Hello. I am probably unlike most of the other people here.
Not counting Smash Bros., I am thoroughly not a fighting game player. The controls completely elude me, as is the concept of comboing. I tried playing
BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, then
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, but I failed to get a win rate of above 10%. I have signed up for and am part of the
Skullgirls Mobile beta, however. Hopefully, as a beginner-level player, my input will be of use.
I actually have never played the
Skullgirls base game. I backed the IndieGoGo campaign for DLC and was intending toget the game on my Xbox 360, but the 360 was rendered unplayableby the time the content actually came out. I did secure the soundtrack, however, and as I collect video game music, I wasn't too down regarding that.
As far as video games are concerned, my favorite franchises are Pokémon, Rhythm Heaven, WarioWare, Meteos (the falling blocks puzzle game, not the
League of Legends player), and Mario Kart. My favorite genres are 3-D platformers and kart racers. I also have a soft spot for the Sonic the Hedgehog series, as I have been with it from the start in 1991 with the 8-bit version of
Sonic the Hedgehog, and I've seen the franchise through its ups and downs.
I do not have much of a competitive drive, but I do play in competitions. I was previously a tournament player for the Pokémon Trading Card Game until it became too expensive for me to continue to pursue. During the 5th generation, it also became tougher for a Johnny player like myself to create decks I'm satisfied with. Generations III and IV had all sorts of weird cards to make weird decks, but they kind of dried up with the Black and White sets.
However, I am currently a competitive pinball player. When I compete, I fall squarely into the middle of the B Division, though because placing well in the PAPA (Professional and Amateur Pinball Association) and IFPA (International Flipper Pinball Association) Circuits requires travel around the country, and I do not have the time or money to do that, I can only compete locally, which kind of kills my ranking. Between when I got into pinball in 2012 and today, I have an encyclopedic knowledge of pinball and keep up with current releases.
I do not main. If a game has multiple playable characters, vehicles, civilizations, or whatever the equivalent is, and there is a Random option, I will select that 95% of the time or more. If it doesn't have one, I will either select all of the playable options as evenly as I can or pick whomever or whatever I don't see very often. This is probably a reason why I am so bad at traditional fighting games, but I don't really care. I find that I get bored easily if I play as the same thing for too long, and eventually, I get bored of the entire game. If I use the entire roster, however, I can continue to play the game for years and years.
Another of my interests is trivia. I hope I can expand the list of known references in
Skullgirls by identifying things others have not yet found. My specialties in trivia, besides pinball, are astronomy, American animation, silent-era cinema, flower identification, and anything related to
One Piece, but I do know at least a small amount on a very wide variety of topics. Because I write the
TV Tropes recaps for the 2012 version of Littlest Pet Shop, I also have an exhaustive, thorough knowledge of that show. (Part of the reason I did that in the first place was to make a detailed recap for a series that almost certainly would never have had one otherwise.)
Finally, I like to collect plushes. I have a few rare ones, including the complete Sugar Rush set from
Wreck-It Ralph, a shiny Glaceon from
Pokémon, Dr. Eggman (I didn't find a good one until 2015), and all of the major villains from
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic except Tirek and the Sirens (I currently have plushes of Nightmare Moon, Queen Chrysalis, Discord, King Sombra, Sunset Shimmer, and Starlight Glimmer).
And if anyone is wondering, my avatar character (currently) is Cleo de Nile from
Monster High. I took a photograph of the collectible figure specifically to use for this place, as comparisons with her and
Skullgirls' Eliza are obvious. (I don't really have much of an interest in
Monster High. I just really liked how these figures look. I have Cleo and Draculaura, and I don't really intend to get any more. Maybe Ghoulia Yelps.) I might eventually use this avatar on Anime News Network too (where I go by leafy sea dragon).
So yeah, there I go.
