I often at times wonder why people would flock to e-fighting or e-MMA feds. I honestly couldn't imagine why people would prefer one of them over e-wrestling when the set-up would be the same. You'd still have to write RPs in order to get over and judge who'd win matches.
One day though, it hit me. I thought about the reasons why people liked MMA, pit fighting or even boxing and not professional wrestling. It's all about the "real" aspect, how those sports didn't really need the outlandish storylines that wrestling seems to need, or if they had those storylines, they were organic and dealt mostly with the competition inside of their arena. So that's what I thought would be the appeal. No segmental writing, maybe a promo interview here or there for the card, but the bulk of the action was the fighting going on in the Octagon.
But then I thought of something else. MMA and fighting really doesn't lend itself to the way we write and the way we as writers envision a "good" match going in terms of length. However, our little game we play is a lot more of a "shoot" than the real thing is, at least in RP feds, in that we compete to win matches instead of angling them for the advancement of a greater storyline.
Then I thought something completely different from what that was. What if the results writing process of wrestling was combined with the competitive spirit of MMA? Well, someone already did that. Hyde created Just Wrestling. Well, it's sort of like that. The results process isn't as detailed as other feds. It's more like an EPW short-form, which I think lends itself fine to e-MMA writeups, but still, it retains the panache and the versatility you can get with a wrestling moveset.
Why has it taken so long for something like this to come out? My guess is that people thought that flowery writing, tons of angles and long matches had to be there for fed quality. My own perception is that it's especially true of the angle-fed/PTC crowd. So I was surprised that only has JW taken hold here, but is really flourishing with the name talent it has scored thus far.
It made me think about two things. The first was whether we've actually come full-circle in eW now that we're all mostly older. In the early days, at least from what I've seen in archives and what I've been told, write-ups were fairly low-key. Then again, RPing was fairly low-key as well. From my time in the very early days of A1E, even the standard wrestling-promo styled RPs weren't all that sophisticated. A lot of times, it wouldn't be all that far-fetched to see matches go 10 RPs a person. Hell, the inaugural Tag Team Championship match between Beast/Necromancer vs. Mikey/Snake went something like 80 RPs with a 1-week RP session. That's unheard of nowadays. Still, the mantra of putting out something proportionate to what is put in was as in-effect then as it is now.
With the shorter write-ups both in JW and in TEAM though, there hasn't come a shortening in effort for individual RPs for the most part. The RPs aren't getting shorter by any means, at least the ones that are winning the matches. This, to me, that at least some folks are letting down their guards on wanting the fedheads to put as much out as they put in, if only for reasons of expediency. I've always been a firm believer in putting out what you get in, but I've also always liked having punctual results. The TEAM short-forms for me were always the happy medium, and for the most part, my guys didn't mind waiting for the extra special cards.
It's surprising that those among the angle/PTC crowd are also letting their guard down, but at the same time, maybe the perspective coming from growing up and empathizing with fedheads who have to juggle cardwriting with increasing real life responsibilities. Of course, the reasonable expectation is still there for other feds who have reliable matchwriters to fall back on, but I think we can all agree that places like PRIME and A1E have different structures than JW and are billed as differently. It's also safe to assume that people still like to write matches and big, long segments (more liking the latter than the former, I'd assume).
But playing off that last sentence, the second thing I thought about when thinking about JW is how long that structure will last. While it does take an inspired soul to actually like writing matches 24/7 (like that of Chris v. 2.2398423), segment writing seems to be a passion for most RPers, especially on the PTC side of things. I wonder how many times Hyde has gotten the request for a writer to put an embellished angle segment on the show, and if he hasn't, how long it's going to take. I'd hope that people lining up to join the fed realize that their commitments should be focused on RPing for the competition, since that's the niche that JW is seemingly providing.
I'm all for great storytelling, I really am. However, I do like to see some heterogeneity [sic] from time to time. When a niche fed comes up, I want to see it succeed. I didn't have such a hard-on for NFW back in the season format because Katz paid me. It was a great concept that I loved seeing and was sad to see go. NFW is still a great fed, one of the best in eW history, but for me, it was a little sad seeing the season format go away. Thus is life though, and Katz and JN had their reasons to switch over. Even now, their format is different enough from the other feds that it's still something unique in the game.
But back to JW, I really hope that people who join see the niche that the fed fills and want to work in context of that, not just because it happens to be the "hip" fed to join nowadays. I think Hyde is onto something here, and if he keeps going, he can have JW around for a long time with a varied roster of all-stars coming in and going out without any negative effect on the fed.
And it just goes to show that the more things change in this game, the more things tend to stay the same.
Showing posts with label atmosphere. Show all posts
Showing posts with label atmosphere. Show all posts
Monday, February 23, 2009
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Building the Fed: The basis
I know I've been Guy Incognito, or worse, Chad Merritt, Jr. :p, in terms of eW lately, but I'm not dead and I'm not disinterested. Anyway, a post over at PTC inspired this first post in an occasional series about building a good fed. The post in question, Global's fedhead basically vented about why his fed isn't well-respected around PTC. This post and series isn't going to be a direct response to that, but I figured, why not postulate on what I think is the best way to go in building a great fed.
So how does one go about building the ideal fed? People have ideas for feds all the time. Don't believe me? Just check the advertisement forums at any major eW hub. Usually, those adverts really aren't that effective, or I should say it seems they aren't that effective. No one I know bites on them unless it's a poster that is part of the community. For all I know, they could get bites from lurkers looking for a fed, but judging by how many times the same poster comes back with several adverts for new feds over periods of months, not a whole lot of these advertisements seem successful. It's reasonable to see why though. These guys are going out and stabbing in the dark, looking for guys to stock the fed that they may not have had contact with before.
Really, the best way to start a fed is networking, not shot-in-the-dark advertisement. I mean, when you just post on forums, you're reaching out to people for the most part that you don't know. The people whom you want to populate your fed probably won't read that post. You're basing the beginning of your fed on people that you may not be able to trust, and that's a risky proposition. That's not to say this method of advertisement shouldn't be used. If you know me, you know I post about TEAM events everywhere to get some more guys involved. However, I always have a core group of guys that I go to get involved before I post a single advertisement.
This is what anyone should do before he even puts the call out for roster members. You need to go out and privately contact those whom you want involved in your operation. You need to get handlers you can trust both to promote a healthy backstage environment and to produce quality writing to build your first couple of shows. Which handlers should you target though? Should you go for names? Should you go for friends?
Well, the kinds of handlers you go for depend on what your vision for the fed is going forward. If you're going into things blind, just starting a fed for the sake of starting a fed, your first shows are going to be lackluster. You need to have some kind of ground floor to build upon. Does this mean having an overarching fed-wide angle to start things off? Not necessarily. Your direction can be just an idea for the fed, or a philosophy. So then, once you have that vision in place, you go after guys that fit that vision. If your vision is to create the perfect competitive environment, you go for guys who go all-in when RPing. If you're doing an angle fed, you're going to look for outstanding segment writers. If you want to create a post-apocalyptic world where monkeys, llamas and pelicans are fighting in a turf-war involving the production of crystal meth, then contact Jon Katz for advice.
After you have that foundation in place, then you post the advertisement threads, and if you get a response, that's gravy. Still, when you get that response, you have to be ready to be a little selective, but that's fodder for another entry at another time...
So how does one go about building the ideal fed? People have ideas for feds all the time. Don't believe me? Just check the advertisement forums at any major eW hub. Usually, those adverts really aren't that effective, or I should say it seems they aren't that effective. No one I know bites on them unless it's a poster that is part of the community. For all I know, they could get bites from lurkers looking for a fed, but judging by how many times the same poster comes back with several adverts for new feds over periods of months, not a whole lot of these advertisements seem successful. It's reasonable to see why though. These guys are going out and stabbing in the dark, looking for guys to stock the fed that they may not have had contact with before.
