When you start getting into the differences between characters, why you would pick someone over another character, even if they seem similar, you have to talk about gameplay. If you don't notice that a certain character has better combos than another, and you continue to pick the lesser character, chances are you're going to lose, if you don't care about winning or losing, you're not playing the game for the game, you're playing for storybook purposes, which isn't the reason the game was made. If you play through and beat the game in the arcade with everyone just to see their endings, that's it, you won't play it anymore. They didn't make the game for that, they made it so you will continue to play, and play against people. That's why there's two joysticks and sets of buttons. I know there are people who just simply never got the chance to play against others due to player density, and that's unfortunate. The point is, even though Scorpion came first, Human Smoke (in UMK3) is more powerful, and the better choice if you want to win. If you still pick Scorpion because you think he's cooler, you're probably not going to beat anyone who is more than a casual player, and if that is the case, why play at all?