Of all the e-wrestling characters I've produced over the years, I've been prouder of none than I was of Roderick McRatrick. Sure, he didn't win me a World Championship, but he provided me hours of fun, a good creative outlet for me to be as silly as possible and yet still provide an outlet for satiring some of the things that I thought were stagnating the game from the inside out. For someone like myself who is his own toughest critic, I look back at the stuff with Roddy as fondly as anything I've ever done in eW. I also know that I can never go back to that well again, which is evident from how flat that Roddy's been with each reboot I've tried with him. The same goes for why I've never been able to produce another cracked-out fantasy booking posts like the one I did way back in December of Aught-Five. I was in a very certain frame of mind and in the middle of a very certain time-period that helped me produce such levels of insanity.
For the fantasy booking post, I was working retail during the holiday seasons, getting barely any sleep, working ridiculous hours for peanuts, so my mind was just in this fog, and the whole thing made sense to me. For Roderick, I had stepped out of the game and came back in to find that a lot of the characters were putting out what I thought was boring and formulaic. So I just set out to mercilessly make fun of them, and then I got into such a groove that I just kept going and evolved Roderick until I just couldn't evolve him anymore. The reason why I can't do him effectively anymore is because he was originally based on a transparent parody of a certain style. I can't do him in FW because most of the successful characters there are good characters, and I can't do him in PTC not because the material wouldn't be there, but because I can see people getting butthurt because they think I'm making fun of their writing, whether I am or not. Seeing as though I'm already public enemy #1 over there, I'll pass.
Okay, okay, so what's the point for bringing this up? Well, you know how people are always saying that x should bring y character back because it was the best character ever? If that character's run its course and is brought back out of nostalgia, it doesn't have the luster, it feels forced. In most cases, you can tell if the person has another story to tell or a new spin on the character or if they're just bringing it back just because, hey, it was popular and successful before, why not try it again?
I've fallen into that pit a few times, and I was never happy with the output. So, as a handler, I've learned that I always have to reinvent myself, reinvent my style or at the very least, what I did with Suleimon, reinvent my surroundings. I'm not saying that perpetual change is the route to take. What is true, though, is that there's a marked difference between comfort and complacency, between doing what works and getting into a rut. The worst feeling that I've ever had, outside of some dark episodes where I got into it OOC with other handlers, was the feeling that I *had* to RP. Not RPing because I wanted to, but because I had to, so to speak. As unsolicited advice, never get to that point. That's how you get burnt out and leave e-wrestling when in reality, you still have a lot to give.
It's all about RPing with a character that's comfortable for you to assume the role. It's all about telling a story that you want to tell. It's all about cutting the promos that feel right to you. If you're a talented handler, people will accept your changes even if they get disappointed with the departure of a character familiar to them.
The worst thing you can do is try to get back to a place in your mind where you were years ago and not have the road map. Sometimes, our best material is borne out of personal hardship. If you're happy where you are now, don't relive pain just so you can put out a good RP. The mind's journey is a complex one, and the best thing to do is to use your natural talents in context of the ride you're taking.
Showing posts with label eW writing theories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eW writing theories. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Isamu League: A Little More My Speed
I've pimped FMLL on here before when it was active, and really, I think it's a great concept. That being said, lucha libre really isn't my thing, so while I had interest in joining it for awhile, I really didn't think I'd do too well or fit in and help give it its own voice. I was always more a puroresu guy myself. Well, someone at FWC is finally trying something that's a little more up my alley.
Enter Isamu League. Headed up by relative FWC newcomers, it's a fed that best tries to recreate a puroresu atmosphere, which admittedly can be very hard. Japanese wrestling is more about the sporting aspect and about what happens in the ring. Angles and feuds are based around matches and rivalries, about respect and that sort of thing rather than outrageous storylines and out-of-ring stuff. Sure, there are more than one flavor of puroresu fed out there, but most of them stress in-ring stuff. Characters and fed atmosphere, though, can range from the most straitlaced of straitlaced (think AJPW in the '90s with Misawa, Kobashi and Kawada) to goofy as all hell (HUSTLE and such characters as Daneshoku Dino, Razor Ramon Hard Gay and Survival Tobita).
Judging from the mission statement, IL will be a sort of hybrid between the traditional Japanese workrate fed and the kind of garbage fed like FMW and Big Japan were/are. In terms of fed mechanics though, they've put forth a very lax RPing schedule, which they basically require one RP every two weeks. This seemingly leisurely pace seems like it's a great fit for the more mature FWC audience.
Where I think they might run into some problems is their RP set-up, where they explicitly say that you won't have to get into promo battles and can write RPs that don't have anything to do with wrestling at all. This might throw some people off, as FWC has always been a more "traditional" community, NFW's presence notwithstanding. Still, I think this mission statement is a positive; the philosophy will allow people to get acclimated and perhaps try something new. Yeah, NFW is another place with a freestyle attitude, but it's harder to work something different in an established fed, or let's put it this way, it might seem harder to the handler. I know Katz, and I know that he, like every other FWC fedhead, pushes on a merit basis. If you write well, you're going to get pushed.
That being said, in a fledgling fed, you might have less pressure to perform right away, and thus might be more prone to try something different. IL could provide the best sort of portal to the PTC/narrative out-of-arena RP style on FWC.
Either way, I'm very high on IL, and I hope people give it a fair shake. I've got something I'm going to try out there, and hopefully you all will like it. In the interim, I'd love some feedback for my character profile :p
Masaharu Keichigawa
Enter Isamu League. Headed up by relative FWC newcomers, it's a fed that best tries to recreate a puroresu atmosphere, which admittedly can be very hard. Japanese wrestling is more about the sporting aspect and about what happens in the ring. Angles and feuds are based around matches and rivalries, about respect and that sort of thing rather than outrageous storylines and out-of-ring stuff. Sure, there are more than one flavor of puroresu fed out there, but most of them stress in-ring stuff. Characters and fed atmosphere, though, can range from the most straitlaced of straitlaced (think AJPW in the '90s with Misawa, Kobashi and Kawada) to goofy as all hell (HUSTLE and such characters as Daneshoku Dino, Razor Ramon Hard Gay and Survival Tobita).
Judging from the mission statement, IL will be a sort of hybrid between the traditional Japanese workrate fed and the kind of garbage fed like FMW and Big Japan were/are. In terms of fed mechanics though, they've put forth a very lax RPing schedule, which they basically require one RP every two weeks. This seemingly leisurely pace seems like it's a great fit for the more mature FWC audience.
Where I think they might run into some problems is their RP set-up, where they explicitly say that you won't have to get into promo battles and can write RPs that don't have anything to do with wrestling at all. This might throw some people off, as FWC has always been a more "traditional" community, NFW's presence notwithstanding. Still, I think this mission statement is a positive; the philosophy will allow people to get acclimated and perhaps try something new. Yeah, NFW is another place with a freestyle attitude, but it's harder to work something different in an established fed, or let's put it this way, it might seem harder to the handler. I know Katz, and I know that he, like every other FWC fedhead, pushes on a merit basis. If you write well, you're going to get pushed.
That being said, in a fledgling fed, you might have less pressure to perform right away, and thus might be more prone to try something different. IL could provide the best sort of portal to the PTC/narrative out-of-arena RP style on FWC.
Either way, I'm very high on IL, and I hope people give it a fair shake. I've got something I'm going to try out there, and hopefully you all will like it. In the interim, I'd love some feedback for my character profile :p
Masaharu Keichigawa
Thursday, December 03, 2009
Unfamiliarity Breeds Contempt
What is it about tournaments that gets everyone's panties in an uproar? Christ, you would think that we'd all have learned our lessons by now... tournaments where diverse crowds come together and mesh are recipes for disaster. A lot of times, you get guys who think their shit doesn't stink coming into a tournament, posting something that is unfamiliar to the tournament administration and then ends up losing. Then, afterwards, there's some kind of stink. This time, it wasn't so much raised publicly in the area of e-fedding by the guy who felt he was wronged, but it by two of my other fellow bloggers, Billy Ferraro and Dave Brunk.
The incident happened in something called the Total J Cup Tournament, which was entered by a bunch of people from feds that I don't know... and then Pete Russo, who entered Impulse/Randall Knox. Apparently, he got jobbed in the first round to a guy who broke some of the cardinal rules of e-fedding, some real asshole n00b shit. I read the excerpt of the RP that this guy wrote and actually bete Impulse with. He basically rewrote history for Impulse's character to retrofit the promo he had in mind for whatever opponent he had going for him. It's one thing to put on the no-sell for a guy you don't know about (one of the more annoying techniques I come across in my travels), but it's downright unfair to write someone else's character, especially someone foreign to the community.
Billy was the first to speak out, and he tore the whole operation, the organizer, the RPer (whom I wouldn't let within a 5-website radius of any tournament or fed I would theoretically run), Ben Halkum for associating with them and trying to bring them into the FW fold... Brunk then followed up with a scathing tome of isolationism, with Katz following up in the comments that the reason why it happened was because folks like me and Halkum are too nice.
Let's face it... it's basically the kind of thing that I took the WfWA to task for. The fact that objectively, Pete's beef is way, way, way, WAY more legit than the assfucks at the WfWA who bitched about Nova's talent amounting to that of a midcarder in their feds beating out the "stellar" writing of their luminaries like Khalid Jad, really doesn't make much of a difference. On the surface it's bush league, but not because they're complaining about this kind of shabby treatment.
I won't take them to task for feeling the way they do, but I will say I told you so.
I was naive once, I thought I could invite people from different communities to partake in a TEAM event and judge it fairly enough that everyone would be happy, even if they didn't win. Hey, I had PTC guys in my tournaments and they adjusted fine. Of course, it didn't hurt that they were enough good e-wrestlers coming over to give the image that they'd be treated fairly, but I can't put over the maturity of their guys that came over and even didn't place well in events enough, the straggling Chris Bagwell aside (a straggler that actually didn't get disgruntled until I left my post, actually).
So I sought out more communities, which was a mistake. I had the luxury of going to a community that featured a lot of older handlers, a lot of handlers who knew FW personalities via the fWo and Katz's headway that he made shilling for NFW over there first. And I paid the price. It took a long time for me to get my enthusiasm back, and you could say that I never fully did maybe until now.