Really, the best way to start a fed is networking, not shot-in-the-dark advertisement. I mean, when you just post on forums, you're reaching out to people for the most part that you don't know. The people whom you want to populate your fed probably won't read that post. You're basing the beginning of your fed on people that you may not be able to trust, and that's a risky proposition. That's not to say this method of advertisement shouldn't be used. If you know me, you know I post about TEAM events everywhere to get some more guys involved. However, I always have a core group of guys that I go to get involved before I post a single advertisement.
This is what anyone should do before he even puts the call out for roster members. You need to go out and privately contact those whom you want involved in your operation. You need to get handlers you can trust both to promote a healthy backstage environment and to produce quality writing to build your first couple of shows. Which handlers should you target though? Should you go for names? Should you go for friends?
Well, the kinds of handlers you go for depend on what your vision for the fed is going forward. If you're going into things blind, just starting a fed for the sake of starting a fed, your first shows are going to be lackluster. You need to have some kind of ground floor to build upon. Does this mean having an overarching fed-wide angle to start things off? Not necessarily. Your direction can be just an idea for the fed, or a philosophy. So then, once you have that vision in place, you go after guys that fit that vision. If your vision is to create the perfect competitive environment, you go for guys who go all-in when RPing. If you're doing an angle fed, you're going to look for outstanding segment writers. If you want to create a post-apocalyptic world where monkeys, llamas and pelicans are fighting in a turf-war involving the production of crystal meth, then contact Jon Katz for advice.
After you have that foundation in place, then you post the advertisement threads, and if you get a response, that's gravy. Still, when you get that response, you have to be ready to be a little selective, but that's fodder for another entry at another time...
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Apologies and the state of eW from my eyes
No folks, I'm not dead. I'm really not. Just between work and everything else, I've kinda neglected the blog. I don't like doing that, but sometimes, that's how it goes I suppose. I am working on a review for WrestleSTOCK, night 2, and hopefully, I can get that done before NEW and EPW get their next PPVs posted. I do want to say though that both feds should be proud of how the joint card went down. Edmunds, Brunk, Steve, Strawsma and everyone who RPed, wrote matches or had anything to do with the card should be damn proud of it. I really feel it was a rousing success and something that will be remembered in the FW community for a long time.
I'd like to take this opportunity to say a few things, address the communities and such.
First thing's first, I want to make a few apologies. One, I'd like to apologize to Katz, ChrisNova, Jeff, McNic and really everyone in NFW. I've been slacking on the v. 3.0 stuff, and I know people have been counting on me to contribute. It's not for lack of desire to work on NFW stuff, it's just I've budgeted my time really poorly, and I haven't adapted to the new schedule and degrees of freedom Katz has been affording the handlers since the new format has started. Plus, I've totally welched on the WrestleBowl Night 2 review, and really, that's a huge injustice to everyone who contributed to it, especially the UT finalists.
I'd like to extend apologies to Matt Ward, Fergus and the crew at PRIME. I know I left you guys, especially Fergus, in a lurch when I left. It's funny that I always seem to pump up feds that have timely schedules, yet when it comes to competing in a fed that has the excellent combination of punctuality and quality, I came up far short of what I should have been producing as a roster member. I let people down, and I hate doing that. So I'd like to say I'm sorry for that. You guys are running a fine show, and I'm sure that will continue in the future, with or without me.
Finally, I'd like to apologize to all the feds out there that I seem to have given the short shrift on coverage, mainly feds like FUSE and A1E. Please don't think my lack of coverage for your events is an indicator of how your feds are doing.
And now, to part two of the post.
There has been a lot of bemoaning about the state of the hobby lately. I know I've been guilty of perpetuating that with the blog from time to time, but really, with all the doomsaying and such, I really like where eW is at right now. It may not be the "golden age" but if you only want something in its golden age, you're really not interested in that thing all that much anyway, are you? I really do feel like the people involved right now are really involved, and they're making this thing work with very high levels of quality. The feds that are around are producing great results, be they at the punctual rates of feds like A1E and PRIME, or feds going at their own rates, like EPW and NEW.
You can pretty much go to any active fed that's listed in my sidebar here and find good to great writing. In the end, isn't that all you need to ask of any fed you want to participate in or follow? People are interested, people are gung-ho for the projects they are in. There are folks who are dedicated to the feds they're in. There are folks who are spreading across borders and breaking down barriers, challenging themselves in circles where they're not familiar.
I mean, you have guys like ChrisNova who are generally on fire. Craig Maloof is blazing trails both in his PTC home and in FW. Lindz, what else needs to be said about her that hasn't been already? NFW, NEW and EPW are all hot right now. Josh Ray is back pushing the up-and-coming talent in his MWCW. MBE is gaining momentum. Jarret, Phil, Andy and everyone involved in A1E is putting out quality stuff. NAPW and REBEL are still churning out great shows on their indie schedules. Hell, even folks that I've been at odds with in the past, guys like Arrows and William Morgan, are trying out TEAM along with the standbys that I've been able to count on over the past 18 months.
Sure, the new blood is only trickling in, but I'd take what we have right now over floods of new people who come in and flake. We need to stop worrying about the new blood or where all the angle feds have gone or all the doomsaying and concentrate on the positive. We need to concentrate on taking the trickle of new blood and cultivating them into valuable members of our communities. We need to stay positive and keep writing what we're writing. Otherwise, we perpetuate self-fulfilling prophecies of doom, longing for the days of the fWo and CSWA being titans instead of making our own feds that are active now into the feds that we talk about in years future.
I really do think that eW is flourishing right now. I commend everyone who is making that possible, and I think that if we keep up the way we're going right now, this hobby will always be in good shape, no matter what happens with the sport we emulate in real life.
I'd like to take this opportunity to say a few things, address the communities and such.
First thing's first, I want to make a few apologies. One, I'd like to apologize to Katz, ChrisNova, Jeff, McNic and really everyone in NFW. I've been slacking on the v. 3.0 stuff, and I know people have been counting on me to contribute. It's not for lack of desire to work on NFW stuff, it's just I've budgeted my time really poorly, and I haven't adapted to the new schedule and degrees of freedom Katz has been affording the handlers since the new format has started. Plus, I've totally welched on the WrestleBowl Night 2 review, and really, that's a huge injustice to everyone who contributed to it, especially the UT finalists.
I'd like to extend apologies to Matt Ward, Fergus and the crew at PRIME. I know I left you guys, especially Fergus, in a lurch when I left. It's funny that I always seem to pump up feds that have timely schedules, yet when it comes to competing in a fed that has the excellent combination of punctuality and quality, I came up far short of what I should have been producing as a roster member. I let people down, and I hate doing that. So I'd like to say I'm sorry for that. You guys are running a fine show, and I'm sure that will continue in the future, with or without me.
Finally, I'd like to apologize to all the feds out there that I seem to have given the short shrift on coverage, mainly feds like FUSE and A1E. Please don't think my lack of coverage for your events is an indicator of how your feds are doing.
And now, to part two of the post.
There has been a lot of bemoaning about the state of the hobby lately. I know I've been guilty of perpetuating that with the blog from time to time, but really, with all the doomsaying and such, I really like where eW is at right now. It may not be the "golden age" but if you only want something in its golden age, you're really not interested in that thing all that much anyway, are you? I really do feel like the people involved right now are really involved, and they're making this thing work with very high levels of quality. The feds that are around are producing great results, be they at the punctual rates of feds like A1E and PRIME, or feds going at their own rates, like EPW and NEW.
You can pretty much go to any active fed that's listed in my sidebar here and find good to great writing. In the end, isn't that all you need to ask of any fed you want to participate in or follow? People are interested, people are gung-ho for the projects they are in. There are folks who are dedicated to the feds they're in. There are folks who are spreading across borders and breaking down barriers, challenging themselves in circles where they're not familiar.
