Our next guest blogger is none other than Al Larcher. Say what you will about him, but he's one of the most old-school guys that there is in PTC-land, and he's certainly not afraid to tell you what's on his mind, especially in the following entry. I must put the disclaimer out there, these opinions are all his own. They don't necessarily reflect what I believe in full (although I find myself saying "hell motherfucking yes" at a few of these passages). So, without further ado...
For the Blog
by Al Larcher, special guest to RRoaEL
A hobby of hypersensitive hypocritical computer addicted adults has over run a hobby that used to flow with imagination and creativity. A game that took so many of us out of reality and into this world of wrestling most of us grew up with, has been replaced by a fucking library. Oh and not a very good one at that. As a matter of fact its more like the bargain bin of Harry’s Book store. Sure you may find a steal if you dig deep enough but that’s a lot of shit to dig though just to find that one gem.
Most of the writing out there is boring, repetitive, and just flat out bad. Oh, do I have your attention now? Hello, I’m Mr. Williams aka Hoyt aka Duke aka Al aka Asshole aka The Malice Man aka the straight shooter aka Karma aka Aldo aka Alvis aka the guy you love to hate.
Somebody called me an Internet heel which made me laugh. I don’t seek out trouble. I just don’t like to curtail the truth and, if that makes me a bad guy then I am what I am. As a matter of fact I removed myself from the general e-wrestling discussion in PTC well over two years ago. As mama once said if you don’t have anything nice to say go buy an ice cream cone. Well hell, I’m all out of ice cream and mama’s dead so listen up to what I have to say. I’ve been in this hobby for over 12 years consistently. I’ve been fired once and that was by Pete and PRIME which is enough for me to say to hell with the game. Am I a grumpy cynical jag off? You bet. But what I say is truth.
There used to be an excitement that went along with the hobby. If you were home and you rped or posted something occ you would find yourself hitting refresh every five minutes to make sure you didn’t miss anything. Guys ribbed other guys, rps were answered with other rps, and community was vibrant and real.
Nothing was off limits either as guys took us from space to hell and back again. The only rule was respect the other characters right to be that character. In other words don’t use something that isn’t yours regardless if its another character or somebody else’s writing. It wasn’t out of the question to have a guy vaporize on a show as long as everybody was ok with it. Yet even with this free range, the game was grounded in realism.
The only goal back then was to have fun and create something in the process that we the players in that fed enjoyed. The federation was a lump of clay and we all had a hand in crafting something, yet never knowing what it was we were making. E Pluribus Unum the Masonic motto of the United State translated from Latin means, “One of Many” also holds true to our hobby.
Yet today the hobby is filled with well organized and well meaning fed heads who lack any semblance of creativity. Oh sure, a few exist but they are few and far between. Nobody is willing to take chances anymore and have fun because it may GOD FORBID disrupt their four month lay out. Give me a break, hell give us all a break. Imagine if sex had to be that rigid and planned out?
Where are the matches in shopping malls? Where are the matches that take us beyond where a real fed can go? Where are the space hookers in bras? Where is are the chance that we just have to follow? Stifled and simple not in the plans.
PRIME is a great example of a fed that was cutting edge and care free. It did what it needed to do, not to impress anybody but those with in it’s wall’s who were having fun. It allowed me to grow my character and understand who my character was. The talent was always’s there but soon the names moved in, and PRIME skyrocketed. Then Sebs had to move on with his life, and PRIME was handed off. Now it has all the names yet it just seems to be going through the motions to get the shows up on time instead of having fun and bringing us something fresh.
Now I respect that its a double edged sword, where if the shows are late the fun starts to fade fast. But for Christ sake I beg all the fed heads to relax and go back to have fun and creating fresh ideas rather then just existing.
A 312 page book is fairly average for a professional writer. Yet in today’s game the average rp is about 6 pages, at about 1 per week. That’s 312 pages of writing a year. Guess what, only about 4 guys in the game are capable of consistently writing that much material that it could be published. YET EVERYBODY IS TRYING.
What you are writing is probably not very good. You may disagree, and what is good is in the eye’s of the beholder. But the fact is it probably isn’t very good. However I’m willing to bet you're a creative person who can produce something that is entertaining. AHHHH entertaining!! That is what’s been lost in the writing.
Last night I saw The Good Shepherd which was a two and half hour snorefest. Great actors, a long and presumably well written script, and Robert DeNiro directing. So what went wrong? It was simply not entertaining. I sat there for the two and half hours and I have to admit what I followed as far as the story goes, was interesting, but definitely not entertaining. I bet Rocky which has less stars, less script, and less budget is probably far more entertaining.
