Depends on the series.

You're less likely to find girls cosplaying from fighting games who are tourney-type players, but there are plenty of RPG fans or anime/manga fans who are hardcore into the series in question and could act like a goddamn fandom encyclopedia.

Some do, some don't. I honestly love the characters I cosplay and play the game before I dress up at them, but not all cosplayers do. Everybody has different reasons.

>Should I stop going up to Taokaka cosplayers and ask them to help fine tune my drive loop BnB?
Lol probably

I usually only cosplay a character if I like them. Sometimes I'll see a design that I like and if I haven't played the game or watched/read whatever it's from, I'll give it a try. If I don't like it after that, then I won't cosplay it.

Keep going up to the cosplayers, especially if you see >>2561687

If I see a character that looks cool, I'll check out the series first. If I end up disliking the character, I'm not gonna cosplay them.
But I tend to throw myself deeply into various series, so I tend to really know what I'm on about.
I really, really want to play Blazblue. The only fighting games I'm any decent at are the various Soul Caliburs.

If you spend your time learning to not suck at BlazBlue you don't have time to make a decent costume from it. Simpler games with a less killer learning curve will have more cosplayers that actually play them.

Blazblue is quite popular right now, which is good enough reason for some people. Especially the overdone ones - Tao, Jin, Ragna is getting there..

Ones who don't know the characters themselves though should get smacked. :/ It's annoying.
Hah! I'm a popular character!!111

to put it into /v/-speak,
most cosplayers are CASUALS

Tired of all the Taokaka cosplayers...
Would be nice if more people did alternate colors atleast.

I plan to cosplay Taokaka, though I'm awful with fighting games. I'm just not very good with them--Poor hand-eye coordination I suppose. Though I've watched many a friend play through BlazBlue several times and I'm quite familiar with the game. Not enough to help, but enough to carry on a semi-decent conversation.

Sadly, a good portion of cosplay girls just dress up as what they think is KAWAII DESU and don't give a shit where it comes from. Example: Bible Black. Many girls wear the uniform and haven't a clue it even is a hentai. It all comes down to being an attention whore and wanting the most attention.

the short answer is yes.

Sometimes people will cosplay to complete their friend's group or because they love the design of something, but 9 times out of 10 for myself, at least, I try to know and love the source material before cosplaying it. The main reason for this being that I've found cosplay to be a great icebreaker for meeting new people. If you recognize someone as a character you love, it's really easy to find fellow fans, y'know? Plus I oftentimes treat cosplay as sort of an ultimate form of fanart, really. The characters I enjoy cosplaying the most are the ones I love dearest.

Fighting games, though, are oftentimes a magnet for cosplayers who just like the designs. They're full of great character designs and usually have simple/very little plot, and easy to pick up and play. Sadly, most people aren't as devoted as most hardcore fighter players. I love fighting games a LOT and cosplay from them, and I play them all, but I know I'll never be tourney-good. I'm good enough to play with my peers and learn some good combos but that's about all.

A lot of people I meet tend to do about half and half giving a shit vs juts liking the designs.

Personally, I actually like the characters or series' I cosplay from. If my friends suggest something, I always check it out first and decide based on whether or not I like it.

>>2561766
Speaking of which where would one find a list of the alternates without having to check EACH AND EVERYONE out in the game...? Please and Thanks yous.

Well I would certainly never cosplay from BB, not because I dislike the characters (although none are interesting to me), but because the game itself is atrocious, and I wouldn't want to give the wrong idea.

>>2561751
>Plays Tao

Why even bother.

>>2561789
You best be a GG player, son.

>>2561751
>He tried some easy specials with Jin

>>2561771

I feel really weird cosplaying from things I know nothing about. It's harder to act in character and pose if you don't know who the hell it is you're cosplaying. When I cosplayed from Rule of Rose, I knew enough about the character/story to get by, but I still felt really incredibly awkward because I knew so little about the game, never having actually played it. I thought I researched enough by watching cutscenes/reading up on it, but I still felt like I was a fair bit behind, especially when grouped with people who HAD played the game. It was kind of weird when someone would see me and get really excited when I was separated from my group because I didn't exactly know what to say.

That being said, I can't even imagine cosplaying someone from something I'd never read ANYTHING about or watched ANYTHING from. Meg was awkward enough and I considered myself to not be totally out of the loop on it. To put it into comparison, I can't even imagine that I'd ever have any fun cosplaying Scout if I'd never watched any of the Meet The Team vids or ever touched TF2. It's so much more fun being able to talk about what you're cosplaying as or quote shit from the game and the reactions you get from it.

I've done a lot of costumes because I've liked the designs (like Josh from Silent Hill) but I've always ended up playing the game. Meg is the only costume where I've never even touched the game, but like I said, I at least researched it. I think I'd understand if someone was all "I'm only wearing this because I liked the way it looked." but I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone doing a design that they'd never read any background info on the character or watched any vids of. Actually playing the game and actually knowing who you're cosplaying at least are two different things, too.

>>2561751

If any BlazBlue cosplayers were like that then there would be ZERO Rachel cosplayers

Unlike many of the people posting here I will be honest. Mind you I said many not all, inb4 all the tripfags come together and prove me "wrong."

The first thing I think of when I cosplay is the way I look. This is more important than anything else to me. There are many characters I adore that I will look stupid cosplaying, and there are many that I hate that will make me look smokin'.