But the thing was that the lesson was mainly public. It was there plain as day - People fear what they don't understand, and they lash out at the stranger because it's the easy thing to do, especially when the people we're talking about are younger and more stubborn in what they think is good. A tactic that most sane people think is bushleague might be considered "taking the bull by the horns" or... wait for it... "avant-garde" by some other retarded communities where dick-measuring between characters is done mainly with banners and graphics rather than writing quality.
It's because of crap like that that I don't fully disagree with what Brunk had to say. Sure, e-fed isolationism is a sad thing to practice, but it's a very welcoming strategy to practice at times. In a world where every community is different and where partnerships like the one shared by FW and PTC are few and far between, it's not worth the effort to make a bridge so that testy armies can have chances to get at someone else's throats.
That's why I give this advice. If you want to try something new, go to a different community or the like, be prepared to take a lot of shit. Carry the burden silently. Don't bitch in public when you get beat on bullshit tactics. It's bullshit, but take it to the man, and if he doesn't listen to you, fuck, it's their loss, not yours. Know that you're going into hostile territory and that you may never be able to win anyone over with a style of writing that is unfamiliar.
This is still a game dominated by the immature and the insular. FW and PTC are the exceptions to the rule. We do this for fun, and I think that the options available to us are good enough to satisfy unless you're not a fan of delays between cards and want something more regular. It's not worth it to go somewhere where the kids rule the roost and just want more fresh meat to carve up and serve to their n00bish "main eventers".
The incident happened in something called the Total J Cup Tournament, which was entered by a bunch of people from feds that I don't know... and then Pete Russo, who entered Impulse/Randall Knox. Apparently, he got jobbed in the first round to a guy who broke some of the cardinal rules of e-fedding, some real asshole n00b shit. I read the excerpt of the RP that this guy wrote and actually bete Impulse with. He basically rewrote history for Impulse's character to retrofit the promo he had in mind for whatever opponent he had going for him. It's one thing to put on the no-sell for a guy you don't know about (one of the more annoying techniques I come across in my travels), but it's downright unfair to write someone else's character, especially someone foreign to the community.
Billy was the first to speak out, and he tore the whole operation, the organizer, the RPer (whom I wouldn't let within a 5-website radius of any tournament or fed I would theoretically run), Ben Halkum for associating with them and trying to bring them into the FW fold... Brunk then followed up with a scathing tome of isolationism, with Katz following up in the comments that the reason why it happened was because folks like me and Halkum are too nice.
Let's face it... it's basically the kind of thing that I took the WfWA to task for. The fact that objectively, Pete's beef is way, way, way, WAY more legit than the assfucks at the WfWA who bitched about Nova's talent amounting to that of a midcarder in their feds beating out the "stellar" writing of their luminaries like Khalid Jad, really doesn't make much of a difference. On the surface it's bush league, but not because they're complaining about this kind of shabby treatment.
I won't take them to task for feeling the way they do, but I will say I told you so.
I was naive once, I thought I could invite people from different communities to partake in a TEAM event and judge it fairly enough that everyone would be happy, even if they didn't win. Hey, I had PTC guys in my tournaments and they adjusted fine. Of course, it didn't hurt that they were enough good e-wrestlers coming over to give the image that they'd be treated fairly, but I can't put over the maturity of their guys that came over and even didn't place well in events enough, the straggling Chris Bagwell aside (a straggler that actually didn't get disgruntled until I left my post, actually).
So I sought out more communities, which was a mistake. I had the luxury of going to a community that featured a lot of older handlers, a lot of handlers who knew FW personalities via the fWo and Katz's headway that he made shilling for NFW over there first. And I paid the price. It took a long time for me to get my enthusiasm back, and you could say that I never fully did maybe until now.
But the thing was that the lesson was mainly public. It was there plain as day - People fear what they don't understand, and they lash out at the stranger because it's the easy thing to do, especially when the people we're talking about are younger and more stubborn in what they think is good. A tactic that most sane people think is bushleague might be considered "taking the bull by the horns" or... wait for it... "avant-garde" by some other retarded communities where dick-measuring between characters is done mainly with banners and graphics rather than writing quality.
It's because of crap like that that I don't fully disagree with what Brunk had to say. Sure, e-fed isolationism is a sad thing to practice, but it's a very welcoming strategy to practice at times. In a world where every community is different and where partnerships like the one shared by FW and PTC are few and far between, it's not worth the effort to make a bridge so that testy armies can have chances to get at someone else's throats.
That's why I give this advice. If you want to try something new, go to a different community or the like, be prepared to take a lot of shit. Carry the burden silently. Don't bitch in public when you get beat on bullshit tactics. It's bullshit, but take it to the man, and if he doesn't listen to you, fuck, it's their loss, not yours. Know that you're going into hostile territory and that you may never be able to win anyone over with a style of writing that is unfamiliar.
This is still a game dominated by the immature and the insular. FW and PTC are the exceptions to the rule. We do this for fun, and I think that the options available to us are good enough to satisfy unless you're not a fan of delays between cards and want something more regular. It's not worth it to go somewhere where the kids rule the roost and just want more fresh meat to carve up and serve to their n00bish "main eventers".
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Your Blogger Answers, batch number one
Well, with the first two commenters, I got enough questions for a full post, so let's get started! Of course, you can still submit your questions for me to answer. In fact, I encourage it. I beg you to ask me questions, PLEEEEEASE~!
Anyway, our first commenter identified himself as "The Lurker Below" and submitted these queries:
1. Do you think any of the play-ins for the TIT stand a chance against their respective top seeds?
Well, the stock answer is that this is e-fedding, not college basketball. Upsets happen more often here mainly because the criteria for victory are so subjective and are dependant on the judge and, more importantly, how well one guy performs in a session. In basketball, if one guy has an off-night, the team can still win. In e-fedding, well, you are the team.
That being said, I can't say that I'm all that familiar with any of the work of the play-ins past their first round performances. However, among the guys who showed up, some impressed and some need work, and if you need work going up against Dan Ryan, well... you know.
2. Do you think PTC's GTT7 will be a success or not? Do you feel that changing the format of said tournament will do any good, when it's tradition has always been single eliminations.
I don't think that format will have anything to do with the success. Rather, it'll be the committment of the handlers involved. that being said, with the high number of no-shows that usually come with a GTT, it'll make it that much harder to pull off a round-robin the way it should be pulled off rather than with maybe one guy advancing because he's the only one that RPed for his region.
However, I think it was the right idea to change things up. They haven't held GTT for over a year, almost two. The landscape of the game has changed, in that I'm not sure how much "new blood" they'll get into the PTC community. We're talking about maybe having 32 or 64 as opposed to the 128+ they've gotten in the past. For the TiT, 32 and 64 works. For GTT... maybe trying something different is the order of the day.
3. Why do you think it's so hard to find an event where both promo style writers and narrative story wrters can compete and be judged fairly? It seems that in FW, promo styles are king, and in PTC it's storyline, and anyone who does differently, puts themselves at a disadvantage
Mainly because of stubbornness on both sides of the coin. Of course, the number of crossovers has been pretty good over the years, but you'll find that the mainstays on either side would rather keep to themselves and write in their style.
I'd like to think that with the ToC, I gave people the most all-encompassing tournament option around, and hopefully, Shinder keeps that going as part of the TEAM tradition. It's too bad there aren't other people as entrepreneureal (sic) as that in other communities.
4. Excluding the big brands, and always famous places like fWo and PRIME, what's a solid fed(s) with a good roster and atmosphere, but maybe not a lot of limelight, that you would like to see more people check out or apply to?
Big is a relative term, but I have three in mind that are off the beaten path, so to speak. And by off the beaten path, I mean they're not located on or affiliated with PTC or FW:
A1E - My home fed and one that's been open for about 10 years now. The roster is great, even without the recent addition of Troy Windham. The atmosphere is welcoming for the most part. It has a rich tradition and history that developed almost independant of the FW circuit until a few years ago, and the roster is smallish, so you can go in and make an impact right away.
NAPW and Rebel-Pro Wrestling - They're sister feds on the indie-scale. One is based out of Alberta and the other North Carolina. A lot of great and quirky talent resides here, and just because they're indie in scale doesn't mean they're small-time in talent. D! won the first ever Tournament of Champions, and Ravager currently holds the Challenge Championship. In fact, he's the only guy who's held it and his reign is approaching two years now. Also, the atmosphere is warm and it's probably the most grassroot duo of feds you'll find.
All three feds get press on the blog, but not a lot of people think to go there as their first choice. They should though.
5. Are tag teams in efedding a thing of the past, or a thing that can only work by creating outrageous angles? Do you feel as if people don't feel as proud to handle tag teams as they do singles? Or is it the lack of a community? or the perception that single(s) championships > team titles?
I don't think they're a thing of the past, but I think it's a lot harder to handle a tag team well than it is a single wrestler. Notice the people handling tag teams nowadays... they're usually older, more mature handlers who've done the singles thing and are looking for something else in wrestling. They're also handlers who remember when tag team wrestling wasn't treated as an afterthought or a joke by the WWE and TNA and are looking to recreate some of the classic tag divisions.
I will tell you this though, NFW has a bumpin' tag division right now, and EPW is looking for tag teams. I can tell you from experience following the latter fed that Brunk treats tag teams right. The people are out there. It's just a matter of folks dropping their preconceptions and going for it in the tag division.
6. In hindsight, when looking back at first opening TEAM, is there anything that you'd change? If so, what?
Well, when I first ideated TEAM, it was totally different from what it became. But assuming that you meant when I did the first TEAM Invitational Tournament... well, there's only one thing I'd change. I wouldn't have invited the malcontents from the WfWA into the ToC in 2007. They had a lot to do with my e-fed related malaise that followed in the wake.
Now, onto "The Rage" who asked the following queries:
1. Who do you think advanced to round 1 of TIT?
Well, certainly not Masked Violator 2, Josh Anderson or Brian Larsen *snicker*
Anyway, Shinder's going to have a tough time deciding who'll take the vacant Anderson/Larsen spot, or whether he's going to go for a bye in that situation. Although Lance Spencer went 3 to 1 on Nate Dakota, I thought Dakota was good enough to make the match close.
In the other contested play-in, I really wasn't feeling either guy... sorry "Rage" but in my honest opinion, I thought that you fell a little flat, but that the potential was there. Still, I wouldn't feel right advancing one loser and keeping the other one home without giving them a chance to do a one-RP shot for it.
