History Main / PlayerPreferredPattern

*** Being fair, the BR is the second-best weapon for most situations, and is often more versatile than the "best" one. The major exceptions are total point blank, where it loses to melee and AR, and agianst anything that's armored and isn't a hunter.

** Even in VideoGame/Halo4, where both the Battle Rifle and DMR are available, the DMR is by far the more used of the two, outperforming the Battle Rifle in terms of damage and range. With sniper weapons being rare, it seems people use the DMR whenever they want to do long-range combat. At least the Battle Rifle is more versatile in close quarters.

* ''LeagueOfLegends'' has a metagame based around a certain lane composition: duo bot (support and an Attack Damage carry), solo mid (Ability Power carry), solo top (most variable role), and one jungler to farm neutral creeps. In addition, certain champions are considered "acceptable" to play in each lane, with deviations often being regarded with scorn, whether or not the player is trolling.

*** Which brings up another point: Teamwork itself rarely ever falls under the PlayerPreferredPattern. Quite a large number of people generally focus on their own personal score and ''nothing else'', not even ''winning the game''. This is highly cultural, though -- it's almost never a problem in ''[[StarsiegeTribes Tribes]]'' games, for example, even on public servers, while in ''CallOfDuty'' this is pretty much guaranteed unless you go out of your way to set up a game with people who you know will actually act as a team.

* ''PAYDAYTheHeist'' has nearly everyone using the [[RevolversAreJustBetter Bronco .44]], the [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter Reinbeck, and the [[MoreDakka Mac-11]] since all 3 weapons are very powerful and cover both short and long distances. If a player has the Wolf Pack DLC, then expect to see a lot of appearances from the AK and the [[GrenadeLauncher GL40]].

* The ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' games let you level up in 3 different ways: [[strike:heart points]], [[strike:flower points]], or badge points.
** To clarify, there is an NPC who can raise one of your three stats but will lower another stat in exchange. Some people chose to lower Mario's HP down to 5 and the game considers Mario to be in the Danger status since he is at 5 HP. Several badges powers up Mario's attack and defense when he is in such a state or if he is in the Peril status, where his HP is at 1. Since badges stack, it's possible to have a crippled Mario be a walking powerhouse where he can do over 10 damage per hit and take very little due to the said badges. This is known as the Danger Mario strategy.

** Rockets. So god-awful popular apparently they got their own game mode.

When players of a game gravitate en masse to one character, play style, or WeaponOfChoice. Sometimes, a particular character or weapon/item always gives the best results when used properly or mastered, which then results in nearly every player using that same set up because nothing else is as effective. Especially for online play, this can lead to a situation where nearly everyone playing in the round are using the same characters or items because the set up has more benefits than cons, making it every easy to know how to counter a move or knowing what to expect from another player. A type of ComplacentGamingSyndrome.

-> '''''[[MemticMutation NO ITEMS]]! [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome FOX ONLY]]! [[AbridgedArenaArray FINAL DESTINATION]]!'''''

-> '''''NO ITEMS! FOX ONLY! FINAL DESTINATION!'''''

** Counter-Strike has a total of 22 guns that can be chosen from (6 pistols, 2 shotguns, 5 [=SMGs=], 4 assault rifles and 3 sniper rifles) but basically all are inferior to the 3 mainly used guns: The AWP sniper rifle (1 hit one kill), or the [=M4A1=] or [=AK47=] assault rifles, as these latter two are the most powerful and accurate by far of all the guns. Anyone using any of the other weapons, except possibly the pump shotgun, usually results in "noob".

* The most recent ''MortalKombat'' game features [[GodOfWar Kratos]] as a guest character. [[http://fanboys-online.com/index.php?comic=351 The appeal is perhaps a bit too much.]]

* Want to play ''BlazBlue'' online? Can you dodge the [[FanNickname Icecar?]]
** Oh, you can? Well, [[GameBreaker Nu]] has something to say about that.
*** Well I'll be, you managed to beat that Nu player. Have some [[BeeBeeGun Arakune]] action! BEEEEEES
** To be fair, they did nerf those three in Continuum Shift. But now there's Litchi and Bang to deal with...
*** ...who were both nerfed in the Continuum Shift 2 balance changes. But don't try to tell Bang players that -- there's still a massive number of people who either can't adjust to Bang's new low-tier placement, or don't even realize they're technically playing Continuum Shift 2.
*** Or alternatively they just don't give a shit, because Bang is hilarious and the other characters aren't quite so entertainingly silly to play.

* In the ''Carmageddon'' games, the player can complete a regular race in three methods: take down all pedestrians, cross all checkpoints in order for some laps, or waste all opponents. Very rarely will players want to race or kill pedestrians, as fun as it is. This is also true regardless of the current vehicle's weak strength.

--> A general description of any given ''SuperSmashBros Melee'' match.

* For those you that enjoy the competitive side of ''SuperSmashBros Melee'', expect a lot of Fox, Falco, Jigglypuff, Sheik, Marth, Peach, and Captain Falcon.

