided this thread. Cause my line of thinking wound up somewhere in the vicinity of i should stop now before i take infraction

 

[FirestormNeos]

So my reasons for maining ZSS are for pervy reasons?

Darn. I thought I was better then that. Curse you, Freud!

 

[JohnnyDelMidwest]

So my reasons for maining ZSS are for pervy reasons?

Darn. I thought I was better then that. Curse you, Freud!

This brings up a good point- This discussion is based on Freudian ideas. The thing is, Freud was generally wrong in what he suggested- The reason why we talk about him is that he was the first person to suggest some of these concepts, even though most were incorrect. However, the incorrect concepts inspired thinking that lead to the discovery of many facts about the human mind.

The idea of the unconscious is correct but I think that it's quite different than the way Freud proposed it to work. The ideas proposed in this thread seem to rely on the Freudian theory of the unconscious rather than the modern scientific knowledge of the unconscious.

 

[Sucumbio]

I picked marth because he's balanced, Japanese, and girly looking.

I main Kirby because he's cute, and reminds me of a fat Chinese man I once knew, named Sucumbio.

I second Ike because I love Fire Emblem for the GC and Wii.

I use Snake because I love MGS and he ruled Basic Brawl on Lagfi.

I use Meta Knight because he's easy to win with against CPUs.

I use Ganondorf because he's the ultimate evil badass and he was tappin' that Zelda in TP (at least in my world) and that's why she's all gothy cause his dark matter made her dark matter.

<.<'

 

[BaPr]

So my reasons for maining ZSS are for pervy reasons?

Darn. I thought I was better then that. Curse you, Freud!

Well, if we mained characters characters for those reasons, I'd be a bit worried why I chose to main Sonic.

 

[Xivii]

I'd be a bit worried why I chose to main Sonic.

Welcome to smashboards!

 

[FirestormNeos]

This brings up a good point- This discussion is based on Freudian ideas. The thing is, Freud was generally wrong in what he suggested- The reason why we talk about him is that he was the first person to suggest some of these concepts, even though most were incorrect. However, the incorrect concepts inspired thinking that lead to the discovery of many facts about the human mind.

The idea of the unconscious is correct but I think that it's quite different than the way Freud proposed it to work. The ideas proposed in this thread seem to rely on the Freudian theory of the unconscious rather than the modern scientific knowledge of the unconscious.

further explanation?