To entertain dosn’t mean to make laugh but rather to provoke an enjoyable emotion. Old Yeller makes me cry yet it’s enjoyable. High Noon has no humor, a predictable ending, and story we’ve all seen before, however its one of my favorite movies. A football game is enjoyable and entertaining. STOP TRYING TO BE WHAT YOU'RE NOT. Shoot to be entertaining not a writer and you will do so much better.
The problem I find with most of the RPing in e-land is the characters are there, the words are there, but the entertainment aspect isn’t. Dude, I bet your girlfriend’s diary is more interesting and enjoyable then what you are producing. Why? Real life is fascinating and with the ability to exaggerate and expand, it becomes even more fascinating. The best stuff I’ve read in e-wrestling comes from truth stretched by an imagination. Never from an imagination by itself.
The biggest void in our hobby comes from this isolationist approach to our writing. We now tell solo story’s that lack interaction in a hobby based on playing a role in a world created by another person playing a role. Instead we just play with ourselves then masturbate over our work. Great. So really e-wrestling has turned into writers' guild.
My last bitch and moan before I go off to masturbate since that sounds like a good idea is our lack of criticism. Nobody is allowed to say anything negative about anybody else’s stuff, since it came from their heart and god forbid we offend them in the process and make them feel bad. So instead nobody says anything good or bad about anybody else’s stuff, since it came from their heart and god forbid we offend them in the process and make somebody feel bad. So once again we move toward isolationism instead of community.
Its a shame but then again what do I know I’m just one guy with one opinion.
=w=
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21 comments:
Funny you should mention it .. because New ERA's main event on its next show is the World Heavyweight championship match ... in a shopping mall. :)
-sean
No offense to Al, but I love how even the disgruntled members of PTC still have a though time understanding that there is a world outside of PTC.
Al, if you cannot find what you are looking for where you are, maybe all you need to do is look elsewhere.
Tom knows lots of places.
Not to offend...oh hell I really don’t care. It’s not that we don’t know other federations, and other community’s exist; it’s that we really don’t care. I’ve been with PTC for better or worse since before it’s conseption. I was here during the day’s of Fedwars, and even prior to that. In some shape or form this community has been together for almost eight years and I have been there every trend, change, and morph it’s seen.
So it’s not that I’m ignorant to the outside, but rather I’m at home in PTC; for better or worse. I hear Europe is a cool place to live but no matter how disgruntled I am with America, it’s my home and hoss I ain't leaving.
Plus from what I’ve seen of the outside I’m not that impressed. Sorry, I’m just not. To stick with the nationalism analogy. I’m a Republican yet I grew up in the most corrupt Democratic run city in the USA. We have a baseball team that hasn’t seen the world series in like 100 years, we have summer highs of 100+ and winter lows of below zero. We have snow, traffic, and crime yet I love Chicago, and I’m proud to be from there.
My radio career took me out of the big city to work in Terre Haute, IN. I loved Terre Haute it was great. I was the big fish in the small pond. Met a lot of interesting people, made a lot of good friends, made good money. It was perfect. But it wasn’t Chicago and when my time was up in Terre Haute I went back to Chicago. Terre Haute was great and full of talented people but Chicago has ten times everything Terre Haute has, and is also my home.
So spare me this jive about us PTC people not understanding what’s out there. We know whats up and all about your country bumpkin feds, but we’re city folk and you can take the man out of the alley but you can’t take the alley out of the man.
=w=
Aldo
Country bumpkin feds? Hardly.
To think that PTC is the only place with "bigtime" feds is such an ignorant point of view. If you don't want to leave that nest because it's home, fine, but don't disparage what you know little about.
"Where are the matches in shopping malls? Where are the matches that take us beyond where a real fed can go? Where are the space hookers in bras?"
LOL -- its like you read NFW, without even knowing about it.
As far as I'm concerned, alot of the time PTC constitutes country bumpkins trying to recreate The Bridges of Madison County.
Defend it, or hate it Al...I don't care. It seems you can't even decide that from your last response, but don't knock other communities that have been open LONGER and if their top talent came over to PTC, would most likely kick ALOT of ass. Shit, Holzerman and West went straight to the semis of GTT6.
You slam other communities, but you don't even realize they're closer to what you want than PTC. And why? 'Cause your dedicated to PTC? ...even though, you just took a proverbial shit on PRIME and everyone there?
H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E.
I'm friends with Deville, Mat, Nova, etc. I'd expect a little more...common sense from what I've heard about you.
