Stupid RP fed tricks

First, a note about A1E. There has been a veritable firestorm surrounding the vote system and with the results of some matches. Usually, blogs are there to put their fingers on the pulse of problems like that. The problem was, however, that I was at the center of a lot of those problems. So for me to comment on them publically would have hurt my cause and it probably would have been a giant conflict of interest. But anyway, the vote system did get changed back to something more resembling the old style. I guess I can deal with that.

Anyhoo, onto this week's subject.

RP feds are often times more of a shoot than the actual "real" wrestling they try ti imitate. It's much more of a competition, so in a way, "fantasy" wrestling in this sense is a lot different from the in-ring product of say, TNA or the WWE.

So inherent with RP feds (at least the ones on A1 and FWC) is a sort of tendency to work against your fellow fedmates rather than work with them. You can say that you're there to build angles and tell a story as much as you want (and genuinely, some people are in these feds to do just that), but at the end of the day, all some folks really care about is if they got the W or not. It's an understandable attitude to have, but it's an attitude that over the years I have grown to dislike even more and more (especially when I feel it welling up inside of me... it makes e-fedding a lot less enjoyable when I'm worried about wins and losses).

That attitude leads to certain unsavory traits that are seen all across RP feds in this circle. Stuff like deadline sniping, extreme sandbagging and basing promos on who your opponent has lost to and nothing more... it's shitty practice in my opinion.

Doing entire promos belittling your opponent because he lost to so-and-so are the worst really. How uncreative can you be that you only base what your match strategy is from results that really you had no control over? The best e-fedders create their own heat, and that means taking something out of thin air and just running with it. And if you're going to use stuff that's happened on other cards as your basis, why not take long-running angles and help build into what your opponent is trying to do? It'll give you a lot more material to work with, and things won't get as chippy.

The point is, in any wrestling match, someone has to win and someone has to lose. To use previous losses against a character in deciding who wins and loses the next match is not only unfair, but counterproductive in having a fun OOC atmosphere. BEcause if that's the basis for choosing, you get a vicious cycle for some guys. They can't break into the win column because they're already predestined to lose because of prior losses. And that hole just keeps getting bigger for them.

Granted, in most feds, this isn't a problem because the head booker or the guys who decide the outcomes are sane, logical people for the most part. However, when you get into A1E, where EVERYONE decides who wins and loses, you might not get that fairness. Let's face it. Not everyone is a responsible voter. People will skim matches and some of them will be dumb/lazy enough to go for the "hey, he lost to a scrub! I'm voting against him!" approach.

Deadline snipers are bad, especially when they wait to post their first promo just before the deadline. This problem is easily rectified though. Katz instituted a rule in NFW that you can reply to any promo posted within an hour of the deadline until 12 hours after the deadline has passed. Brilliant. It negates the deadline snipers and their attempts to get the last word in at the expense of someone who might not be around at Friday night at midnight or on a Wednesday at midnight or whenever the deadline is.

Still though, not every fed will institute this measure. And people will still sandbag and sandbag and take advantage of the good nature of some folks who either don't believe in stacking, aren't that good at posting double-up promos or who just don't have time to sit down and think of a good promo without having a reply to their previous promo to work with. It's just lazy and devious shit. It should be outlawed.

But I guess you can't change lazy e-fedders. It's just a shame that they keep getting rewarded for their fed-dividing promo tactics.