I mean, you have guys like ChrisNova who are generally on fire. Craig Maloof is blazing trails both in his PTC home and in FW. Lindz, what else needs to be said about her that hasn't been already? NFW, NEW and EPW are all hot right now. Josh Ray is back pushing the up-and-coming talent in his MWCW. MBE is gaining momentum. Jarret, Phil, Andy and everyone involved in A1E is putting out quality stuff. NAPW and REBEL are still churning out great shows on their indie schedules. Hell, even folks that I've been at odds with in the past, guys like Arrows and William Morgan, are trying out TEAM along with the standbys that I've been able to count on over the past 18 months.
Sure, the new blood is only trickling in, but I'd take what we have right now over floods of new people who come in and flake. We need to stop worrying about the new blood or where all the angle feds have gone or all the doomsaying and concentrate on the positive. We need to concentrate on taking the trickle of new blood and cultivating them into valuable members of our communities. We need to stay positive and keep writing what we're writing. Otherwise, we perpetuate self-fulfilling prophecies of doom, longing for the days of the fWo and CSWA being titans instead of making our own feds that are active now into the feds that we talk about in years future.
I really do think that eW is flourishing right now. I commend everyone who is making that possible, and I think that if we keep up the way we're going right now, this hobby will always be in good shape, no matter what happens with the sport we emulate in real life.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Random notes
Posting may be sparse from here til the middle of June, seeing as I'm on a hectic work schedule. Back and forth between central New Jersey, right in the middle of the armpit of America. Still, I haven't forgotten the blog or all of you out there.
- First up, I'd like to give a shout-out to a new old fed on the block.
J-j-j-j-j-j-j-enkins World Order... 4 life!
An old fed from FW's history run by our own Brian Jenkins is back up, and they've already gotten one show under their belts. Totally check this out, as it features at least one old face (Hida Yakamo), some great standby handlers doing new stuff (Aston, Shinder) and some newer faces (Mr. XYZ and AC Blood... sorry, don't know your handlers' names!). If this gets to take off, I have faith that it'll be a great fed for FW, filling a void that MCW tried to do when Bolich restarted it.
- Talking about drafts, over at W3:16, a thread about said idea turned into another classic snipefest that we've all come to know and love from that group of posters. Honestly, that thread is a microcosm about what bothers me about them; for one, you have your group of posters who have skin thinner than rice paper, and they take everything to heart quicker than it takes Homer Simpson to inhale a strawberry frosted donut. Then you have your uptight dicks who are more concerned with laying down rules for threads or for proposed ideas than they are for actually running the idea through in the first place. And then to top it all off, you have guys who come up with every idea in the book and then don't have the werewithal to follow through with anything other than a "oh, the hobby is dying, woe is us" sort of malaise for everything. I mean, looking in that thread, you had people argue on whether it was going to take time away from fed duties, whether it was a waste of time or not, which way was the most effective of getting the draft going... I'm sorry, but I have to say "What the fuckity fuck are you on about?"
A draft is something that should be an outlet for blowing off some steam and a chance for everyone to play recruiter without the burden of having to convince everyone to come in and RP and booker without the task of actually writing full cards. It's fun, pure and simple. If you can't just queue up the drafters and let 'er rip, then what's the point? Seriously. I thought I was overcomplicating things when I came up with my draft order and means of turnaround.
It's just another day at Black Rock for some of the folks there though. It's a wonder there's any activity there at all, what with the constant spectre of William Morgan coming in and berating you for not having historical perspective or for making things too much about "e-life" (a bullshit term if I ever heard one... and I'm in the eW conservative camp, just ask anyone at PTC when the wrestling relevance debate comes up :p), or about Tom Mason pontificating about some shit or Cimon or whoever the fuck Ser Trent et al. are starting shit to provoke any of those aforementioned with the rice paper skin. It also doesn't help that the one admin who's there most of the time contradicts the "no-to-low moderation" policy. You know, there have been ten topics sent to their recycle bin since they've opened in February of this year. In contrast, the "fascists" over at PTC haven't thrown out a thread since mid-December of last year, and one that hasn't been moved to their bin for moderation reasons since the beginning of that month. Hmm, kinda makes you think doesn't it?
I had such high hopes for that community, but then the rabble from EWN/cIm came over and ruined the place. There, I said it. I mean, there are more than a few good eggs who frequent/have frequented/used to frequent that place, like Medina, Katz, Bobby/Jerrod, VossMan, Edgar and Hollan but for the most part, it's a barren wasteland because of the rabble, the vocal minority that has polluted the place. And it's a shame too. Something like a draft could have easily revitalized that community, at least from a discussion standpoint.
I'll still go there, I'll post whenever I fancy a topic, I'll keep the NFW boards going when Katz posts shows, and I'll shill my TEAM stuff there, but man, that doesn't mean I can't bemoan the premature death of a could-have-been great site.
- Speaking of PTC, kudos to them for appointing Dave Cook as the moderator of the eW forum. He's one of the last of a dying breed, people who are enthusiastic about discussion of the hobby. Here's to hoping he can spark some good talk about goings on and maybe get some people on the feedback train. I know this oversteps the bounds of eW, but kudos on appointing Jay (Phoenix) and Thommy (Tsunami Oni/Plucky the Cockfighting Duck/Sun Tzu) as mods of the pro wrestling forum and Phil (Tarrant) of the sports forums. And on the same note, congrats to Jay on the birth of his son. May he follow in his father's footsteps and be the next breed of eW handlers ;)
- Start thinking about the Tournament of Champions. It's coming up sooner than you think, June or July depending on how fast we can get SuperShow IV written. SuperShow V will most likely be a short-formed card just so we don't hold things up too long. But yeah, for those who don't remember, the ToC is a "one-night" tournament in character. Out of kayfabe and in the RP phase, it's a three-round event. One round is dedicated to wrestling promo RPs, the second to storyline/off-camera RPs and the third is a wild-card round. Last year, it was backstage attacks. This year? Well, I haven't decided yet :) However, I promise it'll be good. You get a berth by being a singles Champion in your fed, a winner of a major interfed tournament or wrestler of the year award, the last holder of your fed's World Championship before the current holder or by being a special legend. Once again, this year's Legends List is a secret until I unveil it... be on your toes :)
- First up, I'd like to give a shout-out to a new old fed on the block.
J-j-j-j-j-j-j-enkins World Order... 4 life!
An old fed from FW's history run by our own Brian Jenkins is back up, and they've already gotten one show under their belts. Totally check this out, as it features at least one old face (Hida Yakamo), some great standby handlers doing new stuff (Aston, Shinder) and some newer faces (Mr. XYZ and AC Blood... sorry, don't know your handlers' names!). If this gets to take off, I have faith that it'll be a great fed for FW, filling a void that MCW tried to do when Bolich restarted it.
- Talking about drafts, over at W3:16, a thread about said idea turned into another classic snipefest that we've all come to know and love from that group of posters. Honestly, that thread is a microcosm about what bothers me about them; for one, you have your group of posters who have skin thinner than rice paper, and they take everything to heart quicker than it takes Homer Simpson to inhale a strawberry frosted donut. Then you have your uptight dicks who are more concerned with laying down rules for threads or for proposed ideas than they are for actually running the idea through in the first place. And then to top it all off, you have guys who come up with every idea in the book and then don't have the werewithal to follow through with anything other than a "oh, the hobby is dying, woe is us" sort of malaise for everything. I mean, looking in that thread, you had people argue on whether it was going to take time away from fed duties, whether it was a waste of time or not, which way was the most effective of getting the draft going... I'm sorry, but I have to say "What the fuckity fuck are you on about?"