2. PTC vs FW in a trash talking contest. (ICly of course) Yay? nay?
Yay if only because the guys who would come out would do it well. I'm not sure who'd do it though. Some of the PTC guys that we'd all want to see might stay home because they would feel it a waste of their time or that they'd get smoked. Some of the FW guys might stay home because they wouldn't take it seriously. But among those that I think might come out for it, it could be fun.
But then again, wouldn't the TiT count as a "trash talking contest"? ;)
3. A big, I mean big 256+ or 512 member roleplaying tournament from feds from every circle, even those email feds, and pay to play, because I hear writers from email feds > web feds. Think it could work?
Of course it could work, but it would take a dedicated group of people to run it and for all the competitors involved not to expect even short-form writeups until the later rounds. IE, it would be really, really fuckin' hard to do.
Alright, hope that answered all your questions... remember, KEEP 'EM COMIN! I'll keep answering these questions as long as you keep asking them!
Anyway, our first commenter identified himself as "The Lurker Below" and submitted these queries:
1. Do you think any of the play-ins for the TIT stand a chance against their respective top seeds?
Well, the stock answer is that this is e-fedding, not college basketball. Upsets happen more often here mainly because the criteria for victory are so subjective and are dependant on the judge and, more importantly, how well one guy performs in a session. In basketball, if one guy has an off-night, the team can still win. In e-fedding, well, you are the team.
That being said, I can't say that I'm all that familiar with any of the work of the play-ins past their first round performances. However, among the guys who showed up, some impressed and some need work, and if you need work going up against Dan Ryan, well... you know.
2. Do you think PTC's GTT7 will be a success or not? Do you feel that changing the format of said tournament will do any good, when it's tradition has always been single eliminations.
I don't think that format will have anything to do with the success. Rather, it'll be the committment of the handlers involved. that being said, with the high number of no-shows that usually come with a GTT, it'll make it that much harder to pull off a round-robin the way it should be pulled off rather than with maybe one guy advancing because he's the only one that RPed for his region.
However, I think it was the right idea to change things up. They haven't held GTT for over a year, almost two. The landscape of the game has changed, in that I'm not sure how much "new blood" they'll get into the PTC community. We're talking about maybe having 32 or 64 as opposed to the 128+ they've gotten in the past. For the TiT, 32 and 64 works. For GTT... maybe trying something different is the order of the day.
3. Why do you think it's so hard to find an event where both promo style writers and narrative story wrters can compete and be judged fairly? It seems that in FW, promo styles are king, and in PTC it's storyline, and anyone who does differently, puts themselves at a disadvantage
Mainly because of stubbornness on both sides of the coin. Of course, the number of crossovers has been pretty good over the years, but you'll find that the mainstays on either side would rather keep to themselves and write in their style.
I'd like to think that with the ToC, I gave people the most all-encompassing tournament option around, and hopefully, Shinder keeps that going as part of the TEAM tradition. It's too bad there aren't other people as entrepreneureal (sic) as that in other communities.
4. Excluding the big brands, and always famous places like fWo and PRIME, what's a solid fed(s) with a good roster and atmosphere, but maybe not a lot of limelight, that you would like to see more people check out or apply to?
Big is a relative term, but I have three in mind that are off the beaten path, so to speak. And by off the beaten path, I mean they're not located on or affiliated with PTC or FW:
A1E - My home fed and one that's been open for about 10 years now. The roster is great, even without the recent addition of Troy Windham. The atmosphere is welcoming for the most part. It has a rich tradition and history that developed almost independant of the FW circuit until a few years ago, and the roster is smallish, so you can go in and make an impact right away.
NAPW and Rebel-Pro Wrestling - They're sister feds on the indie-scale. One is based out of Alberta and the other North Carolina. A lot of great and quirky talent resides here, and just because they're indie in scale doesn't mean they're small-time in talent. D! won the first ever Tournament of Champions, and Ravager currently holds the Challenge Championship. In fact, he's the only guy who's held it and his reign is approaching two years now. Also, the atmosphere is warm and it's probably the most grassroot duo of feds you'll find.
All three feds get press on the blog, but not a lot of people think to go there as their first choice. They should though.
5. Are tag teams in efedding a thing of the past, or a thing that can only work by creating outrageous angles? Do you feel as if people don't feel as proud to handle tag teams as they do singles? Or is it the lack of a community? or the perception that single(s) championships > team titles?
I don't think they're a thing of the past, but I think it's a lot harder to handle a tag team well than it is a single wrestler. Notice the people handling tag teams nowadays... they're usually older, more mature handlers who've done the singles thing and are looking for something else in wrestling. They're also handlers who remember when tag team wrestling wasn't treated as an afterthought or a joke by the WWE and TNA and are looking to recreate some of the classic tag divisions.
I will tell you this though, NFW has a bumpin' tag division right now, and EPW is looking for tag teams. I can tell you from experience following the latter fed that Brunk treats tag teams right. The people are out there. It's just a matter of folks dropping their preconceptions and going for it in the tag division.
6. In hindsight, when looking back at first opening TEAM, is there anything that you'd change? If so, what?
Well, when I first ideated TEAM, it was totally different from what it became. But assuming that you meant when I did the first TEAM Invitational Tournament... well, there's only one thing I'd change. I wouldn't have invited the malcontents from the WfWA into the ToC in 2007. They had a lot to do with my e-fed related malaise that followed in the wake.
Now, onto "The Rage" who asked the following queries:
1. Who do you think advanced to round 1 of TIT?
Well, certainly not Masked Violator 2, Josh Anderson or Brian Larsen *snicker*
Anyway, Shinder's going to have a tough time deciding who'll take the vacant Anderson/Larsen spot, or whether he's going to go for a bye in that situation. Although Lance Spencer went 3 to 1 on Nate Dakota, I thought Dakota was good enough to make the match close.
In the other contested play-in, I really wasn't feeling either guy... sorry "Rage" but in my honest opinion, I thought that you fell a little flat, but that the potential was there. Still, I wouldn't feel right advancing one loser and keeping the other one home without giving them a chance to do a one-RP shot for it.
2. PTC vs FW in a trash talking contest. (ICly of course) Yay? nay?
Yay if only because the guys who would come out would do it well. I'm not sure who'd do it though. Some of the PTC guys that we'd all want to see might stay home because they would feel it a waste of their time or that they'd get smoked. Some of the FW guys might stay home because they wouldn't take it seriously. But among those that I think might come out for it, it could be fun.
But then again, wouldn't the TiT count as a "trash talking contest"? ;)
3. A big, I mean big 256+ or 512 member roleplaying tournament from feds from every circle, even those email feds, and pay to play, because I hear writers from email feds > web feds. Think it could work?
Of course it could work, but it would take a dedicated group of people to run it and for all the competitors involved not to expect even short-form writeups until the later rounds. IE, it would be really, really fuckin' hard to do.
Alright, hope that answered all your questions... remember, KEEP 'EM COMIN! I'll keep answering these questions as long as you keep asking them!
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Writer vs. Wrestler vs. Wrestling Writer
Before we get to today's blog posting, a couple of quick hits.
- First, A1E has posted Sudden Death. It's actually been up for the better part of a week, but it's a good read. Three title switches, a rebranding of the one belt that didn't change hands and a shocking unmask. Go to the results section and read post haste!
- Second, some shilling. As you may or may not have figured out, I've created a second blog here on Blogspot. The Wrestling Blog will feature the same insight and wit (response from the peanut gallery on that comment: "lol") that you get here, only directed towards the WWE, TNA, puroresu, lucha libre, indies, WCW and other random wrestling-related things. Please check it out and bookmark it if you're a fan of the "real" thing.
Now, onto the post. Over at PTC, another discussion was started as to whether the handlers considered themselves as writers or wrestlers. This is an argument that seems like it's been beaten to death, and I know I've written about it here a lot, but some of the attitudes in that thread bear mentioning.
One of them is that eW is so different than wrestling, and if they were more of the same and the game wasn't so writing-oriented, then e-fedding would be "99% trash talk." My obvious predilection towards defending the art of the wrestling promo RP aside, it made me wonder whether this was actually true. Having watched wrestling for nearly my entire life and having seen the evolution and the OBVIOUS differences between the WWF in 1991 and the WWE in 2009, I can say beyond any shadow of a doubt that it's not.
If you discount the time on RAW, SmackDown and ECW dedicated to recapping what happened on the other shows, movie trailers or running down the card for the next PPV, here's the breakdown of what happens on a wrestling program: wrestling matches, promos, in-ring confrontation segments and segments where people are on camera but they act as if they're not on camera. Of these, there's probably a tie in time used between the confrontation segments and matches. Next is probably wrestling promos and after that are the backstage pseudo-shoot segments. Ever since the Monday Night Wars started, matches and multi-person in-rings have had the most time spent on them. There was a time during the late 90s when the pseudo-shoot segments were dominant over promos, thanks mainly to Vince Russo's "Crash-TV" style, but it seems equilibrium has been reached in that regard.
So what does all of that mean? Well, for one, it means that the "99% trash talk" number is way out of line. If you equate the number of RPs that happen per-week for the average FWC-styled fed to hours of camera time for cutting promos, you'd end up with HOURS of footage, more than what the "real" thing dedicates to single-entity unchallenged wrestling promos. In that regard, the FW/A1E-styled promo feds are wholly unrealistic to how a real wrestling fed works.
Secondly, all those "Crash-TV" style segments that were huge in the Attitude era and still pop up now albeit in more believable fashion to me equate more to PTC-styled RPs. The PTC RP is basically a writing exposition about the life outside of the ring for the character being portrayed. These things don't often times break character/kayfabe, but they're meant to show what the character is like when he/she is not in the ring or in front of a microphone. Isn't that exactly what a PTC RP is? It doesn't break character, but it's meant to get a glimpse into what that wrestler's life is when they're not at the arena? Sure, the "real" example hardly follows the person home or follows them around during their every day travails, but it's very similar in spirit.
Thirdly... whether a wrestling promo is meant to be written or spoken, for all intents and purposes of e-wrestling, it's written down. You still have to write it in order for you to imagine it being spoken. Matches still have to be written. Segments still have to be written. This game is 100% immersed in writing, so I fail to see how someone who is involved in a fed where very high percentages of content are wrestling promos is not a writer.