* ''{{Halo}} 2'' and ''3''. Most people use the battle rifle, because it is the only weapon that isn't a niche gun, and it makes things somewhat more fair, since you don't have much of a chance with an assault rifle if your enemy has any distance on you, and has one. Do not bring the concepts of "taking cover", or "throwing grenades", as these will result in the used "the BR is the best gun at close, middle, and long range."

* ''MarvelVsCapcom 2'''s "[[GameBreaker God Tier]]": Magneto, Storm, Sentinel and Cable. Most team consist of a pairing of two of these characters and Cyclops, Captain Commando or Psylocke on third just to abuse their assist.

* ''GuiltyGear'' players gravitate towards Sol Badguy or Ky Kiske.

* ''DwarfFortress'' suffers somewhat from this, as it's fairly easy to surround your entrance with a ridiculous number of traps and reduce invading enemies to LudicrousGibs before they ever get near the front doors, and it's rare to find a player who'll start a fortress anywhere that doesn't have magma. On the other hand, these are just basic tactics, and beyond that, it's expected that any player will try random things that [[strike: might]] ''will'' get their fortress killed ForScience!

* Most of the multiplayer community for ''{{Bioshock}} 2'' use a combination of Electro Bolt and the Elephant Gun in order to pull off easy one-hit-kill headshots on stunned players.

* ''ModernWarfare'' 2 has a few class builds: tending to use mainly the assault rifles rather than the other weapons, with the Stopping Power perk. Marathon-Lightweight-Commando, a sub machine gun, and a pistol with the Tactical Knife attachment which halves the recovery time of your melee attack. If the class uses Danger Close, they will have an explosive launcher with either the Scavenger or One Man Army perk to replenish their explosives. Or, on very rare occasions, the Riot Shield, which cannot even be penetrated by FMJ.

* ''ModernWarfare'' 3 has its own overused builds. The super-accurate ACR is the assault rifle of choice. The [=PP90M1=] submachine gun also gets a lot of use from combining a high fire rate with high damage. Akimbo [=FMG-9s=] are heavily used, to the point of being repeatedly nerfed by Infinity Ward. The Type-95 was also common prior to a nerf.

** Assault players often use the 40mm Grenade attachment exclusively, often with explosives-buffing specializations. Known as 'noob-tubing' due to the perceived lack of skill required by short-range may-as-well-be-[[HitScan hitscan]] [[OneHitKill one-hit kills]] with splash damage. Oh, and they also supply their own ammo.

* In the ''Quake 2'' mod ''Weapons Factory'', Marines were the most common character class due to being heavily armed, and equally suited for defense and offense. Clan matches sometimes included one side fielding all Marines. As the various classes were nerfed and upgraded, other classes became more popular, but Marines remained the most popular choice.

* ''{{Doom}} II'': Super-Shotgun. Possibly the most horribly conceived weapon in FPS history, as its common availability, high damage and comparably fast rate of fire have seemingly lead to it being all anyone ever uses in competitive play. Aggravated by ''DOOM'' not having an option to pick weapons at the start of deathmatch games, so the only option was to use custom maps that leave out the GameBreaker weapons.

* In ''{{GunZ}}'', there's K-Styling, essentially a glitch exploit that involves using swords and jumping around the maps at obscene speeds. Players attempting to legitimately use guns are sometimes chastised as "sprayers" and kicked from games.

* Many people playing ''{{NetHack}}'' play only one character role until they win. Since the game is NintendoHard, this can take a while.

* Want to play ''{{BlazBlue}}'' online? Can you dodge the [[FanNickname Icecar?]]

** Killing all pedestrians is pretty much purely for SelfImposedChallenge value, and almost completely impossible without both the Pedestrians Shown On Map powerup and Stella Stunna's Electric Blue car (with built in permanent unlimited electro bastard ray).

When players of a game gravitate en masse to one character, play style, or WeaponOfChoice. Sometimes, a particular character or weapon/item always gives the best results when used properly or mastered, which then results in nearly every player using that same set up because nothing else is as effective. Especially for online play, this can lead to a situation where nearly everyone playing in the round are using the same characters or items because the set up has more benefits than cons, making it every easy to know how to counter a move or knowing what to expect from another player. A type of ComplacentGamingSyndrome.

See also AbridgedArenaArray.

** Halo Reach has the DMR, which, now that everyone is capable of headshots due to the game's large aim-assist, is worse than the BR in many situations. Then there's the sniper rifle, which can kill banshees, falcons, warthogs, ghosts, revenants, wraiths, and even the mother of all vehicles, the scorpion, in some situations. [[FridgeLogic It kills vehicles more easily than the rocket launcher]]. Again, due to the aim-assist, the sniper rifle is incredibly easy to use at close range for a large, bulky .50. You don't even need to "[[CallOfDuty Quickscope]]." One can easily kill a charging shotgunner at point blank or a DMR marksman at mid-range using only the sniper rifle. The AR is also completely useless in this game, and of course, there's a commendation for using it.

* This trope is the reason that the OU tier exists in ''{{Pokemon}}'' competitive gaming. The Pokemon competitive community seems to actually be relatively civil about this, organizing the CharacterTiers to give every Pokemon a fair shot at some level or another.