A draft is something that should be an outlet for blowing off some steam and a chance for everyone to play recruiter without the burden of having to convince everyone to come in and RP and booker without the task of actually writing full cards. It's fun, pure and simple. If you can't just queue up the drafters and let 'er rip, then what's the point? Seriously. I thought I was overcomplicating things when I came up with my draft order and means of turnaround.
It's just another day at Black Rock for some of the folks there though. It's a wonder there's any activity there at all, what with the constant spectre of William Morgan coming in and berating you for not having historical perspective or for making things too much about "e-life" (a bullshit term if I ever heard one... and I'm in the eW conservative camp, just ask anyone at PTC when the wrestling relevance debate comes up :p), or about Tom Mason pontificating about some shit or Cimon or whoever the fuck Ser Trent et al. are starting shit to provoke any of those aforementioned with the rice paper skin. It also doesn't help that the one admin who's there most of the time contradicts the "no-to-low moderation" policy. You know, there have been ten topics sent to their recycle bin since they've opened in February of this year. In contrast, the "fascists" over at PTC haven't thrown out a thread since mid-December of last year, and one that hasn't been moved to their bin for moderation reasons since the beginning of that month. Hmm, kinda makes you think doesn't it?
I had such high hopes for that community, but then the rabble from EWN/cIm came over and ruined the place. There, I said it. I mean, there are more than a few good eggs who frequent/have frequented/used to frequent that place, like Medina, Katz, Bobby/Jerrod, VossMan, Edgar and Hollan but for the most part, it's a barren wasteland because of the rabble, the vocal minority that has polluted the place. And it's a shame too. Something like a draft could have easily revitalized that community, at least from a discussion standpoint.
I'll still go there, I'll post whenever I fancy a topic, I'll keep the NFW boards going when Katz posts shows, and I'll shill my TEAM stuff there, but man, that doesn't mean I can't bemoan the premature death of a could-have-been great site.
- Speaking of PTC, kudos to them for appointing Dave Cook as the moderator of the eW forum. He's one of the last of a dying breed, people who are enthusiastic about discussion of the hobby. Here's to hoping he can spark some good talk about goings on and maybe get some people on the feedback train. I know this oversteps the bounds of eW, but kudos on appointing Jay (Phoenix) and Thommy (Tsunami Oni/Plucky the Cockfighting Duck/Sun Tzu) as mods of the pro wrestling forum and Phil (Tarrant) of the sports forums. And on the same note, congrats to Jay on the birth of his son. May he follow in his father's footsteps and be the next breed of eW handlers ;)
- Start thinking about the Tournament of Champions. It's coming up sooner than you think, June or July depending on how fast we can get SuperShow IV written. SuperShow V will most likely be a short-formed card just so we don't hold things up too long. But yeah, for those who don't remember, the ToC is a "one-night" tournament in character. Out of kayfabe and in the RP phase, it's a three-round event. One round is dedicated to wrestling promo RPs, the second to storyline/off-camera RPs and the third is a wild-card round. Last year, it was backstage attacks. This year? Well, I haven't decided yet :) However, I promise it'll be good. You get a berth by being a singles Champion in your fed, a winner of a major interfed tournament or wrestler of the year award, the last holder of your fed's World Championship before the current holder or by being a special legend. Once again, this year's Legends List is a secret until I unveil it... be on your toes :)
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Paranoia runs deep
Yeah, I haven't been too active in the last couple of weeks, but that's because I've been a mite busy lately. That also means that I'm probably not going to catch up back fed happenings enough to actually sit down and write reviews for shows, even if they're quickie reviews. It just wouldn't be timely for me to write a Cold Snap or Revolution or even a Culture Shock review in the middle to end of April. I still plan on reading everything, but just to make things clear, so that when you don't see your fed's show reviewed here, don't take it personally.
Anyway, now that that's out of the way, ze post!
By our own admissions, most of our main characters are extensions of ourselves. So many times I've heard in IMs or seen in profiles that so-and-so is an extension of the handler or is that handler's real-life personality "turned up to eleven." (Just one of Spinal Tap's many gifts to our fair society!) Because of that, it can sometimes be very, very hard to keep our OOC feelings from spilling over into promos. As natural as that is for characters who are extensions of ourselves, we should also keep in mind that there is a fine line between spillage and shootage. We don't want to get too chippy, or else things aren't fun anymore.
However, there are people out there who feel that the line isn't as fine as it really is. As much as you can have people who freely cross the line and shoot on folks as part of their promo style (put the gun down, Gerlach, I'm not ripping you :p), the opposite perspective is true, i.e., there are those out there who think that the slightest comment that could be taken as a shoot is a shoot. I'm talking about the paranoid, the hypersensitive, those who could literally take the teenage-FW "i r better than u lol" style in today's game and think that the kid is shooting on them.
Let's take the most recent example of this, which is in truth the impetus for this entry. On the latest FUSE card, Ryan and Craig thought it would be a larf to promote their PTC Global/Extreme Title Unification Match. In doing so, Craig's character Dusk, a member of PRIME, came onto the show and cut an in-ring promo. In that promo, he put down several members of FUSE, including the World Champion. To many people, to most sane people, this would be a non-issue. However, there was a vocal contingient on the FUSE roster who screamed bloody murder at the fact an outsider came onto the show and buried their Universal Champion. They complained that it made their fed look bushleague and said that things like this wouldn't happen between the WWE and TNA. Let me take this apart one by one.
First off, the whole basis of at least 75% of wrestling promos is to badmouth someone. A past opponent, present opponent, future opponent, someone who isn't you, I mean, watch any wrestling program in the last 20 years and you will see big, sweaty guys talking smack about people they're not supposed to like in character. It's a huge part of the game. So what if Dusk came in and ran down John Covel? He's a member of another promotion, trying to build heat for an upcoming match with a member of that promotion. What do you expect him to do, come in and give Covel an verbal blowjob, just so people's feelings won't get hurt? Christ, where have these people been for the last forever? Since when has a wrestling promo been the measure for OOC or off-camera respect? When Shawn Michaels feuded with Diesel and Razor Ramon, I can bet you any amount of money that at the end of the day, Michael Hickenbottom was going to be hanging out, probably throwing back brews or just relaxing with Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, no matter what kind of words were being thrown around on-camera, and do you know why? Because they understood that everything on-camera was SCRIPTED!
Diverging off-track for a moment here, it's interesting to note that this happened on the PTC side of things, where some people admittedly don't RP about wrestling related things. I've never read a FUSE RP, and to be fair, I really don't read RPs in general, not for PRIME, the PTC interfed, even in FW feds most of the time unless it's TEAM. I can't tell you from firsthand experience whether this is true for FUSE or not, but the fact that people have admitted that they don't RP about wrestling and the fact that people who do read RPs complain about this points to a problem that could have lead to this blowup. People may have become so out of touch with how wrestling works (since there are many in this hobby who don't watch the real thing anymore... I was one of those people until WrestleMania and Raw the night after sucked me back in) that they don't know what a wrestling promo is anymore. They're more concerned with getting their writing out for feedback that anything negative is construed as an attack, even if the giver of that negativity clearly doesn't mean in out-of-character. (And isn't it funny that one guy who is the most blatant about not including wrestling in his RPs has the best grasp of this idea?)
Back on track now, for whatever reason, people couldn't grasp that. Their reasoning was "hey, it never happens in real life!" Well, it actually does. ROH, indie feds and puro feds often have talent going back and forth among each other. Of course, those are on a level here below consciousness (i.e., the national major promotions), so I have to agree, it doesn't happen up there. But let me ask you this question... where at in America can you find a construct such as PTC? Major, national promotions in cooperation with each other... that's unheard of, it's something we have unique to us, so who's to say we have to apply artificial rules that correspond to the real world for us? The facts are these; FUSE and PRIME are in a loose relationship where there are Championships and tournaments involved. To me, they'd be silly not to cooperate if it meant that both companies could benefit from this. I believe they'd benefit from it financially if they were both real companies, and there's no question that they're benefitting now. I mean, when you get activity like this, you get people who wouldn't normally read FUSE checking in to find out the latest dealings with the interfed or checking on one of their own from PRIME. Then you may have someone who reads the whole show and likes it. Then, people who were for, against or even unaware that something like that was going down benefitting from it because more people are paying attention to their writing. How is that a bad situation?