The fact is, everyone in the game is a writer, and I feel like everyone in the game should at least have some vestige of being a wrestling fan, whether you are one now or you used to be one and don't like the product anymore. In this game, you have to be both a writer and a wrestler. There's no way around it, and there's no real separation between the two. If there were, well, you'd be better off either trying to write short stories or essays for publication if you have no interest in the wrestling portion, or you'd be better off playing Smackdown vs. Raw 2009 over Wi-Fi if you have no interest in the writing portion.
- First, A1E has posted Sudden Death. It's actually been up for the better part of a week, but it's a good read. Three title switches, a rebranding of the one belt that didn't change hands and a shocking unmask. Go to the results section and read post haste!
- Second, some shilling. As you may or may not have figured out, I've created a second blog here on Blogspot. The Wrestling Blog will feature the same insight and wit (response from the peanut gallery on that comment: "lol") that you get here, only directed towards the WWE, TNA, puroresu, lucha libre, indies, WCW and other random wrestling-related things. Please check it out and bookmark it if you're a fan of the "real" thing.
Now, onto the post. Over at PTC, another discussion was started as to whether the handlers considered themselves as writers or wrestlers. This is an argument that seems like it's been beaten to death, and I know I've written about it here a lot, but some of the attitudes in that thread bear mentioning.
One of them is that eW is so different than wrestling, and if they were more of the same and the game wasn't so writing-oriented, then e-fedding would be "99% trash talk." My obvious predilection towards defending the art of the wrestling promo RP aside, it made me wonder whether this was actually true. Having watched wrestling for nearly my entire life and having seen the evolution and the OBVIOUS differences between the WWF in 1991 and the WWE in 2009, I can say beyond any shadow of a doubt that it's not.
If you discount the time on RAW, SmackDown and ECW dedicated to recapping what happened on the other shows, movie trailers or running down the card for the next PPV, here's the breakdown of what happens on a wrestling program: wrestling matches, promos, in-ring confrontation segments and segments where people are on camera but they act as if they're not on camera. Of these, there's probably a tie in time used between the confrontation segments and matches. Next is probably wrestling promos and after that are the backstage pseudo-shoot segments. Ever since the Monday Night Wars started, matches and multi-person in-rings have had the most time spent on them. There was a time during the late 90s when the pseudo-shoot segments were dominant over promos, thanks mainly to Vince Russo's "Crash-TV" style, but it seems equilibrium has been reached in that regard.
So what does all of that mean? Well, for one, it means that the "99% trash talk" number is way out of line. If you equate the number of RPs that happen per-week for the average FWC-styled fed to hours of camera time for cutting promos, you'd end up with HOURS of footage, more than what the "real" thing dedicates to single-entity unchallenged wrestling promos. In that regard, the FW/A1E-styled promo feds are wholly unrealistic to how a real wrestling fed works.
Secondly, all those "Crash-TV" style segments that were huge in the Attitude era and still pop up now albeit in more believable fashion to me equate more to PTC-styled RPs. The PTC RP is basically a writing exposition about the life outside of the ring for the character being portrayed. These things don't often times break character/kayfabe, but they're meant to show what the character is like when he/she is not in the ring or in front of a microphone. Isn't that exactly what a PTC RP is? It doesn't break character, but it's meant to get a glimpse into what that wrestler's life is when they're not at the arena? Sure, the "real" example hardly follows the person home or follows them around during their every day travails, but it's very similar in spirit.
Thirdly... whether a wrestling promo is meant to be written or spoken, for all intents and purposes of e-wrestling, it's written down. You still have to write it in order for you to imagine it being spoken. Matches still have to be written. Segments still have to be written. This game is 100% immersed in writing, so I fail to see how someone who is involved in a fed where very high percentages of content are wrestling promos is not a writer.
The fact is, everyone in the game is a writer, and I feel like everyone in the game should at least have some vestige of being a wrestling fan, whether you are one now or you used to be one and don't like the product anymore. In this game, you have to be both a writer and a wrestler. There's no way around it, and there's no real separation between the two. If there were, well, you'd be better off either trying to write short stories or essays for publication if you have no interest in the wrestling portion, or you'd be better off playing Smackdown vs. Raw 2009 over Wi-Fi if you have no interest in the writing portion.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Just Wrestling: eW results writing coming full-circle?
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.
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.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
The Return of the Blog: Why I gave up TEAM and where I'm going from here
Well, I said that there was always a chance that this blog could come back, and now here it is. Don't ever say I never gave you guys anything :)
So, in case you haven't noticed, I've decidedly ramped down my activity in eW over the last year. The blog was the first casuality for the simple reason that I couldn't keep my attention span at a full level with all the stuff going on around me. I started to prioritize my eW activities, and I figured that being an eW journalist was nice, but ultimately it wasn't needed.
Now though, things have slowed down, I figure I can bring the blog back, although with the caveat that it won't be as journalistically themed as it was before. I mean, that doesn't mean I won't spotlight different feds at different times, but I wouldn't expect full card reviews like I was doing.
*booing and hissing from Katz*
Now that that's out of the way, the meat of the post. Part of my eW ramp-down included me giving up the reins of TEAM. TEAM and this blog have almost been synonymous with each other, mainly because I drafted the original idea for it here and used this blog as a pimping tool for it. It was a happy marriage, and it worked out well for me. That's why it was so hard for me to give the pseudo-i-fed up. Still though, as I said on the boards, it was a combination of life and the cardwriting becoming much like a chore for me that I had to give it up.
But the question then becomes why I gave it up instead of closing it down. It can be told sort of anecdotally at first. I probably told this story before on here, but I'll tell it again. Back when I first got to FW, Andrew Medina had a fed open which for the life of me, I can't remember the name. Well, for whatever reason, he closed it down when life got to be too much for him or whatever reason. The problem was that the fed still had a lot of handlers who were willing to keep it going, guys who plans and wanted to RP in it.
That situation made me realize that feds didn't really belong to the fedhead, no matter what some people might think. Sure, some are more inexorably linked to fedheads than others. NFW is one such fed, probably the closest example I can think of to a fed being equal to the guy running it. But in reality, even in those feds, the fed belongs to the handlers.
Think about it. You can theoretically run a fed without a fedhead, or at least one singular fedhead. E-fed communism is possible in theory. Whether it works in practice is another thing, but that's not a conversation for this entry. However, if you don't have handlers, your fed is either a concept or it's just masturbation. Besides, who wants to do all the work by him/herself? Not me, says I.
So that's why I put TEAM up. I know that there are people out there that still want to participate in these events and that still want to defend their titles. Even though I set the entire infrastructure up, it's really nothing unique. Tournaments and one-off shows... nothing too revolutionary there.
Thankfully, Adam Shinder, a guy whom I think is a terriffic handler and an untapped resource as a fed-staffer, took the ball and will run with it. Hopefully he can do as good a job or better than I did with it.
So yeah, that's where things stand right now. Here's a toast to being back on the blog, and hopefully, I'll update this frequently enough for you guys to enjoy it.
So, in case you haven't noticed, I've decidedly ramped down my activity in eW over the last year. The blog was the first casuality for the simple reason that I couldn't keep my attention span at a full level with all the stuff going on around me. I started to prioritize my eW activities, and I figured that being an eW journalist was nice, but ultimately it wasn't needed.
Now though, things have slowed down, I figure I can bring the blog back, although with the caveat that it won't be as journalistically themed as it was before. I mean, that doesn't mean I won't spotlight different feds at different times, but I wouldn't expect full card reviews like I was doing.
*booing and hissing from Katz*
Now that that's out of the way, the meat of the post. Part of my eW ramp-down included me giving up the reins of TEAM. TEAM and this blog have almost been synonymous with each other, mainly because I drafted the original idea for it here and used this blog as a pimping tool for it. It was a happy marriage, and it worked out well for me. That's why it was so hard for me to give the pseudo-i-fed up. Still though, as I said on the boards, it was a combination of life and the cardwriting becoming much like a chore for me that I had to give it up.
But the question then becomes why I gave it up instead of closing it down. It can be told sort of anecdotally at first. I probably told this story before on here, but I'll tell it again. Back when I first got to FW, Andrew Medina had a fed open which for the life of me, I can't remember the name. Well, for whatever reason, he closed it down when life got to be too much for him or whatever reason. The problem was that the fed still had a lot of handlers who were willing to keep it going, guys who plans and wanted to RP in it.
That situation made me realize that feds didn't really belong to the fedhead, no matter what some people might think. Sure, some are more inexorably linked to fedheads than others. NFW is one such fed, probably the closest example I can think of to a fed being equal to the guy running it. But in reality, even in those feds, the fed belongs to the handlers.
Think about it. You can theoretically run a fed without a fedhead, or at least one singular fedhead. E-fed communism is possible in theory. Whether it works in practice is another thing, but that's not a conversation for this entry. However, if you don't have handlers, your fed is either a concept or it's just masturbation. Besides, who wants to do all the work by him/herself? Not me, says I.
So that's why I put TEAM up. I know that there are people out there that still want to participate in these events and that still want to defend their titles. Even though I set the entire infrastructure up, it's really nothing unique. Tournaments and one-off shows... nothing too revolutionary there.
Thankfully, Adam Shinder, a guy whom I think is a terriffic handler and an untapped resource as a fed-staffer, took the ball and will run with it. Hopefully he can do as good a job or better than I did with it.
So yeah, that's where things stand right now. Here's a toast to being back on the blog, and hopefully, I'll update this frequently enough for you guys to enjoy it.
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...
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
The advantages of keeping it short
Firstly, as you can see, I made some template changes, separating the "active" bloggers from the people who haven't posted something in six months and such. I removed all the dead links too, and I pared the fed listing, since really, why lead people in the direction of feds that may or may not be open anymore? Exceptions are the FW feds that are sloooowwww rollers right now and LoC, which will remain there until I know they've closed for good.
Secondly, two new blogs have been added to the active section. First one is the Ice Tre blog, an in-character blog from the greatest character in the history of all e-wrestling, and possibly the world of entertainment. The second one is a new, official PTC blog, where Pete, Ross and whoever else wants to contribute will be able to post their ruminations. Go there now, especially if you've asked some questions to Pete in that thread on the forums. He's answered a bunch of them.
And now, onto the meat of the post...