I will read up on the character, but mind you if I don't feel bad for a moment when someone comes up to me," lol you know all of your character's combos, right?" Hey, just because you really like a character doesn't mean I keep the same level of devotion. A general understanding of the character is very much enough for me.

tl;dr I will cosplay any and all characters that make me look attractive because that's most of the fun of cosplay for me.

>>2561797
Damn, you caught me. That obvious?

Many do, many don't.

I know when I see a character image that I like and I find out who it is, I try to give the source material a try, whatever the source is, as it helps in figuring out more about them (especially if you want to do more than dress up in the hall).

Incidentally, I've played more than a few video games in my time and I still find myself mashing the buttons at random ;-)

I only cosplay characters I fall in love with in the process of watching the series. I've done so many costumes that, had I seen it outside of the source material, I would have said it was a stupid concept, but since I saw it in context I positively loved it.

Like, if I ever do anything from Evangelion I would force myself to sit through it first.

I'll admit I never played Blazblue before I made my costume simply because I liked the design. But for what it's worth I did do my research and had every intention of playing it but I just didn't have the console to do so (or friends to mooch off of).

I don't see how someone could find the motivation to work on a costume without loving the character. I try to picture myself sewing a costume for a character I don't love...and I just wouldn't be excited at all. There's no fun in dressing up as a character you don't know...for me at least.

>>2561751
I don't cosplay from something I don't like. If I see a character design I like I go check out the series first.

Also op don't dismiss someone for being a fan because they suck shit at the game. I'm generally horrible at fighting games doesn't mean I don't play them a lot or have my favorites.

My situation is a bit different. I've had a couple of cosplayers say they actually remembered me kicking ass as Q in 3rd Strike while I was in my Nakoruru costume.

So I am fairly hardcore about my fighting games, but I don't usually cosplay the characters I use the most, since I tend to main the grapplers and the big guys, such as Clark or Zangief or Tager. (Never mind that I did cosplay Clark a long, long time ago.)

I am, however, planning on cosplaying Kira from Arcana Heart. A character with the in-your-face high-damage grappling style I love.

>>2561859
>Kira
>A character with the in-your-face high-damage grappling style I love.
Technically, her blob does the grappling...

>>2561851
This, so much.

I have such a big list of characters that I want to cosplay from things that I am a HARDCORE fan of (since we're talking fighting games- Killer Instinct or Soul Calibur), who's characters that I know and love, but I just don't have the time/money/skill to do, that I couldn't really imagine spending said time or money to make a costume for a character that I DON'T know.

On that note, I did try BlazBlue for the first time at Yulecon and fell in love with Hakumen. Played my friend (who isn't hardcore in BB, but RAPES me in soul calibur despite never playing) who has way more experience than me...and he just couldn't beat my Hakumen. Not sure if that screams broken character, or my strange nack for beginner's luck.

But regardless, as much as I love Hakumen's style and design, I haven't played BB enough to put him high on my list of "want to cosplay" (not to mention I don't have the skill), so yes, this is one cosplayer who cares about being a HARDCORE LOVER of a character before cosplaying them.

As what most people in this thread said, I'll only cosplay a character if I love the series and the character. Though it's usually 50/50 on whether the character I'm cosplaying is the one I main in a fighting game (though I tend to main the 'big' characters like Tager, Bob, Bass, Raiden anyway)

I always get confused and a little disappoint when a person cosplays something from a series they don't like/haven't played. Nothing worse than trying to start up a conversation about the series only to get a blank stare

Depends. I have never cosplayed something purely for the design, but I have made cosplays for groups which I started before I played the game. When I cosplay in groups, it also happens that they are only searching for a certain character, so if I like the group I'll join whether or not I like the character or game. I prefer however to cosplay characters from games I really like, it just is so much more motivating.

When I cosplay from a fighting game I like it is not neccessarily the character I can control best I pick. Overall I'm a pretty mediocre beat'em'up player anyways, so it doesn't make that much difference ;) I like playing them, but not tournament style.

However, with RPGs I've cosplayed from (depending on how long ago I played them of course) I'm capable to tell you where the hidden items are, which trick solves the puzzle, and so on. Most times I will pick one of my favourite characters from the game, but sometimes, if the design is really atrocious, or if they are just too GAR, I will pick another character instead.

>>2561819
not true. Even though Rachel isn't my main in blazblue, I do love playing as her even though I suck with her. I haven't gotten a stick yet so I don't want to waste my time trying to get good with a character on a crappy 360 controller.

Then again CS came out and she's fucking shit tier. Oh well. I still love the character.

>>2561771

I know how that feels, dude. Then again, when I tried to cosplay someone from KOF, I at least got the grips of the character, but didn't get too good playing as him.

I did end up meeting other KOF Fans after that, and they taught me how to play. Pretty cool, IMO.

>>2561775
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v220/Paranoia190/BlazBlue/?start=0 'Ere ya go.

i cosplayed several ragnarok charakter classes
and grandia 2 in the games department
ro i played for 5 years
grandia 2 i played 3 times
so at least speaking for myself i know my stuff

As far as BlazBlue goes, I cosplayed Noel and Taokaka and can't play for shit with them in the game. I've had a few people give me the snarky "So who do you main in BB?" and when I mention it's Arakune they back off a little. I can do fairly decent with him, too.
It's a situation where I love the game, can only cosplay certain characters, and unfortunately can't really use them that well in a match. Doesn't mean I don't care, though.

>>2562415
Oh how darling~ Thank you.