The answer is that it's only as bad as people let themselves make it out to be. This whole ordeal could have been avoided had the people crying about everything took a few steps back and realized that everything was in character. No one was shooting, and Criag has said on many occasions after that he's had nothing but respect for FUSE. Still, people want to be up in arms about it. Well, it's their loss for taking everything so damn seriously. If you keep a light air about you and you keep everything in perspective, then you'll do fine in this game. However, the moment you start thinking that everyone's out to get you, even if they're just playing the game themselves, you're going to cause a lot of problems for you and for everyone else.
Anyway, now that that's out of the way, ze post!
By our own admissions, most of our main characters are extensions of ourselves. So many times I've heard in IMs or seen in profiles that so-and-so is an extension of the handler or is that handler's real-life personality "turned up to eleven." (Just one of Spinal Tap's many gifts to our fair society!) Because of that, it can sometimes be very, very hard to keep our OOC feelings from spilling over into promos. As natural as that is for characters who are extensions of ourselves, we should also keep in mind that there is a fine line between spillage and shootage. We don't want to get too chippy, or else things aren't fun anymore.
However, there are people out there who feel that the line isn't as fine as it really is. As much as you can have people who freely cross the line and shoot on folks as part of their promo style (put the gun down, Gerlach, I'm not ripping you :p), the opposite perspective is true, i.e., there are those out there who think that the slightest comment that could be taken as a shoot is a shoot. I'm talking about the paranoid, the hypersensitive, those who could literally take the teenage-FW "i r better than u lol" style in today's game and think that the kid is shooting on them.
Let's take the most recent example of this, which is in truth the impetus for this entry. On the latest FUSE card, Ryan and Craig thought it would be a larf to promote their PTC Global/Extreme Title Unification Match. In doing so, Craig's character Dusk, a member of PRIME, came onto the show and cut an in-ring promo. In that promo, he put down several members of FUSE, including the World Champion. To many people, to most sane people, this would be a non-issue. However, there was a vocal contingient on the FUSE roster who screamed bloody murder at the fact an outsider came onto the show and buried their Universal Champion. They complained that it made their fed look bushleague and said that things like this wouldn't happen between the WWE and TNA. Let me take this apart one by one.
First off, the whole basis of at least 75% of wrestling promos is to badmouth someone. A past opponent, present opponent, future opponent, someone who isn't you, I mean, watch any wrestling program in the last 20 years and you will see big, sweaty guys talking smack about people they're not supposed to like in character. It's a huge part of the game. So what if Dusk came in and ran down John Covel? He's a member of another promotion, trying to build heat for an upcoming match with a member of that promotion. What do you expect him to do, come in and give Covel an verbal blowjob, just so people's feelings won't get hurt? Christ, where have these people been for the last forever? Since when has a wrestling promo been the measure for OOC or off-camera respect? When Shawn Michaels feuded with Diesel and Razor Ramon, I can bet you any amount of money that at the end of the day, Michael Hickenbottom was going to be hanging out, probably throwing back brews or just relaxing with Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, no matter what kind of words were being thrown around on-camera, and do you know why? Because they understood that everything on-camera was SCRIPTED!
Diverging off-track for a moment here, it's interesting to note that this happened on the PTC side of things, where some people admittedly don't RP about wrestling related things. I've never read a FUSE RP, and to be fair, I really don't read RPs in general, not for PRIME, the PTC interfed, even in FW feds most of the time unless it's TEAM. I can't tell you from firsthand experience whether this is true for FUSE or not, but the fact that people have admitted that they don't RP about wrestling and the fact that people who do read RPs complain about this points to a problem that could have lead to this blowup. People may have become so out of touch with how wrestling works (since there are many in this hobby who don't watch the real thing anymore... I was one of those people until WrestleMania and Raw the night after sucked me back in) that they don't know what a wrestling promo is anymore. They're more concerned with getting their writing out for feedback that anything negative is construed as an attack, even if the giver of that negativity clearly doesn't mean in out-of-character. (And isn't it funny that one guy who is the most blatant about not including wrestling in his RPs has the best grasp of this idea?)
Back on track now, for whatever reason, people couldn't grasp that. Their reasoning was "hey, it never happens in real life!" Well, it actually does. ROH, indie feds and puro feds often have talent going back and forth among each other. Of course, those are on a level here below consciousness (i.e., the national major promotions), so I have to agree, it doesn't happen up there. But let me ask you this question... where at in America can you find a construct such as PTC? Major, national promotions in cooperation with each other... that's unheard of, it's something we have unique to us, so who's to say we have to apply artificial rules that correspond to the real world for us? The facts are these; FUSE and PRIME are in a loose relationship where there are Championships and tournaments involved. To me, they'd be silly not to cooperate if it meant that both companies could benefit from this. I believe they'd benefit from it financially if they were both real companies, and there's no question that they're benefitting now. I mean, when you get activity like this, you get people who wouldn't normally read FUSE checking in to find out the latest dealings with the interfed or checking on one of their own from PRIME. Then you may have someone who reads the whole show and likes it. Then, people who were for, against or even unaware that something like that was going down benefitting from it because more people are paying attention to their writing. How is that a bad situation?
The answer is that it's only as bad as people let themselves make it out to be. This whole ordeal could have been avoided had the people crying about everything took a few steps back and realized that everything was in character. No one was shooting, and Criag has said on many occasions after that he's had nothing but respect for FUSE. Still, people want to be up in arms about it. Well, it's their loss for taking everything so damn seriously. If you keep a light air about you and you keep everything in perspective, then you'll do fine in this game. However, the moment you start thinking that everyone's out to get you, even if they're just playing the game themselves, you're going to cause a lot of problems for you and for everyone else.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Guest Bloggings: Teh R3n3gade
Just when you thought that the guest bloggings stopped... they haven't! (a reminder to everyone who promised a blog and haven't delivered yet.... there's still time :p) This week, we get yet another PRIMEate (although he's a recent one... he made his PTC bones in GCW) in the from of Andrew Delling, handler of GTT5 Champion "The Renegade" Rich Rollins and Iblis. Here goes...
The Tale of the Tape
by Andrew Delling, special guest to RRoaEL
Somebody once said "… no chance in hell," and suddenly, I was hooked.
If you're reading this entry, I'm going to assume two things; a). your childhood was spent watching the likes of Hulk Hogan or Stone Cold Steve Austin suplex your television on a weekly basis, and b). you couldn't get enough of it, no matter how much crap you had to swallow from family and friends. In short, if you're reading this now, you almost certainly learned to appreciate the theater of professional wrestling (not this new-fangled sports entertainment bullshit, but that good old fashioned professional wrastlin') before falling in love with the athletic, almost poetic, and undeniably hypnotic nature of the business. On a side note, aren't "real" professional sports entertaining, too? What makes pro wrestling so spectacular?
The short answer: storytelling. It isn't a dirty word, folks. It's the magic word.
Every single conceivable storyline, whether original or otherwise, has in some way been represented on Monday night television courtesy of Vincent K. McMahon. Angry protagonist looking for revenge? Check. Jealous lover looking for retribution? Check. Ambitious newcomer looking to climb the corporate ladder, regardless the cost or condition? Ditto. Lesbian adultery? Yup. Devious villains looking for new and creative ways to defile the corpse of Katie Vick? Done and double-checked.