For what seems like eternity now, I've been using and advocating said usage of shortforming for weekly television shows. I know we're all in this hobby because at one time or another, we've been fans of wrestling, and the biggest part of that fandom is watching matches on television or pay-per-view. Because of that, there's been this feeling that the match should be the most important part of the cycle, and thus always should be written out. It's always been the unspoken rule until recently, when I started implementing the short-form highlight package style for TEAM writeups, and other FW feds decided they'd go the shortform route themselves. We all did it for differing reasons. I started mine because the interfed structure really needs to move at a rapid-fire pace, especially if you're not obliging people to stick around any longer then they absolutely have to. Brunk and Edmunds started using shortforms because the well of matchwriters had dried up and they didn't want their feds to lag.
Yet, it's always seemed that people would assume that if you could write out every match, you should, especially if you wanted to be considered a top-flight fed. This has been the case in PRIME for some time. Despite the focus of their shows changing over time from matches to segments, they've strived to have longform matches on every card, but according to a conversation I had with a roster member or two, there's a growing sentiment to drop the longforms on ReVolution and stick with shortforms. This group feels that it takes forever to read through shows, and the long matches are the reason.
On the surface, I can see where that comes into play. TO tell you the truth, I haven't fully read a PRIME show in a long time. To be fair, I haven't read a lot of feds' shows completely in a long time as well, and all that has more to do with my own ever-decreasing time rather than interest in eW or certain feds. Still though, when I was able to read PRIME fulltime, I did get the feeling that the shows could have been shorter.
However, I ask myself whether it was because of the number of matches or the fact that they were longformed, and I came to the conclusion that it wasn't. Very rarely when I read a show do I read the matches fully and completely as I would the segments on the first run, pay-per-views excepted since the matches are, or at least should be the show there. Therefore, I pay a lot closer attention to matches on those bigger cards. Still though, every regular TV show that I read, I skim the matches first and then reread if I feel I've missed something or if I feel that it's worth the time and effort to put in. Why should long matches make my PRIME reading experience any more difficult than something similar that I'd encounter in A1E or NFW? In fact, if my memory serves me well, PRIME's matches were shorter in comparison to other feds' shows.
This narrows the weight problem down to segments. I've always been somewhat critical of PRIME having a number of segs that'd be better suited being off-camera RPs rather than on-show pieces. In fact, when Pete instituted the seg limit and slots on the shows, I praised the move, even though it was never a hard seg limit and people went over all the time. Of course, many people don't see this as a problem, and admittedly, I don't think it's something all that critical to the health of the fed. I mean, I'd rather have that problem then people not giving a shit about the fed altogether. So really, how do you solve a problem of weightiness when the problem isn't really the matches? Force people not to write segs?
Sorry, I can't really advocate doing something like that. Everyone has a story they want to tell, and if they're in the fed, the should have the right to say it. It would be up to the fedhead to keep excess people out of the ranks if they didn't want a million segs on the show, and right now, with the slump that this side of the eW universe has been in, no fedhead should be turning away applicants unless that applicant's name happens to be Jeremy Jenkins or someone of that same dishonorable reputation.
So in the end, the answer has to be shortforming. Once again, TV matches should really only be used to further storylines anyway, thus making anything worth writing in the match bullet point-worthy. Of course, when the PPV rolls around, you better bet that I'd scream bloody murder if the matches were shortformed. If that part of matchwriting ever goes to the wayside, you might as well start calling this Competitive Creative Writing and not e-Wrestling. But for TV shows, pshaw, use the shortform.
Because really, I'd rather the time and effort going into making a huge show go into something you know people are going to read intently the first time around.
Secondly, two new blogs have been added to the active section. First one is the Ice Tre blog, an in-character blog from the greatest character in the history of all e-wrestling, and possibly the world of entertainment. The second one is a new, official PTC blog, where Pete, Ross and whoever else wants to contribute will be able to post their ruminations. Go there now, especially if you've asked some questions to Pete in that thread on the forums. He's answered a bunch of them.
And now, onto the meat of the post...
For what seems like eternity now, I've been using and advocating said usage of shortforming for weekly television shows. I know we're all in this hobby because at one time or another, we've been fans of wrestling, and the biggest part of that fandom is watching matches on television or pay-per-view. Because of that, there's been this feeling that the match should be the most important part of the cycle, and thus always should be written out. It's always been the unspoken rule until recently, when I started implementing the short-form highlight package style for TEAM writeups, and other FW feds decided they'd go the shortform route themselves. We all did it for differing reasons. I started mine because the interfed structure really needs to move at a rapid-fire pace, especially if you're not obliging people to stick around any longer then they absolutely have to. Brunk and Edmunds started using shortforms because the well of matchwriters had dried up and they didn't want their feds to lag.
Yet, it's always seemed that people would assume that if you could write out every match, you should, especially if you wanted to be considered a top-flight fed. This has been the case in PRIME for some time. Despite the focus of their shows changing over time from matches to segments, they've strived to have longform matches on every card, but according to a conversation I had with a roster member or two, there's a growing sentiment to drop the longforms on ReVolution and stick with shortforms. This group feels that it takes forever to read through shows, and the long matches are the reason.
On the surface, I can see where that comes into play. TO tell you the truth, I haven't fully read a PRIME show in a long time. To be fair, I haven't read a lot of feds' shows completely in a long time as well, and all that has more to do with my own ever-decreasing time rather than interest in eW or certain feds. Still though, when I was able to read PRIME fulltime, I did get the feeling that the shows could have been shorter.
However, I ask myself whether it was because of the number of matches or the fact that they were longformed, and I came to the conclusion that it wasn't. Very rarely when I read a show do I read the matches fully and completely as I would the segments on the first run, pay-per-views excepted since the matches are, or at least should be the show there. Therefore, I pay a lot closer attention to matches on those bigger cards. Still though, every regular TV show that I read, I skim the matches first and then reread if I feel I've missed something or if I feel that it's worth the time and effort to put in. Why should long matches make my PRIME reading experience any more difficult than something similar that I'd encounter in A1E or NFW? In fact, if my memory serves me well, PRIME's matches were shorter in comparison to other feds' shows.
This narrows the weight problem down to segments. I've always been somewhat critical of PRIME having a number of segs that'd be better suited being off-camera RPs rather than on-show pieces. In fact, when Pete instituted the seg limit and slots on the shows, I praised the move, even though it was never a hard seg limit and people went over all the time. Of course, many people don't see this as a problem, and admittedly, I don't think it's something all that critical to the health of the fed. I mean, I'd rather have that problem then people not giving a shit about the fed altogether. So really, how do you solve a problem of weightiness when the problem isn't really the matches? Force people not to write segs?
Sorry, I can't really advocate doing something like that. Everyone has a story they want to tell, and if they're in the fed, the should have the right to say it. It would be up to the fedhead to keep excess people out of the ranks if they didn't want a million segs on the show, and right now, with the slump that this side of the eW universe has been in, no fedhead should be turning away applicants unless that applicant's name happens to be Jeremy Jenkins or someone of that same dishonorable reputation.
So in the end, the answer has to be shortforming. Once again, TV matches should really only be used to further storylines anyway, thus making anything worth writing in the match bullet point-worthy. Of course, when the PPV rolls around, you better bet that I'd scream bloody murder if the matches were shortformed. If that part of matchwriting ever goes to the wayside, you might as well start calling this Competitive Creative Writing and not e-Wrestling. But for TV shows, pshaw, use the shortform.
Because really, I'd rather the time and effort going into making a huge show go into something you know people are going to read intently the first time around.
Monday, September 17, 2007
We got the moves
There are many debates in eW right now, and most of them seem to be about writing styles and all that jazz. Of course, because everyone seems to be on the burnt out side of the hobby at this point, those debates have died down a bit, which is good, becasue I really, really, REALLY tire of people sniping back and forth about FW vs. PTC or script vs. narrative. That being said, there are a few minor debates contained in places other than writing style. One of the hotter ones, and one that's been discussed here before, has been whether we should allow mentioning "real" wrestlers in our eW writeups/RPs/hype pieces/whatever.
I'm not looking into exploring this debate. My thoughts are well-known (at least I think they are). I do think that real wrestlers do have a place being mentioned, although not as a crutch. They should be sparing if any. I mean, coming from a guy who handles the whole Anonymous family, that should be a no-brainer :p However, I do understand the need for our community to become self-contained really, to have a sense of history. For the three of us who actually read writeups (and that number is probably two now since I barely get any time to read them at the present moment), it's one thing to see a move referred to as an "Arn Anderson quality spinebuster," but it's a much different and more mark-out-worthy event when you see things like "Hornet splash." I know I'm still a big offender since I use the real wrestler references in nearly every edition of EPICENTER. The thing is though, how many of us have commonplace moves that we're well-known for?
By and large, we choose our movesets because we like the way certain guys do those moves, and every signature move that we have for the most part are finishers. Honestly, if you describe Dan Ryan doing a Spoiler-quality powerbomb, Brunk would flay you. Trust me, I know from experience not to compare the characters ;) Most people don't really signature-ize their common moves, and for the most part, the legendary characters that are in the forefront in peoples' minds right now are still active, a phenomenon that's totally opposite to what's going on in real wrestling, at least in this super-community.
So, how do we make our moves our own again? How can we start substituting our wrestlers for guys like Anderson or Rick Rude? Well, for one, we can start trying to read matches again. Stop laughing, it's true. Of course, this discussion's been had many times before, so then what? How about more feds employing shortforms, like TEAM or NFW, in highlight form? Have your wrestlers submit a sort of "five moves of doom" spot list for the main shortformer to highlight, so that the common moves, the strikes and the minor slams can become ingrained into folklore like the legendary finishers on the scale of the HIDADRIVER~! (oh the humanity).
I know that may be blasphemous, since 99% of us are workrate marks. Hell, I'm one myself. However, I also know that the nature of the beast is to captivate attention. Even in writing, if you can pick out spots that are common to your wrestler, it might help people read even longform matches better.
And maybe we can start to replace the real wrestlers with our own legends to associate with moves.
I'm not looking into exploring this debate. My thoughts are well-known (at least I think they are). I do think that real wrestlers do have a place being mentioned, although not as a crutch. They should be sparing if any. I mean, coming from a guy who handles the whole Anonymous family, that should be a no-brainer :p However, I do understand the need for our community to become self-contained really, to have a sense of history. For the three of us who actually read writeups (and that number is probably two now since I barely get any time to read them at the present moment), it's one thing to see a move referred to as an "Arn Anderson quality spinebuster," but it's a much different and more mark-out-worthy event when you see things like "Hornet splash." I know I'm still a big offender since I use the real wrestler references in nearly every edition of EPICENTER. The thing is though, how many of us have commonplace moves that we're well-known for?
