Why The Quick Beat The Sturdy

In competitive multiplayer games, there are a lot different options being available to players in these environments, be it fighting games, shooter games or what have you. The thing is, though, whenever I see competitive areas of various games, there seems to be a recurring trend.

Here's a breakdown of attributes on two random playable characters.

Now, from the above information, which character would you think that competitive players would choose? Of course, anyone who read the title already knows what the answer is. That’s right, it’s Albert Wesker!

What? I never told you which title gives you the answer?

Ok, the real answer is, in fact, ”Quick”.

But why? Why is the speed so important? It is not a racing game (most of the time), so why do these competitive players seem so focused on something that doesn’t directly increase the chance of players killing their enemies?

Well, if I was to make a theory (which is probably my sole job here at Amber Glass beyond giving the editors more material to re-word or rem out entirely) it’s because one can be “skilled” at using speed.

With your enhanced speed, you can more effectively chase enemies; you are better at dodging; you can quickly get to more advantageous positions and more. Essentially, speed is something that you can consider yourself as skilled at, as you have a lot of complex applications to it.

Strength and Defence uses……..how much skill exactly? How do you “skilfully” take damage from your enemies? How do you “skilfully” blast people with a Minigun?

In a competitive scene, you need as many sources to expand your skill as you can find, if the enemy can accurately pin-point your limitations (which will more be the case with Sturdy and the skill limitations on his Strength and Defence than with Quick) then they can better and more accurately plan their counter-action to you with minimal risk on their part. That's a bad thing because then you become useless, you lose “cred”, you lose the oh-so-important game tournament, people hate you and you don’t get the tournament winnings you needed to save the local arcade.

Wait, I think I mixed reality up with a movie I just watched... you get the picture.

But with all that said, do you think my theory is at all true? I want you, the readers of this glorious and prestigious blog, to tell me what you think about the situation. And I’d love to hear you guys give ways to help make Sturdy better. If you guys had the power, how can you make Strength and Defence more skill-indexed?

Greg Baxter
Amber Glass Broadcast