Most people dismiss these stories as testosterone-infused flights of operatic fiction, carried out on a canvas stage surrounded by the lowest of brow and whitest of trash, but seriously… when did "opera" become synonymous with "oppression?" Fuck the critics. I'm not ashamed of my fascination with so-called low-brow entertainment. After all, if we all started condemning our baser instincts, strip clubs wouldn't be far behind on the endangered species list; tittie bars might make good company with the manatee, but wouldn't that just make us all a bunch of dumbasses?
Okay, I know what you're thinking. What the hell does all this have to do with e-wrestling? It's simple; this hobby strives to celebrate and emulate our (once) preferred form of entertainment through writing stories. Some people act it out with mattresses in their backyard, others in hotly-contested video game re-enactments, and some like to live it out through message boards and AIM conversations on the internet. Hell, for anyone reading this, at some point or another it was probably all three. I've been there, done that, and have the embarrassing backyard videos to prove it.
Our emulation of the "real" pro wrestling is so spot-on, in fact, that we've taken not only the muscles-and-spandex spectacle of Monday night television and made it our own, but we've adopted a far less endearing aspect of the business: the bullshit. The drama. The backstage bickering. The "politics."
This is a statement on the hobby as a whole: unless your name is Jesse Ventura, you have no business as a backstage politician. Feeling like you have to walk on eggshells simply so you can maintain friendships is stupid, but believe me, it happens. Don't get me wrong; a good eighty percent of the time I've devoted to e-wrestling over the past seven years has been fantastic. Without a doubt, this hobby has changed my life in ways that I'd have never thought possible. It cultivates a healthy, hands-on approach to creative writing, and whether or not you actually consider yourself a writer is irrelevant. We don't do this for money, we do this because it's passionate and sincere, and we do it on our terms. That's the very definition of art, and I'm damn proud to be part of it.
This isn't World of Warcraft (thank god). The irony of it is, it's people like us and communities like this that were the foundation of massively successful games like Everquest and its bastard spawn. Remember when online roleplaying was in its infancy, when it gave pimply D&D fans a chat room or email service to conduct their campaigns through? I remember simming, personally. "Simulation" rooms were all the rave back when AOL was actually a monthly service provider and not just a free instant messenger. This new MMO craze is just the next step on the ladder of roleplaying evolution, where big software companies are injecting our imaginations with formaldehyde and providing us with a flashy, graphics-oriented alternative. There's a huge difference between an (overly-indulged, goddamn life-sucking) MMO and e-wrestling. We create something new every time we sit down at the keyboard, because we build our own world. Blizzard fans are just playing in someone else's sandbox, and personally, they can keep their crusty catshit surprises all to themselves.
I'm not segueing any of this very well, am I? I apologize for the erratic changes of topics here, but hell, I'm just saying some things "out loud" that I've been mulling over for awhile now. Anyway, I'll cut to the chase.
E-wrestling as a whole is kinda like a Baskin Robins ice cream parlor. Our true appeal is in the variety of our styles, our flavors. The old-school script-style trash talkers are like the amaretto chocolate next to the fledgling novelist's strawberry pecan. You want a more traditional, grassroots grasp that focuses on the entertainment value instead of the writing? Try the vanilla. It's the staple of any decent sundae.
Just remember that at the end of the day, you can't make a banana split without the chocolate and strawberry, too.
On the whole, the majority of e-wrestling has been the same solid core groups of people who are the cornerstone of any given e-wrestling community. Most of us have known one another for years. We've grown up together, matured together (well…), and become a voice together. The hobby is healthier than it's ever been, and you want to know why? It isn't about playing some numbers game, about the steady decline of our "real" alternative, or even the lack of fresh meat trickling in from the digital void; it's about the evolution of the game itself, and from looking around at how far we've come, once again, I'm proud to have been around to watch it happen.
Now, watch me eat my words when the world's first eW MMO hits store shelves next Fall.
The Tale of the Tape
by Andrew Delling, special guest to RRoaEL
Somebody once said "… no chance in hell," and suddenly, I was hooked.
If you're reading this entry, I'm going to assume two things; a). your childhood was spent watching the likes of Hulk Hogan or Stone Cold Steve Austin suplex your television on a weekly basis, and b). you couldn't get enough of it, no matter how much crap you had to swallow from family and friends. In short, if you're reading this now, you almost certainly learned to appreciate the theater of professional wrestling (not this new-fangled sports entertainment bullshit, but that good old fashioned professional wrastlin') before falling in love with the athletic, almost poetic, and undeniably hypnotic nature of the business. On a side note, aren't "real" professional sports entertaining, too? What makes pro wrestling so spectacular?
The short answer: storytelling. It isn't a dirty word, folks. It's the magic word.
Every single conceivable storyline, whether original or otherwise, has in some way been represented on Monday night television courtesy of Vincent K. McMahon. Angry protagonist looking for revenge? Check. Jealous lover looking for retribution? Check. Ambitious newcomer looking to climb the corporate ladder, regardless the cost or condition? Ditto. Lesbian adultery? Yup. Devious villains looking for new and creative ways to defile the corpse of Katie Vick? Done and double-checked.
Most people dismiss these stories as testosterone-infused flights of operatic fiction, carried out on a canvas stage surrounded by the lowest of brow and whitest of trash, but seriously… when did "opera" become synonymous with "oppression?" Fuck the critics. I'm not ashamed of my fascination with so-called low-brow entertainment. After all, if we all started condemning our baser instincts, strip clubs wouldn't be far behind on the endangered species list; tittie bars might make good company with the manatee, but wouldn't that just make us all a bunch of dumbasses?
Okay, I know what you're thinking. What the hell does all this have to do with e-wrestling? It's simple; this hobby strives to celebrate and emulate our (once) preferred form of entertainment through writing stories. Some people act it out with mattresses in their backyard, others in hotly-contested video game re-enactments, and some like to live it out through message boards and AIM conversations on the internet. Hell, for anyone reading this, at some point or another it was probably all three. I've been there, done that, and have the embarrassing backyard videos to prove it.
Our emulation of the "real" pro wrestling is so spot-on, in fact, that we've taken not only the muscles-and-spandex spectacle of Monday night television and made it our own, but we've adopted a far less endearing aspect of the business: the bullshit. The drama. The backstage bickering. The "politics."
This is a statement on the hobby as a whole: unless your name is Jesse Ventura, you have no business as a backstage politician. Feeling like you have to walk on eggshells simply so you can maintain friendships is stupid, but believe me, it happens. Don't get me wrong; a good eighty percent of the time I've devoted to e-wrestling over the past seven years has been fantastic. Without a doubt, this hobby has changed my life in ways that I'd have never thought possible. It cultivates a healthy, hands-on approach to creative writing, and whether or not you actually consider yourself a writer is irrelevant. We don't do this for money, we do this because it's passionate and sincere, and we do it on our terms. That's the very definition of art, and I'm damn proud to be part of it.
This isn't World of Warcraft (thank god). The irony of it is, it's people like us and communities like this that were the foundation of massively successful games like Everquest and its bastard spawn. Remember when online roleplaying was in its infancy, when it gave pimply D&D fans a chat room or email service to conduct their campaigns through? I remember simming, personally. "Simulation" rooms were all the rave back when AOL was actually a monthly service provider and not just a free instant messenger. This new MMO craze is just the next step on the ladder of roleplaying evolution, where big software companies are injecting our imaginations with formaldehyde and providing us with a flashy, graphics-oriented alternative. There's a huge difference between an (overly-indulged, goddamn life-sucking) MMO and e-wrestling. We create something new every time we sit down at the keyboard, because we build our own world. Blizzard fans are just playing in someone else's sandbox, and personally, they can keep their crusty catshit surprises all to themselves.