By and large, we choose our movesets because we like the way certain guys do those moves, and every signature move that we have for the most part are finishers. Honestly, if you describe Dan Ryan doing a Spoiler-quality powerbomb, Brunk would flay you. Trust me, I know from experience not to compare the characters ;) Most people don't really signature-ize their common moves, and for the most part, the legendary characters that are in the forefront in peoples' minds right now are still active, a phenomenon that's totally opposite to what's going on in real wrestling, at least in this super-community.
So, how do we make our moves our own again? How can we start substituting our wrestlers for guys like Anderson or Rick Rude? Well, for one, we can start trying to read matches again. Stop laughing, it's true. Of course, this discussion's been had many times before, so then what? How about more feds employing shortforms, like TEAM or NFW, in highlight form? Have your wrestlers submit a sort of "five moves of doom" spot list for the main shortformer to highlight, so that the common moves, the strikes and the minor slams can become ingrained into folklore like the legendary finishers on the scale of the HIDADRIVER~! (oh the humanity).
I know that may be blasphemous, since 99% of us are workrate marks. Hell, I'm one myself. However, I also know that the nature of the beast is to captivate attention. Even in writing, if you can pick out spots that are common to your wrestler, it might help people read even longform matches better.
And maybe we can start to replace the real wrestlers with our own legends to associate with moves.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Quick notes
- The answers post to the "Ask Your Blogger" post will go up once I get a few more questions. Thanks to Dove and Sam for providing some good ones thus far, but I know you guys have things you want to ask. Don't be shy, you can ask just about anything eW related. Like about my answers to the big-ass survey.
- Here's something I'd like some feedback on. How many of you out there would be interested in doing a monthly Power Poll for TEAM? It's basically like the AP college football/basketball poll, only in the interest of time and because of the numbers involved, it'll be a top ten rather than a top 25. If that's something you're interested in, lemme know.
- Remember this? Yep, it's a post on how much I thought death angles in eW were such a bad idea. Well, in a case of real life ripping off fantasy, Vince McMahon thought it'd be a swell idea to fake his own death for an angle. Brilliant, and the worst case scenario, a wrestler or former wrestler actually dying during this asinine angle, happened. Sensational Sherri passed today at the age of 49. Guess whose death got top billing on WWE.com? Yep, Vince's "passing." Ludicrous. Just goes to show that bad ideas in eW also are bad ideas in the real thing. There's no question in my mind that even the most mediocre of minds in the eW realm could book circles around the WWE at this point. That's not a good thing, since this stagnance is a huge reason why eW is perceived to be dying itself.
- Just one more quick note on the survey... I agree with more than a few of the people who answered. I really think that for as cool a move as it is and with as much a wow factor as it has, the C-4 (Burchill's version, not K-Wolf's) is totally underused in eW. You'd think that people would have latched onto this move since I've seen a total markage for flippy moves like the Destroyer and the base move off this variant, the Rock Bottom. Oh well, maybe it's a good thing it's not being overdone, because then I'd end up throwing something at the monitor every time I saw fifty characters with it in their arsenal ;)
- Here's something I'd like some feedback on. How many of you out there would be interested in doing a monthly Power Poll for TEAM? It's basically like the AP college football/basketball poll, only in the interest of time and because of the numbers involved, it'll be a top ten rather than a top 25. If that's something you're interested in, lemme know.
- Remember this? Yep, it's a post on how much I thought death angles in eW were such a bad idea. Well, in a case of real life ripping off fantasy, Vince McMahon thought it'd be a swell idea to fake his own death for an angle. Brilliant, and the worst case scenario, a wrestler or former wrestler actually dying during this asinine angle, happened. Sensational Sherri passed today at the age of 49. Guess whose death got top billing on WWE.com? Yep, Vince's "passing." Ludicrous. Just goes to show that bad ideas in eW also are bad ideas in the real thing. There's no question in my mind that even the most mediocre of minds in the eW realm could book circles around the WWE at this point. That's not a good thing, since this stagnance is a huge reason why eW is perceived to be dying itself.
- Just one more quick note on the survey... I agree with more than a few of the people who answered. I really think that for as cool a move as it is and with as much a wow factor as it has, the C-4 (Burchill's version, not K-Wolf's) is totally underused in eW. You'd think that people would have latched onto this move since I've seen a total markage for flippy moves like the Destroyer and the base move off this variant, the Rock Bottom. Oh well, maybe it's a good thing it's not being overdone, because then I'd end up throwing something at the monitor every time I saw fifty characters with it in their arsenal ;)
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Confessions of an E-Fed Conservative
The words "conservative" and "liberal" are tossed around in politics like softballs in a beer league game, even if the terms don't match the person they're describing. For example, many Republicans nowadays are called conservative, yet they spend taxpayer money like their names were Franklin Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Re... err, wait a second :). It's not to say that the GOP isn't a conservative party. They lean right on many issues, but it just goes to show that there aren't many people out there who are 100% right or 100% left on anything anymore.
The same goes for eW, at least in most cases. The right and the left are clearly demarcated around the communities, mainly in terms of writing style and wrestling topicality in shows. Some communities, like FW, are homes to staunch conservatives on the surface, while the PTC crowd leans more to the left, at least that's what it seems. There are opposite elements in each camp. You wouldn't know it on FW because discussion for the most part has gone the way of characters like Stone Cold Rocky Helmsley, but if you pay attention to some writers there like Steve, Jamar Short, Lindz, Pete Russo and even Katz sometimes who write stuff that is panned by and large by the "old guard." This isn't to say that they're eW "hippies," and they rarely ever write things that don't have a damn thing to do with their character as wrestlers, but it's still something different. At PTC, the debates rage all the time, with the right mostly being manned by Ben (Caldera), Dean and, surprise-surprise, myself.
Yes, I tend to think of myself as an e-fed conservative. You might not know it from posts like this where I advocate blasphemous things like off-camera, topically non-wrestling related RPs and writings, but I guess just like most in the political arena, I'm not wholly on one side ot the coin. The reason why I say I'm conservative is that I don't go for the supernatural in the ring, and I tend to be against the supernatural characters out of the ring (even though I will never, ever try to keep a supernatural character from being able to do his thing). I like for everything in the ring and on camera to be realistic. I hate when people come up with contrived finishers, and I hate it when people use stuff like the Burning Hammer or Tiger Driver '91 in their regular movesets (remember that, Brunk?). Although I fully support all ex-PTC feds and am in PRIME, I do prefer "old-school" RP feds, and I think everything's better in script.
Yet, I think people who choose to develop their character off-camera in situations where they may not be even thinking about the arena is not only okay, but it should be encouraged for those who want to do it like that. Of course, I believe everything at the end of the day should tie into that person's character as a wrestler, whether you're explicitly mentioning matches, the fed, angles and such or not in the RP. Why even be in something called e-wrestling if you're going to ignore the wrestling part? I do feel like people should have as much creative freedom as they need to express themselves. Besides, why should they care what Randomposter X or William Morgan think about their RP if they're just looking at one RP in one shot out of context of everything that person is doing in their fed? It should matter to the fedhead, the admins, the people in that fed who've been following that arc and that angle, and who know the history behind that RP and where that person may be going with it.
Does this make me any less of a purist? Honestly, I don't think it does, seeing that the goal of the hobby is to create memorable moments with our characters, be they in the ring, on the stick or any which way else. Those who say it's not realistic... well, you may be right, but having a 24 hour promo channel isn't realistic too, and many of us still RP like there is. That's because we in this hobby have several degrees of freedom more than what the folks in the real world have. Our message boards and promo boards act as if we do have all-access to every wrestler out there. If we have that freedom, why should we have to limit ourselves? Why can't Katz and Steve collaborate on an RP or a segment that features Mike Randalls and Joey Melton hunting sand pirates while Scott Riktor dresses up in a bear suit? Okay, maybe that might not have been the best example of something realistic, and yes, I did have to strain to suspend my disbelief at that whole series, but it was entertaining to read, and a lot of times, that's a perfect remedy to the whole non-topical subject.
Ah, I'm rambling again... my point is, no one is completely on one side of the spectrum. I mean, if I had to portray myself with a counterpart, I'd probably be Rudy Giuliani. He's a Republican, and he's no doubt a Republican on several issues, but he leans very much to the right on a few others, like abortion. He's a pro-choice Republican. That may seem like an oxymoron to you, but to others, well, it just means he's a human being. Same with Log-Cabin Republicans or Hawkish Democrats like Joe Lieberman. Or storyline-RP loving eW righties like myself ;)
Besides, I can think of only a few people whom I think could fit the mold of a total extremist on each side. I know Shane Gerlach HATES anything narrative, and feels like if anything has to be told, it should be told in the ring, on the stick, at the arena, or if it has to be out of the arena, that your character acts as if he was on camera the whole time. I also know that Joe Schmidt and Ryan Murray both believe that you don't even have to write about wrestling to get along in this hobby, and that most people are better off staying away from the in-ring aspect. Even in those cases, they aren't completely set in their ways. I know that Shane can pull a storyline RP out of his ass because he did so for the ToC last year (another subliminal plug! ;p), and both Ryan and Joe at least keep their characters somewhat grounded when they write in-card. You're never going to find someone that goes all the way to one side.
And that's how things ought to be. People shouldn't fall in with an ideology. They should stick to their ideals and be themselves, believe what they truly believe is right, what they believe is entertaining, what they believe is enriching.
One more thing before I go... the post from W3:16 that I linked to was in response to the aforementioned Morgan, who said that he had me on ignore and then goes on to say that I'm on there because I "bash" him for no good reason. Well, I can't believe I'm giving him the time of day on here, but I don't bash anyone for no good reason. If I called him out, it was because he was making stupid, ignorant posts like the ones he was making in that thread. I call 'em like I see 'em. I don't pick on people just because I don't like them. I pick on them because they continue to say stupid things, trump them up like they're gospel and then shirk away from any stimulating mental debate that challenges their short-sighted world view because their wittle feewings were hurt that I "bashed" them. Fuck that. If you can't take having your views challenged, and if you can't stand up and defend them without calling your opposition stupid or cowering away from them, then you have no place being on a message board interacting with other people. I have no patience for intolerance and I have no patience for ignorance, and I will say something if I see either one. You all know this to be true.
