Why does EVERYTHING have tiers?

[The Memory of Justice]

Byakko Yasutsuki

Well when it comes to card games it is my understanding that the only reason any particular card is considered "top tier" it's because it has a gimmick associated with it that, when used in conjunction with other complimentary cards, makes it powerful thus making a decent deck.

Also your example is a bit flawed because from my cursory understanding of Tabletop card games, every fresh influx of new games brings with it either alterations and new combinations of effects or changes in rules entirely. Thus what is "Top Tier" moment can be utterly useless the next. One such thing I know of is the mass influx of "infect" cards in magic. They inflict a poison effect and the only card in the whole game that removes this status is apparently banned in official matches. The reasoning behind this eludes me, which is part of why I don't actually play card games myself, but I digress...

Damn never thought about it in that way. Still I take a little time and can come up with a decent deck for any card game. It doesn't win 100% of the time but I don't always have $100+ to throw around for cards.

[Byakko Yasutsuki]

Lasting Sanity

Damn never thought about it in that way. Still I take a little time and can come up with a decent deck for any card game. It doesn't win 100% of the time but I don't always have $100+ to throw around for cards.

That's another thing. A few friends were recently lamenting the downward spiral in MTG, and one of them explained the fact that he very rarely buys new cards, he instead rebuilds decks from his existing ones taking advantage of rules changes.

[The Memory of Justice]

Byakko Yasutsuki

Lasting Sanity

Damn never thought about it in that way. Still I take a little time and can come up with a decent deck for any card game. It doesn't win 100% of the time but I don't always have $100+ to throw around for cards.

That's another thing. A few friends were recently lamenting the downward spiral in MTG, and one of them explained the fact that he very rarely buys new cards, he instead rebuilds decks from his existing ones taking advantage of rules changes.

Seems like a smart thing to do. He will have top tier deck in no time it seems. Then his deck will be copied.

[Preston886]

Concerning card games I always made a deck that suited my style.

In Pokemon a rolled a Water/Psychic deck. It was meant for trolling and chip damage. I had a few heavy hitters like Dark Blastoise and Rocket's Mewtwo, but that was about it. Of course this deck became illegal once the new series ran, which I never understood why.

In Yu-Gi-Oh! I rolled a Dark/Earth deck consisting of warriors mostly. Sure I had fiends, dragons and others, but it was a deck made of powerhouses. My most powerful card was the Reaper on the Nightmare, simply because I could attack your life points directly and you couldn't kill it on the field with a magic card.

In fighting games I stick to characters who I'm comfortable using. I don't care if they're mid tier, I'll beat your top tier characters with him because spent your time selecting them and not learning them.

The worst fighting game community used to be the Smash Bros. Because their tiers were based on the CPU fighting each other. That made no sense. You let the CPU in a series of random events decide who's better? Where's the logic in THAT?!

Even Pokemon has fallen victim to tiers. It's like types don't even matter, so long as you have 6 Pokemon that do what everyone else has. When Heart Gold came out I constructed my dream team, was told they were crap and told the guy to battle me to prove it. 3/3 matches later I proved my point, that even though his team had better stats that type made the difference.

I've even seen people making tiers for ME3 multiplayer!

This whole tier thing, has gotten out of hand these days.

[The Memory of Justice]

Preston886

Concerning card games I always made a deck that suited my style.

In Pokemon a rolled a Water/Psychic deck. It was meant for trolling and chip damage. I had a few heavy hitters like Dark Blastoise and Rocket's Mewtwo, but that was about it. Of course this deck became illegal once the new series ran, which I never understood why.

In Yu-Gi-Oh! I rolled a Dark/Earth deck consisting of warriors mostly. Sure I had fiends, dragons and others, but it was a deck made of powerhouses. My most powerful card was the Reaper on the Nightmare, simply because I could attack your life points directly and you couldn't kill it on the field with a magic card.

In fighting games I stick to characters who I'm comfortable using. I don't care if they're mid tier, I'll beat your top tier characters with him because spent your time selecting them and not learning them.

The worst fighting game community used to be the Smash Bros. Because their tiers were based on the CPU fighting each other. That made no sense. You let the CPU in a series of random events decide who's better? Where's the logic in THAT?!