I'm not segueing any of this very well, am I? I apologize for the erratic changes of topics here, but hell, I'm just saying some things "out loud" that I've been mulling over for awhile now. Anyway, I'll cut to the chase.
E-wrestling as a whole is kinda like a Baskin Robins ice cream parlor. Our true appeal is in the variety of our styles, our flavors. The old-school script-style trash talkers are like the amaretto chocolate next to the fledgling novelist's strawberry pecan. You want a more traditional, grassroots grasp that focuses on the entertainment value instead of the writing? Try the vanilla. It's the staple of any decent sundae.
Just remember that at the end of the day, you can't make a banana split without the chocolate and strawberry, too.
On the whole, the majority of e-wrestling has been the same solid core groups of people who are the cornerstone of any given e-wrestling community. Most of us have known one another for years. We've grown up together, matured together (well…), and become a voice together. The hobby is healthier than it's ever been, and you want to know why? It isn't about playing some numbers game, about the steady decline of our "real" alternative, or even the lack of fresh meat trickling in from the digital void; it's about the evolution of the game itself, and from looking around at how far we've come, once again, I'm proud to have been around to watch it happen.
Now, watch me eat my words when the world's first eW MMO hits store shelves next Fall.
Sunday, September 24, 2006
OOC Atmosphere
Reader Pierre Hyde from "over there" asks "What are the features of the perfect OOC atmosphere, and how does one go about creating it?"
Well, the perfect OOC atmosphere is where every handler has every handler in the fed on their AIM/Yahoo/MSN buddy list, and they all talk to each other on a regular basis. Everyone talks constructively about angles and matches and feuds... it's not just a cocksucking festival. People offer grounded praise, civil doubts and helpful hints. There'd be no feedback threads because there'd be no need for them. Shows would be full of angles from everyone, but not too many segments.
However, it's safe to say this will never happen. So what's as close to perfect as you can get? Well, basically, you have to have people who aren't afraid to give feedback and people who for the most part aren't afraid to accept it without getting their panties in a bunch. You need a fedhead who's a good people person too, just in case the immature personalities flare up. You need to treat cancers as quickly as possible, either by expulsion or careful private conversation.
I also think that the best way to get a good OOC atmosphere is to make sure that you're running the fed well. Just like winning is the best medicine for containing asshats like TO, putting out great results week in and week out is the best medicine for keeping the rabble in line. If you don't give the Jeremy J.s and Matt Haas' of the world a reason to cry, they won't cry.
So there you have it. Great OOC environment for dummies ;)
Before I go... two things.
One, A1E posted their flagship Golden Dreams over the weekend. I will give it the full review treatment sometime this week, but for now, I post the link and say READ~! Great stuff all around, and a big suprise return.
Speaking of surprise returns... go check out PRIME's new site, and their latest show, ReV 105. They had a surprise return too. A huge one. Want a hint? Too bad, I'm not telling you >=)
Well, the perfect OOC atmosphere is where every handler has every handler in the fed on their AIM/Yahoo/MSN buddy list, and they all talk to each other on a regular basis. Everyone talks constructively about angles and matches and feuds... it's not just a cocksucking festival. People offer grounded praise, civil doubts and helpful hints. There'd be no feedback threads because there'd be no need for them. Shows would be full of angles from everyone, but not too many segments.
However, it's safe to say this will never happen. So what's as close to perfect as you can get? Well, basically, you have to have people who aren't afraid to give feedback and people who for the most part aren't afraid to accept it without getting their panties in a bunch. You need a fedhead who's a good people person too, just in case the immature personalities flare up. You need to treat cancers as quickly as possible, either by expulsion or careful private conversation.
I also think that the best way to get a good OOC atmosphere is to make sure that you're running the fed well. Just like winning is the best medicine for containing asshats like TO, putting out great results week in and week out is the best medicine for keeping the rabble in line. If you don't give the Jeremy J.s and Matt Haas' of the world a reason to cry, they won't cry.
So there you have it. Great OOC environment for dummies ;)
Before I go... two things.
One, A1E posted their flagship Golden Dreams over the weekend. I will give it the full review treatment sometime this week, but for now, I post the link and say READ~! Great stuff all around, and a big suprise return.
Speaking of surprise returns... go check out PRIME's new site, and their latest show, ReV 105. They had a surprise return too. A huge one. Want a hint? Too bad, I'm not telling you >=)
Monday, August 07, 2006
Negative feedback
I asked Josh Kalveledge, who handles Garbage Bag Johnny in AWC, the very tactful and tasteful question yesterday "Who do I gotta blow to get someone other than you to leave me feedback?" It was half-joking, of course. I mean, yeah, I'd like to see more people give me feedback, but then again, I really don't have time to read a lot of RPs myself, so I don't give it either. But that's not the point of this post.
I often times get afraid that people don't like what I've written if they don't leave feedback. You'd probably say that I shouldn't think that way, that the e-fed community on the whole (outside of a few pockets here and there) is apathetic. If no one says anything, then they probably haven't read it or they read it and are too lazy to post in a feedback thread. Or maybe they're too inhibited. Why?
Because they don't want to run the risk of leaving negative feedback and thus hurting feelings. Not everyone is good at giving or accepting constructive crticism. I've been guilty on both ends. Because e-fedding is such a cooperative hobby, if you feel like you've offended someone by telling them their writing/angle/feud/whatever could be better, then you think you could be running the risk of having them hate you, have a vendetta against you or just not want to work with you. It sucks.
That's why I'm afraid when people don't leave me feedback. I'm afraid that they don't like my work. But in the end, I tell myself three things.
- Not everyone is going to like your work.
- Maybe you do need to improve if people don't like your work.
- You don't leave a whole lot of feedback yourself, so stop whining.
The first and last two are easy to deal with. The middle one though... how are you going to be able to improve if people don't tell you what they think you're doing wrong? That's the whole point of feedback. It's not to fellate each other. Nothing is gained by posting threads with caps locked titles saying "OMG LOOK AT SO AND SO'S 23 PAGE RP OPUS!" Something is gained, however, through subdued praise and through civil constructive criticism.
I'm not going to sit here and lie to you that praise shouldn't be doled out at all. When you tell someone you like their work, that's an enormous confidence booster, and it can help them improve through boosting their confidence levels. They dare to explore, push new envelopes, improve because they know they have a captive audience wanting to read their stuff. I mean, I hate the overboard OMG stuff, but if you keep it low-key, you can do some good.
In the same vein, people SHOULD be able to tell constructive criticism from flaming. Some people take the former as the latter, and that can ruin the feedback process for us all. Therefore, I say to everyone to take criticism in stride. I know it's easier said than done, but if we all strive to be able to give criticism without being dicks and taking it without being a sandy vagina, the flow of ideas will be much less constricted.
And maybe I won't have to blow anyone to get meaningful feedback for my work ;)
I often times get afraid that people don't like what I've written if they don't leave feedback. You'd probably say that I shouldn't think that way, that the e-fed community on the whole (outside of a few pockets here and there) is apathetic. If no one says anything, then they probably haven't read it or they read it and are too lazy to post in a feedback thread. Or maybe they're too inhibited. Why?
Because they don't want to run the risk of leaving negative feedback and thus hurting feelings. Not everyone is good at giving or accepting constructive crticism. I've been guilty on both ends. Because e-fedding is such a cooperative hobby, if you feel like you've offended someone by telling them their writing/angle/feud/whatever could be better, then you think you could be running the risk of having them hate you, have a vendetta against you or just not want to work with you. It sucks.
That's why I'm afraid when people don't leave me feedback. I'm afraid that they don't like my work. But in the end, I tell myself three things.
- Not everyone is going to like your work.
- Maybe you do need to improve if people don't like your work.
- You don't leave a whole lot of feedback yourself, so stop whining.