The same goes for eW, at least in most cases. The right and the left are clearly demarcated around the communities, mainly in terms of writing style and wrestling topicality in shows. Some communities, like FW, are homes to staunch conservatives on the surface, while the PTC crowd leans more to the left, at least that's what it seems. There are opposite elements in each camp. You wouldn't know it on FW because discussion for the most part has gone the way of characters like Stone Cold Rocky Helmsley, but if you pay attention to some writers there like Steve, Jamar Short, Lindz, Pete Russo and even Katz sometimes who write stuff that is panned by and large by the "old guard." This isn't to say that they're eW "hippies," and they rarely ever write things that don't have a damn thing to do with their character as wrestlers, but it's still something different. At PTC, the debates rage all the time, with the right mostly being manned by Ben (Caldera), Dean and, surprise-surprise, myself.
Yes, I tend to think of myself as an e-fed conservative. You might not know it from posts like this where I advocate blasphemous things like off-camera, topically non-wrestling related RPs and writings, but I guess just like most in the political arena, I'm not wholly on one side ot the coin. The reason why I say I'm conservative is that I don't go for the supernatural in the ring, and I tend to be against the supernatural characters out of the ring (even though I will never, ever try to keep a supernatural character from being able to do his thing). I like for everything in the ring and on camera to be realistic. I hate when people come up with contrived finishers, and I hate it when people use stuff like the Burning Hammer or Tiger Driver '91 in their regular movesets (remember that, Brunk?). Although I fully support all ex-PTC feds and am in PRIME, I do prefer "old-school" RP feds, and I think everything's better in script.
Yet, I think people who choose to develop their character off-camera in situations where they may not be even thinking about the arena is not only okay, but it should be encouraged for those who want to do it like that. Of course, I believe everything at the end of the day should tie into that person's character as a wrestler, whether you're explicitly mentioning matches, the fed, angles and such or not in the RP. Why even be in something called e-wrestling if you're going to ignore the wrestling part? I do feel like people should have as much creative freedom as they need to express themselves. Besides, why should they care what Randomposter X or William Morgan think about their RP if they're just looking at one RP in one shot out of context of everything that person is doing in their fed? It should matter to the fedhead, the admins, the people in that fed who've been following that arc and that angle, and who know the history behind that RP and where that person may be going with it.
Does this make me any less of a purist? Honestly, I don't think it does, seeing that the goal of the hobby is to create memorable moments with our characters, be they in the ring, on the stick or any which way else. Those who say it's not realistic... well, you may be right, but having a 24 hour promo channel isn't realistic too, and many of us still RP like there is. That's because we in this hobby have several degrees of freedom more than what the folks in the real world have. Our message boards and promo boards act as if we do have all-access to every wrestler out there. If we have that freedom, why should we have to limit ourselves? Why can't Katz and Steve collaborate on an RP or a segment that features Mike Randalls and Joey Melton hunting sand pirates while Scott Riktor dresses up in a bear suit? Okay, maybe that might not have been the best example of something realistic, and yes, I did have to strain to suspend my disbelief at that whole series, but it was entertaining to read, and a lot of times, that's a perfect remedy to the whole non-topical subject.
Ah, I'm rambling again... my point is, no one is completely on one side of the spectrum. I mean, if I had to portray myself with a counterpart, I'd probably be Rudy Giuliani. He's a Republican, and he's no doubt a Republican on several issues, but he leans very much to the right on a few others, like abortion. He's a pro-choice Republican. That may seem like an oxymoron to you, but to others, well, it just means he's a human being. Same with Log-Cabin Republicans or Hawkish Democrats like Joe Lieberman. Or storyline-RP loving eW righties like myself ;)
Besides, I can think of only a few people whom I think could fit the mold of a total extremist on each side. I know Shane Gerlach HATES anything narrative, and feels like if anything has to be told, it should be told in the ring, on the stick, at the arena, or if it has to be out of the arena, that your character acts as if he was on camera the whole time. I also know that Joe Schmidt and Ryan Murray both believe that you don't even have to write about wrestling to get along in this hobby, and that most people are better off staying away from the in-ring aspect. Even in those cases, they aren't completely set in their ways. I know that Shane can pull a storyline RP out of his ass because he did so for the ToC last year (another subliminal plug! ;p), and both Ryan and Joe at least keep their characters somewhat grounded when they write in-card. You're never going to find someone that goes all the way to one side.
And that's how things ought to be. People shouldn't fall in with an ideology. They should stick to their ideals and be themselves, believe what they truly believe is right, what they believe is entertaining, what they believe is enriching.
One more thing before I go... the post from W3:16 that I linked to was in response to the aforementioned Morgan, who said that he had me on ignore and then goes on to say that I'm on there because I "bash" him for no good reason. Well, I can't believe I'm giving him the time of day on here, but I don't bash anyone for no good reason. If I called him out, it was because he was making stupid, ignorant posts like the ones he was making in that thread. I call 'em like I see 'em. I don't pick on people just because I don't like them. I pick on them because they continue to say stupid things, trump them up like they're gospel and then shirk away from any stimulating mental debate that challenges their short-sighted world view because their wittle feewings were hurt that I "bashed" them. Fuck that. If you can't take having your views challenged, and if you can't stand up and defend them without calling your opposition stupid or cowering away from them, then you have no place being on a message board interacting with other people. I have no patience for intolerance and I have no patience for ignorance, and I will say something if I see either one. You all know this to be true.
Monday, March 19, 2007
My Treatise on eW
One note before I begin... the next post in the Submissions series and quick review of both the last couple of months in NAPW and FUSE are in the queue. Also, for the moment, I'm putting a freeze on guest commentaries. Unless I ask for them, don't send them in for the time being. I'd like to reclaim the blog as my own :)
Through all the discussions I've had on this blog and in the eW folders on the many eW hubs that I visit, I don't think I've laid out my complete ideal on how I think eW should be in any single post. Seeing that several of you misguidedly think I'm some kind of authority on this hobby, I might as well lay it all out in one huge post.
I have to admit that this was spurred on by a few threads at PTC that have really gotten the masses out there discussing some basic tenets in the hobby, be it by accident or on purpose.
The Non-Pants Ben Puts Forth Discussion on the Supernatural
Simple Survey
And now, here goes nothing!
The most basic question you can ask of anything you're trying to find out about is (in this case, eW), "What is eW?" To me, eW is a fantasy roleplaying game where people handle wrestlers and either vie to win matches or tell stories involving wrestling (ie, running angles) in the ring. This is either done competitively (RP/matchwriting feds) or cooperatively (angle feds).
Once you define eW, you can then start to embellish upon that definition with details, and the most important detail, the detail that everything in any hub where this hobby is central rests upon... how do go about doing eW? What are the mechanics by which you vie to win matches or run angles? The answer to that... you write. You write RPs, you write matches, you write segments, posts on message boards. Everything in this hobby is predicated on word processing (since pen and paper are long since antiquated for our purposes :P). This begs the question "So wait, is this a wrestling hobby or a writing one?" Unfortunately, the answer is not completely either. Much like in any other walk of life, there is no black or white, no right or wrong. Everything's all blurred up.
However, to me, the hobby SHOULD be closer to the wrestling hobby than it should be to the writing hobby answer, and if I were to give a complete answer to what eW is all about, I'd say it's a hobby where people write about wrestling, where the wrestling is central and the writing is the medium by which you express that main focus. I feel that anything you write for this hobby, be it a roleplay, match, segment or whatever, should have some kind of focus on wrestling. Anything that doesn't have at least a tangential focus on wrestling is useless and shouldn't be counted towards anything, no matter how good the writing is. You can't pass a course on Chaucer by writing essays about Shakespeare, so why should you be able to excel in a wrestling-based hobby by writing Mafia-based stories?
This is not to say that every piece of writing has to be an in-ring or a backstage at the arena. That's not to say that the only bit of character development you can do is your character as a strictly wrestling based character. I believe that any bit of character development, no matter the situation, is good character development as long as it ties back into his character in the ring/arena. I am a huge believer in the power of the gimmick, and while hardcore members of the IWC (that's Internet wrestling community for those not in the know :p) frowned upon the days when the WWF ran wrestling clowns and garbage men, I think those kinds of characters are highly entertaining in the hands of gifted handlers. However, I believe any character, no matter what their gimmick is, should tie everything back into wrestling at the end of the day; it should be made clear that they're a wrestler in conjunction with being a trash man, clown, Mafioso, vampire, cave hulk or whatever.
Matches and segments for the most part don't have those topicality issues. You'd have to really try to make a wrestling match non-wrestling related. These bugaboos usually pertain to RPs. RPs what separates the hobby from the real life "sport" it emulates. Because the roleplays are used to determine the winner in a competitive environment, eW is more shoot than the real thing. Because there's a competition between RPs to win the match, I feel that the RPs should be confrontational in nature. Roleplays act as a character's "offense" in the match (since that's what he/she uses to win), so it should be natural that they attack the opponent, focus on the match and put angles involved in the match over. This is not to say they need to specifically be in wrestling promo format, since truly creative writers can make anything work within their style. However, I do think in-match RPs should be more about building heat than developing character. I believe that should be saved for segments and off-card RPs.
The reason for this is that I firmly believe that this isn't a hobby you can do solo. You need interaction with other people, whether it's through promo wars or segments. The former is why I much prefer the "old-school" style of wrestling promo RPing (the term trash-talk, when used by certain people, to me carries such a negative connotation, so I refrain from using it) with no RP limits with insurance against unnecessary stacking and sandbagging in place. I feel it's more organic for matches, and it nutures debating and persuasive writing skills, which are far harder to develop, in my view, than regular, expository creative writing. Storyline RPs have a place to develop character, and they nurture the creative writing side, which, don't get me wrong, I still feel is very important for any handler to be able to do.
As for segments and speaking of interaction, segments should be geared towards interaction, either by building heat through wrestling promos/in-rings, or by literal interaction through two or more characters. Introspective character building should be saved for off-card RPs. I personally don't need to see your character seething in his locker room about his inability to act in a certain situation on the actual write-up. I need to see action, advancement, interaction. Interaction is the basis of this hobby seeing man vs. man is the basis of the sport from which the hobby is derived.