Even Pokemon has fallen victim to tiers. It's like types don't even matter, so long as you have 6 Pokemon that do what everyone else has. When Heart Gold came out I constructed my dream team, was told they were crap and told the guy to battle me to prove it. 3/3 matches later I proved my point, that even though his team had better stats that type made the difference.

I've even seen people making tiers for ME3 multiplayer!

This whole tier thing, has gotten out of hand these days.

I really don't understand what people even care about tiers. It is really quit annoying and repetitive. Like in yugioh I like having a different fight every duel, not the same deck 4 or 8 times. Now that I have gotten better it is almost no challenge when I take on a "top tier" deck. Same for fighting games. Same for everything! It is just like whatever I will still win as I did last time and only luck will save you, but it gets old and boring! God damn I want a fight! I don't always win there are times I do lose but god damn if I lose or win the other guy is never happy. If I win he "cries". If I lose he just leaves, no hand shake no good battle no nothing just leaves as if it didn't matter. And the match normally is VERY close.

[sk8rdude603]

so they move

[Solblade44]

Why does everything have tiers? Because usually within whatever game you're playing, whether its a fighting game, card game, whatever, there's stuff that would rank higher because it does its job better than other characters/cards. The problem with tiers isn't that people organize characters/cards in the game, its when people act like tiers are fact i.e. "Just because its at the top of the tier list, it must be better than everything else below it and nothing can change that". However:

1) Tiers aren't absolute. They change whenever new additions or changes are made to the game, so something that's top tier now can be knocked to the bottom of the pile when something new comes along and does the same job but better.

2) Tiers assume that two players of equal skill are playing the game. If one picks high and the other picks low, the person with the higher tier character/deck/whatever has a better chance of winning if they put up the effort.

You guys probably had that figured out, this is just a summary.

[smashbrolink]

Because people in competitive scenes want to know what will give them the biggest edge.
Some do it just to be professional, others do it because they're too weak-willed to handle losing gracefully, etc etc etc, but the main point is that everyone in a competitive scene likes having an advantage, to pave their path clearly and make things as easy as possible for them.
That's where tiers come in. When they're done well and player capability doesn't count for more than the specific advantages of the tier objects in question.

[NightmareX72]

When it comes to fighting games and such, I use what I want. I usually couldn't care less if the character I like it top tier or not, as long as I get to use a character I like and have fun doing it. In fact, now that I think about it, the only characters I like using that are top tier are Amy from Soul Calibur IV and Talim from Soul Calibur II. A majority of my favorite characters are usually B to lower tier (Zelda characters in the Smash Bros. series as an example).

[Virgil_Ashwood]

Lasting Sanity

I mean can't people come up with stuff on their own?

When I see a top tier for a card game or something it is always a list of cards and not many people try and make the deck unique. A long with anything that is top tier, no one tries to change it. Are people just to lazy? Or are they to scared to lose they don't want to change it?

Son, let me tell you a story.
I was once a yugioh player (still am technically, I didn't lose my cards or forget the rules). I built me a dragon deck because I loved dragons. I toiled endlessly over it and discovered I could have the most fun with a red eyes deck using various revive effects. Little did I know, this deck was a meta deck. I made it all on my own but it was already a popular, and effective, deck online.

Sometimes people just know what's a good idea and what works, you can't deny that a completely unfair strategy is an effective one, like who's best at juggling enemies in tekken or characters with the highest attack priority in super smash bros.

[Treklink256]

Everything has tiers because tiers exist in everything.

^also to add to what Solblade44 said above, tiers assume that all players involved are not only of equal level of skill, but of the highest level of skill. If your scrub Ganny can beat your brother's scrub Fox consistently, that doesn't change Fox and Ganny's spot on the tier list if the same outcome doesn't occur at peak metagame.

[Bryan the Buddhist]

It depends on what kind of game/etc. you're talking about. In fighting games, a bottom tier character can beat a top tier character.

In card games, any deck used properly has the capability to win, as long as it has some kind of counter to the OP combos or whatnot.

In MMOs, top tier gear just makes sense. It gives you a reason to continue playing and something to aspire to.

My friend.