The first and last two are easy to deal with. The middle one though... how are you going to be able to improve if people don't tell you what they think you're doing wrong? That's the whole point of feedback. It's not to fellate each other. Nothing is gained by posting threads with caps locked titles saying "OMG LOOK AT SO AND SO'S 23 PAGE RP OPUS!" Something is gained, however, through subdued praise and through civil constructive criticism.
I'm not going to sit here and lie to you that praise shouldn't be doled out at all. When you tell someone you like their work, that's an enormous confidence booster, and it can help them improve through boosting their confidence levels. They dare to explore, push new envelopes, improve because they know they have a captive audience wanting to read their stuff. I mean, I hate the overboard OMG stuff, but if you keep it low-key, you can do some good.
In the same vein, people SHOULD be able to tell constructive criticism from flaming. Some people take the former as the latter, and that can ruin the feedback process for us all. Therefore, I say to everyone to take criticism in stride. I know it's easier said than done, but if we all strive to be able to give criticism without being dicks and taking it without being a sandy vagina, the flow of ideas will be much less constricted.
And maybe I won't have to blow anyone to get meaningful feedback for my work ;)
Monday, August 15, 2005
Who's big?
I ranted before about why joining a fed only for big names is bullshit, but soon thereafter on PTC, there was a thread about who was big in e-fedding.
Mind you, I'm fairly virgin to the PTC community, and most of the people I've encountered there (Nova, Angelo Deville, Pants being exceptions) seem to be self-important at first glance, but I was very unfamiliar with all the names they threw out save a few (Deville, KVC, Rook Black). But it got me to wondering.
Who are the big names on the A1/FW combined super-circuit?
Basically a big name is someone you, as a fed-head, want in your fed to help anchor it. The best of the best, the creme de la creme.
So here are the big names of handlers (not characters, but handlers... because a character is only as good as the handler, and usually a good handler will give you a good character) in two categories. One is the names you want, you as in general, the sort of consensus of what the people I've talked to would want in their feds, and the second is my own personal wishlist of whom I'd want in any fed I was starting.
THE BIG NAMES YOU WANT:
Dave Brunk (Dan Ryan), Michael McNichols (Michael Manson), Jamar Nicholas (Eddie Mayfield), Gregg Gethard (Troy Windham, a slew of others), Joe Lebron (Maelstrom), Jarrett Aubry (Beast, Gladiator), Lindz (Lindsay Troy), Jason Martin (Shane Southern, Vladimir Vlachinko), Jon Katz (Craig Miles, Mike Randalls), Chad Merritt (Hornet), Steve Thomas (Mark Windham, Joey Melton), Pete Russo (Eli Flair), Dan West (The Spoiler, a million others), Bill Dempsey (Freakfish, a half-million others), Phil Banet (Big Dog, Richard Farnswirth), Roger Albrecht (Housefly, Haven, others), Jeff Paternostro (Hida and Yori Jr. of the Yakamo clan)
Those are the guys in either circuit that if you have one or two of them in a startup fed of yours, you're probably thinking to yourself "I done good, didn't I?" They're the names that get people talking about feds.
Now, my own list:
Brunk, Nicholas, Gethard, Aubry, Lindz, Martin, Katz, Merritt, Thomas, Russo, West, Dempsey, Banet, Paternostro, James Irish (James Irish, Kanna Kirishima), Nick *don't know his last name* (Mr. Hyde), Bryon *don't know his last name either* (Nemesys, Drifter), Russell Harder (Alias), Jeff Bolichkowski (Christian Sands), Joe Mendelsohn (Boogie Smallz)
Those are the guys that if I was starting a fed, I wouldn't think twice about giving any of them a World Title reign because I'd feel like they'd give me all I would expect out of them and so much more.
Mind you, I'm fairly virgin to the PTC community, and most of the people I've encountered there (Nova, Angelo Deville, Pants being exceptions) seem to be self-important at first glance, but I was very unfamiliar with all the names they threw out save a few (Deville, KVC, Rook Black). But it got me to wondering.
Who are the big names on the A1/FW combined super-circuit?
Basically a big name is someone you, as a fed-head, want in your fed to help anchor it. The best of the best, the creme de la creme.
So here are the big names of handlers (not characters, but handlers... because a character is only as good as the handler, and usually a good handler will give you a good character) in two categories. One is the names you want, you as in general, the sort of consensus of what the people I've talked to would want in their feds, and the second is my own personal wishlist of whom I'd want in any fed I was starting.
THE BIG NAMES YOU WANT:
Dave Brunk (Dan Ryan), Michael McNichols (Michael Manson), Jamar Nicholas (Eddie Mayfield), Gregg Gethard (Troy Windham, a slew of others), Joe Lebron (Maelstrom), Jarrett Aubry (Beast, Gladiator), Lindz (Lindsay Troy), Jason Martin (Shane Southern, Vladimir Vlachinko), Jon Katz (Craig Miles, Mike Randalls), Chad Merritt (Hornet), Steve Thomas (Mark Windham, Joey Melton), Pete Russo (Eli Flair), Dan West (The Spoiler, a million others), Bill Dempsey (Freakfish, a half-million others), Phil Banet (Big Dog, Richard Farnswirth), Roger Albrecht (Housefly, Haven, others), Jeff Paternostro (Hida and Yori Jr. of the Yakamo clan)
Those are the guys in either circuit that if you have one or two of them in a startup fed of yours, you're probably thinking to yourself "I done good, didn't I?" They're the names that get people talking about feds.
Now, my own list:
Brunk, Nicholas, Gethard, Aubry, Lindz, Martin, Katz, Merritt, Thomas, Russo, West, Dempsey, Banet, Paternostro, James Irish (James Irish, Kanna Kirishima), Nick *don't know his last name* (Mr. Hyde), Bryon *don't know his last name either* (Nemesys, Drifter), Russell Harder (Alias), Jeff Bolichkowski (Christian Sands), Joe Mendelsohn (Boogie Smallz)
Those are the guys that if I was starting a fed, I wouldn't think twice about giving any of them a World Title reign because I'd feel like they'd give me all I would expect out of them and so much more.
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Big names
This thread about angle feds had someone pimp a fed called TTW despite it not having any "big names."
I'd have to ask in this hobby of ours... what is a big name? Seriously, it's all a regional thing anyway. The big names at A1 are certainly not going to be big names at FW, nor will the FW superstars be regarded as aces in the EWN angle fed circle and so on and so forth. There's sufficient crossover, thanks to folks like myself, Lindsay, Jarret, Katz and Pete, but every circuit is gonna have their big stars that n one else will really know about.
A good fed is a good fed regardless of the people in it having won multiple CSWA, fWo or MBE World Championships or not.
And if someone's going to use the fact that they have X or Y in their fed as the only or one of the only selling points, then it's probably got no substance to it. It's just another cookie cutter fed, ripping off the WWE or TNA or ECW.
It's a good thing to advertise who is in your fed, but it shouldn't be the be-all, end-all. And you shouldn't discount a fed just because it has a bunch of "no-names" in it.
I'd have to ask in this hobby of ours... what is a big name? Seriously, it's all a regional thing anyway. The big names at A1 are certainly not going to be big names at FW, nor will the FW superstars be regarded as aces in the EWN angle fed circle and so on and so forth. There's sufficient crossover, thanks to folks like myself, Lindsay, Jarret, Katz and Pete, but every circuit is gonna have their big stars that n one else will really know about.
A good fed is a good fed regardless of the people in it having won multiple CSWA, fWo or MBE World Championships or not.
And if someone's going to use the fact that they have X or Y in their fed as the only or one of the only selling points, then it's probably got no substance to it. It's just another cookie cutter fed, ripping off the WWE or TNA or ECW.
It's a good thing to advertise who is in your fed, but it shouldn't be the be-all, end-all. And you shouldn't discount a fed just because it has a bunch of "no-names" in it.
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