** ''Black and White'' indirectly nerfed Stealth Rock by giving it only to a small number of Rock and Steel-types (most of which were pretty slow).

** When Version 3 came out, that changed thanks to the Home Course Advantage: if you drove a car on its in-game home course (e.g. driving the [=AE85=] Levin on Myogi, the [=AE86=] Trueno on Akina, or the [=MR2=] on Irohazaka), your car would be slightly faster and quicker to recover than cars that weren't from that course. Of course, a skilled opponent could overcome this, but . . .

* In ''SimCity 4 Deluxe'', expect most cities to be crammed packed full of skyscrapers due to only Dense zone use, as well as to never see one railroad or elevated rail system as opposed to avenues, roads, subway and bus stations. That is of course, if somebody's trying to [[SeriousBusiness rebuild a real-world city]]. Oh yeah, almost nobody plays the game without a GameMod.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', because you can teach any character any spell. So even though you have 14 different characters, each with differing stat growths and unique special abilities, you'll almost always see people who assume that the only real way to play the game is to teach everyone [[InfinityPlusOneSword Ultima]] and win the game with nothing but that.

** This is only made worse by the existence of badges that increase your HP or FP by the amount you'd get from a level up, which cost the exact amount of BP you'd get from a level up.

** Engineers use the Carl Gustav rocket launcher like a deadlier 40mm grenade.

* In the ''Quake 2'' mod ''Weapons Factory'', Marines were the most common character class due to being heavily armed, and equally suited for defense and offense. Clan matches sometimes included one side fielding all Marines. As the various classes were nerfed and upgraded, other classes became more popular, but Marines remained the most popular choice.

*** Similarly in the sequel, the most used weapons are either Auto Shotguns or AK-47s with a laser slight (if one can find a laser sight), simply because of how powerful they are. Playing Realism mode? Expect everyone to be packing melee weapons or Magnums to kill common infected in a single strike (common infected have more defense to everything but fire, explosions, and head shots in Realism, but Magnums and melee weapons still one shot them no matter where they are struck).

** Assault: Pre-patch assault players used the F2000, AEK-971, or the FAMAS due to their high rates of fire. Post-patch the FAMAS's handling and ammo capacity changes nerfed it into oblivion, the F2000 is useless beyond 20 meters. The [=M16A=] with Heavy Barrel reigns supreme.
** Engineers pre-patch gravitated to the A-91 or the [=M4A1=], due to the high rate of fire, while some go for the SCAR-H + ACOG + Heavy Barrel for long range damage. Post-patch, players that prefer a good medium-range weapon with minimal recoil will likely use the [=SG553=] with the [=AKS-74U=] being configurable as a very good short ranged hip fire weapon.
** Damn near every Recon use the [=M98B=] since it's the most powerful sniper rifle in the game, though after Back to Karkand the L96 is seeing some action since it shoots like a laser and it doesn't require as much grinding as the [=M98B=].
*** Pre patch the only semi-auto sniper rifle of any use was the M39 EMR, very accurate, quick to fire and could be used in medium range as a 'designated marksman' style of play. Post-Patch, the SKS has been buffed to the stars to the point it can compete with assault rifles.
** Gun attachments: Pre-patch nearly everyone used the foregrip/suppressor combination to significantly reduce recoil to the point hardly anyone used bipods or heavy barrel. Post-patch, the Heavy Barrel is the new hotness for its very large spread reduction while aiming down sights with only a minimal vertical recoil increase. Foregrip and suppressor usage depends on the situation rather than being no-brainer attachments and they generally only get used for very close quarter combat. As a result of the foregrip nerf the use of the Bipod is heavily up on all weapons because it has no penalty at all in general use but has a large advantage when it is used, and the under barrel rail is not actually required to use the Grenade Launcher or Shotgun under barrel attachments.
** Gun sights are a matter of preference but out of them the main ones used are the Kobra or US Red Dot Sight at close range, the US holographic at short or medium range, the ACOG 4x for medium range and the sniper scopes for long range. The rest have cluttered sights or awkward zoom levels.
** Post-Patch pistol changes mean the best players will use one of three sidearms: The G18 Suppressed fully-automatic pistol with a high rate of fire that is equivalent to the MP7 at very close range and is used for players who want a true 'backup' weapon. The 93R burst fire pistol which received a major buff in the patch for those who feel they need a more controllable gun than the G18 and finally the .44 Magnum which is a two shot kill due to a buff giving it a 1.25 damage multiplier to the chest, it is used by players who are extremely accurate and will pick and choose which of the primary or Magnum they use based on the situation.
** [=MP7=] with Laser + Extended Mags is ''the'' hip fire weapon. It's hip fire it is often ''more'' accurate than many guns when being aimed down sight and it is quicker to get bullets on target because of it's hipfire. It's only drawback is that the extended mags mean you only have less than a handful of reloads, so playing a support kit or having the squad perk for ammo is mandatory.

** The support class with it's variety of well balanced guns but no 'best' weapon inverts the trope. The class contains ScrappyWeapons that ''aren't'' used like the QBB, MG36 and Type 88 which heavily suck compared to the rest.