--Must Die
I think you miss understood my point I'm in no way bashing other community's or feds. They exist and they put out some great work. My anger came from the fact you guys act like we don't know you exist because we are from PTC and that's not the case.
But lets not pretend that PTC is nothing or insignificant.
"Defend it, or hate it Al...I don't care. It seems you can't even decide that from your last response, but don't knock other communities that have been open LONGER and if their top talent came over to PTC, would most likely kick ALOT of ass. Shit, Holzerman and West went straight to the semis of GTT6."
Yes, they came to GTT6 and did well. Much better then me but that isn't very hard. :) But my point is they came to GTT6. PTC is the big city while a lot of these other feds are just as talented, and just as significant just in much less popular or populated community.
My other point is I think this down swing e-wrestling is in (its my opinion we are in a slump you may thing other wise) hits not just in PTC, but the entire e-wrestling world. But you want to write off what I say because I come from one of many communities. That's fine but not totally true. I've been handling all over the place during most of my time in PTC. I'm just not as vocal about some of my other characters.
=w=
In the same vein though, guys like Nova, K-Wolf, Jayce Bradley, Jake Hix, Jacob McKail, Angelo Deville, Tobias Stevens, etc. CAME to FW-land to compete in NFW, the CSWA or various TEAM events. It works both ways. PTC is not the be-all, end-all of eW communities.
And truth be told, Dan and Jeff didn't come participate in GTT6 because it was this almighty power in the eW world that they mythically heard of. They got their exposure from me and participated because me and probably Lindsay and Katz put in a word to them that they might have a good time. Big difference.
The first fed I was ever in was a very short stay in the CSWA. What they have done to be around for so long is amazing. Lots of great sites exist. But is their a large collective community of e-wrestling besides the PTC? If there is please link me I'd be happy to check it out.
Again I'm not saying PTC is the most talented. It's simply the most populated. Big Difference ;)
I ment Larger not large its fucking early.
Fwrestling.com is about on par with PTC.
There's around 5 feds active at any given time, but none of us do weekly shows 'cause we're mostly older than college students and don't have that kind of time.
--Must Die
I don't want to turn this into us versus them type thing. I have some problems with the consistency issues over at FW that turn me off from them. But to each their own I guess. Just know I do know of, and respect the other feds out there. If my tone was harsh before that probably has more to do with a grumpy me working in the morning then anything else.
Peace Love and lots of drugs.
If you guys ever want to chat with me or debate things I don't shy away my aim is Bigelwood9
Thanks
=w=
Not a problem.
I'm not saying everything FWC is great, either. In fact, I don't think there's a fed on FWC I'd join right now. Of course, maybe that's cause I'm a fedhead. ;)
I'm just saying that there's got to be something out there for everyone, and I just found it hypocritical that you were being 'harsh' towards PTC/PRIME's current state, then said nothing out there compares.
I'll hit you up on IM, when I get off work. I'm also the handler for Craig Miles/Mike Randalls, so I'm sure we can share old war stories or something. :)
Al, you might want to reread your initial guest blog piece.
You talk about all of the changes to "the hobby" that have made you lose your love for it and then go on to entail issues that are only really endemic to PTC.
It's not the hobby that has gone "isolationist" as you say. It is not the hobby that has become more about serious writing than game play. It is PTC. And if I confused you using the terms "PTC" and "the hobby" interchangibly with you not knowing there was a whole lot of the "Hobby" outside of PTC, please understand I was only working with what you gave me.
To borrow your Chicago anology: It's as if you looked at what was going on in Chicago and then went on a diatribe about how crappy the entire country had gotten what with the the rampant nepotism amongst the aldermen and the banning of transfats and the Cubs spending all that money of players eveyone knows will not pan out when the truth is that there is a whole lot of country out there where none of these things are really at all an issue.
So basically, what I was trying to say is that - if you are not happy where you are - there are other places that still might have what you profess to be looking for. If Chicago, has gotten so bad that you no longer can bring yourself to leave the house and walk the streets, then maybe you should consider at least taking a vacation somewhere else for a bit.
But hey, if you would rather remain a grumpy shut-in in "the big city", I honestly have not issue with that at all. It's your life.
Personally, when I get bored or in a rut or sometime just because, I like to try new things. That's why I entered GTT6 this year (not because "Golly! Look at them big buildings").
Fact is, I actually enjoyed a lot of what you are complaining about in PTC precisely because it is a change of pace with what I am used to in the hobby. And that is why it looks like I will be sticking around there for a bit.
I can't explain it any clearer then I already have with offending more people so I'll just let it be. but if you think the hobby is in a healthy place then so be it, but your wrong.
Oh and welcome to the writers guild.
This isn't an FW vs. PTC issue. The issue is that you have this misconception in your head that PTC is the only big place on the net. In reality though, FW and the angle fed communities are both big in their own rights, and in the grander scheme of things, eW is a hell of a lot more bigger than those three communities combined.
PTC is not the eW equivalent of the WWE. It's a large community that runs prestigious tournaments, but it's not this place where everyone in the hobby aspires to go to. FW isn't either. No place is. eW is far too big and far too decentralized to have a WWE-esque hub.
But I don't have that misconception you have the misconception that I have the misconception that I think PTC is the WWF of e-wrestling and the end all be all of e-wrestling. This is not the case that is a misconception. I do think its a large community possibly the largest collective community in e-wrestling but by no means do I think it holds any more value then any other e-wrestling hub or fed.
"I can't explain it any clearer then I already have with offending more people so I'll just let it be. but if you think the hobby is in a healthy place then so be it, but your wrong."
Not sure where I said that the hobby was in a healthy place. Just that there are places in it that don't have the same issue you are complaining about with PTC.
You've made it quite clear that your views are far to parochial to consider any of them so I guess I will just leave you at that.
"Oh and welcome to the writers guild."
Thanks. I'll do my best not to take the whole thing too seriously or let it make me too bitter.
No, my views are broad but write them off because of where I'm from. That's fine with me. I'm not bitter, I'm opinionated. And if you think I take anything seriously then you don't know me and that's cool too.
See things your way and I'll see things as you see me a disgruntled member of PTC still having a though time understanding that there is a world outside of PTC.
Because all of us are blind I guess.
Bed time for me have a good night.
FWC is like the "old money family." You know .. the ones who've been wealthy for centuries ..
PTC is like the family that went to Vegas, hit the jackpot and bought a home across the town from us.
They're two different communities that developed way differently. With FWC you have guys who have been together way back 15 or so years back on PRODIGY .. not worried about getting out a weekly show just having fun. Something that's continued to this day. The OORP community might not be as vibrant on PTC, but the fact that a league can go on a huge hiatus of 2 or 3 months (or whatever the hell CSWA is on now :P) and come back with their entire roster still in tact says a lot about the community. Try that elsewhere and you'll see a ghosttown.
Tom's trying to bring the communities closer together, but I can tell you right now that the "opinion" above does a very good job at keeping people like myself at arm's length.
I don't need to be looked down upon because we've been doing our own thing long before PTC was even a glimmer in someone's eye.
Sorry about the errors above. It is late here and I'm wicked tired. :P
1) Commas missing.
2) OORP Community might not be as vibrant *AS* on PTC.
3) intact not in tact..
I think that's it..
I saw both Rocky and The Good Sheppard over the holiday period and I liked both of them. I liked them for different reasons, though.
"Rocky" was a simple affair, just a bunch of easily-spun platitudes shot back and forth. The characters were largely one-dimensional, most of them didn't get many lines. The ones that did were mostly predictable, and any scene with Stallone in it was mostly an excuse to have him spout off some idiom that any reasonable person (ie most of the viewing audience) figured out themselves before he even said anything. All that aside, it was still a carefree moviegoing experience that didn't demand anything from the viewer except to sit there and let themselves be taken into the emotional experience of the movie. It was that emotion that carried it and made it a good movie.
"The Good Shepherd" is a wholly different experience. It's more of a thinking man's movie. It will not, at all, tug at your heartstrings. Side plots are introduced at somewhat random junctures in the script, and there's stuff that's left dangling throughout the movie without real closure by the end of it. The characters, however, and their relationships are well-developed and you can get a sense of what's going on underneath their skin if you take a few moments of reflection over what a person is doing. The guy with the sh*t-eating grin can turn out to be your biggest ally while the nicest person you meet could be your enemy. It works on that level. It's not a cathartic swan song to a decades-long franchise... how could it be? 'Shepherd' just tries to tell its story and actually asks the viewer to use his/her imagination, critically examine the same information that the characters are learning, and to add their own ideas about what happened or why something happened.
So again, I found both Rocky and Sheppard entertaining, but for different reasons because they were two different animals. 'Entertainment' overall is not a simple word when applied to real life scenarios because different people are entertained by different things. If a person was expecting Good Shepherd to be the kind of movie that Rocky was, that's an improper expectation by the viewer and they're biasing/setting themselves up to be let down by Shepherd.
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