Onto that man vs. man competition, ie matches, I tend to be a lot more critical on matches than any other piece of writing in eW, mainly because in my view, it's a lot harder to read a match than it is to read a segment or a promo. Firstly, I think that matches are much better to read if they're done with no block text prose, narrative or anything other than full PBP style. I have read matches in the "A1E" style (mostly declarative/non-flowery narrative with lines from announcers peppered in) and in the angle-fed style (all really flowery narrative) that I've enjoyed, but for the most part, the matches I've really connected with have been matches in feds such as EPW and NFW, feds where the full-PBP style is utilized. I like this style so much because I feel that it's the best way to break up the action, the best way that you can get everything in the match. If everything's written in block text, you can miss stuff, and at least I tend to skim because the blocks of text are so hard to digest.
But do matches always have to get written out? I feel that's not always the case. I feel that on PPVs, matches should always take precedence and should always get written out, but on free TV, angle advancement is paramount (unless you run an e-version of ROH). Therefore, it's okay to shortform free TV matches, at least in RP scenarios. In angle feds though, since there is no RPing required, (ie, the handlers' responsibility is matchwriting and not RPing), every match should be written out. No matter what the situation though, matchwriting should be kept as short and sweet as possible by the given parameters. A curtain-jerker featuring two debutants should not be given the same length as a World Championship match on your "WrestleMania." Discretion should always be used, and if you feel like a match is running too long and it's getting harder to write, it probably is too long and you should stop.
Now that I've covered all those points, it's time for my final point. Everything in the hobby I feel should be left up to the discretion of the handler. That means everything I just said could be thrown out the window :). I've verily enjoyed things that have been well-written yet have flown in the face of everything that I feel eW should stand for. eW means to some people something a lot looser or a lot stricter than what I've laid out. It's all subjective, and though there are things out there that I think are an abomination to eW or are just masturbatory fan-fiction masquerading as eW... if the writer is happy with that contribution to the hobby, then let them keep doing it, as long as they're not committing The Cardinal Sins. However, those same people who are doing things that I or anyone else may deem "offensive" should also not get into a tizzy whhen their interpretation of the hobby is criticized. It works both ways.
So yeah, those are my core beliefs on the hobby. If you feel like I've missed anything, feel free to address them in comments. :)
Through all the discussions I've had on this blog and in the eW folders on the many eW hubs that I visit, I don't think I've laid out my complete ideal on how I think eW should be in any single post. Seeing that several of you misguidedly think I'm some kind of authority on this hobby, I might as well lay it all out in one huge post.
I have to admit that this was spurred on by a few threads at PTC that have really gotten the masses out there discussing some basic tenets in the hobby, be it by accident or on purpose.
The Non-Pants Ben Puts Forth Discussion on the Supernatural
Simple Survey
And now, here goes nothing!
The most basic question you can ask of anything you're trying to find out about is (in this case, eW), "What is eW?" To me, eW is a fantasy roleplaying game where people handle wrestlers and either vie to win matches or tell stories involving wrestling (ie, running angles) in the ring. This is either done competitively (RP/matchwriting feds) or cooperatively (angle feds).
Once you define eW, you can then start to embellish upon that definition with details, and the most important detail, the detail that everything in any hub where this hobby is central rests upon... how do go about doing eW? What are the mechanics by which you vie to win matches or run angles? The answer to that... you write. You write RPs, you write matches, you write segments, posts on message boards. Everything in this hobby is predicated on word processing (since pen and paper are long since antiquated for our purposes :P). This begs the question "So wait, is this a wrestling hobby or a writing one?" Unfortunately, the answer is not completely either. Much like in any other walk of life, there is no black or white, no right or wrong. Everything's all blurred up.
However, to me, the hobby SHOULD be closer to the wrestling hobby than it should be to the writing hobby answer, and if I were to give a complete answer to what eW is all about, I'd say it's a hobby where people write about wrestling, where the wrestling is central and the writing is the medium by which you express that main focus. I feel that anything you write for this hobby, be it a roleplay, match, segment or whatever, should have some kind of focus on wrestling. Anything that doesn't have at least a tangential focus on wrestling is useless and shouldn't be counted towards anything, no matter how good the writing is. You can't pass a course on Chaucer by writing essays about Shakespeare, so why should you be able to excel in a wrestling-based hobby by writing Mafia-based stories?
This is not to say that every piece of writing has to be an in-ring or a backstage at the arena. That's not to say that the only bit of character development you can do is your character as a strictly wrestling based character. I believe that any bit of character development, no matter the situation, is good character development as long as it ties back into his character in the ring/arena. I am a huge believer in the power of the gimmick, and while hardcore members of the IWC (that's Internet wrestling community for those not in the know :p) frowned upon the days when the WWF ran wrestling clowns and garbage men, I think those kinds of characters are highly entertaining in the hands of gifted handlers. However, I believe any character, no matter what their gimmick is, should tie everything back into wrestling at the end of the day; it should be made clear that they're a wrestler in conjunction with being a trash man, clown, Mafioso, vampire, cave hulk or whatever.
Matches and segments for the most part don't have those topicality issues. You'd have to really try to make a wrestling match non-wrestling related. These bugaboos usually pertain to RPs. RPs what separates the hobby from the real life "sport" it emulates. Because the roleplays are used to determine the winner in a competitive environment, eW is more shoot than the real thing. Because there's a competition between RPs to win the match, I feel that the RPs should be confrontational in nature. Roleplays act as a character's "offense" in the match (since that's what he/she uses to win), so it should be natural that they attack the opponent, focus on the match and put angles involved in the match over. This is not to say they need to specifically be in wrestling promo format, since truly creative writers can make anything work within their style. However, I do think in-match RPs should be more about building heat than developing character. I believe that should be saved for segments and off-card RPs.
The reason for this is that I firmly believe that this isn't a hobby you can do solo. You need interaction with other people, whether it's through promo wars or segments. The former is why I much prefer the "old-school" style of wrestling promo RPing (the term trash-talk, when used by certain people, to me carries such a negative connotation, so I refrain from using it) with no RP limits with insurance against unnecessary stacking and sandbagging in place. I feel it's more organic for matches, and it nutures debating and persuasive writing skills, which are far harder to develop, in my view, than regular, expository creative writing. Storyline RPs have a place to develop character, and they nurture the creative writing side, which, don't get me wrong, I still feel is very important for any handler to be able to do.
As for segments and speaking of interaction, segments should be geared towards interaction, either by building heat through wrestling promos/in-rings, or by literal interaction through two or more characters. Introspective character building should be saved for off-card RPs. I personally don't need to see your character seething in his locker room about his inability to act in a certain situation on the actual write-up. I need to see action, advancement, interaction. Interaction is the basis of this hobby seeing man vs. man is the basis of the sport from which the hobby is derived.
Onto that man vs. man competition, ie matches, I tend to be a lot more critical on matches than any other piece of writing in eW, mainly because in my view, it's a lot harder to read a match than it is to read a segment or a promo. Firstly, I think that matches are much better to read if they're done with no block text prose, narrative or anything other than full PBP style. I have read matches in the "A1E" style (mostly declarative/non-flowery narrative with lines from announcers peppered in) and in the angle-fed style (all really flowery narrative) that I've enjoyed, but for the most part, the matches I've really connected with have been matches in feds such as EPW and NFW, feds where the full-PBP style is utilized. I like this style so much because I feel that it's the best way to break up the action, the best way that you can get everything in the match. If everything's written in block text, you can miss stuff, and at least I tend to skim because the blocks of text are so hard to digest.
But do matches always have to get written out? I feel that's not always the case. I feel that on PPVs, matches should always take precedence and should always get written out, but on free TV, angle advancement is paramount (unless you run an e-version of ROH). Therefore, it's okay to shortform free TV matches, at least in RP scenarios. In angle feds though, since there is no RPing required, (ie, the handlers' responsibility is matchwriting and not RPing), every match should be written out. No matter what the situation though, matchwriting should be kept as short and sweet as possible by the given parameters. A curtain-jerker featuring two debutants should not be given the same length as a World Championship match on your "WrestleMania." Discretion should always be used, and if you feel like a match is running too long and it's getting harder to write, it probably is too long and you should stop.
Now that I've covered all those points, it's time for my final point. Everything in the hobby I feel should be left up to the discretion of the handler. That means everything I just said could be thrown out the window :). I've verily enjoyed things that have been well-written yet have flown in the face of everything that I feel eW should stand for. eW means to some people something a lot looser or a lot stricter than what I've laid out. It's all subjective, and though there are things out there that I think are an abomination to eW or are just masturbatory fan-fiction masquerading as eW... if the writer is happy with that contribution to the hobby, then let them keep doing it, as long as they're not committing The Cardinal Sins. However, those same people who are doing things that I or anyone else may deem "offensive" should also not get into a tizzy whhen their interpretation of the hobby is criticized. It works both ways.
So yeah, those are my core beliefs on the hobby. If you feel like I've missed anything, feel free to address them in comments. :)
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
A new (old) idea
Everybody's obsessed with what goes on backstage. With the rise of the Internet, many wrestling fans have become "smart," and because of that, the writers in Stamford have gone away from traditional, in-ring mic spots and gravitated towards faux-impromptu backstage segments, where wrestlers have conversations as if they weren't being watched by a camera (or as if they were being watched by a camera but know that the scenarios are scripted and they're only playing a role rather than buying into the notion of living their character for the time they're on screen). Because of this shift, and because this shift has happened within the last 10 years (with myself only being in the hobby for 6 and change), I've noticed that a good 80-95% of all segments are of this "edgier" backstage variety, which is fine. In the FW side of things, this lack of promos on the writeups is more than made up for in the RP stage.
But then again, in other circles, RPing has taken a different direction. It's more about the storylines rather than wrestling promos. This is fine too, once again, I'm not bashing the type or style of RPing. I wouldn't be doing it if I thought it bad. However, the focus on segments hasn't gravitated towards the wrestling promo. It's like you get one set of storylines on the write-ups, and you get another dosage of storyline, be it the same as in the shows or something completely different, in RPs.
I've always said that the soul of eW is in the art of cutting a promo, and I feel like everyone in the hobby would be better for being able to write a monologue for their character that incorporates elements of talking trash, putting over events, putting over storylines in their characters' own words and puffing their own characters up. I also believe that RPing in PTC and other like-minded circles doesn't necessarily have to be in promo style to be sound eW fodder. So, how can a fed that features storyline RPing still retain its soul?
Well, I think that feds like that should try a new concept; they should have it so that their shows only contained wrestling matches and either in-ring or backstage promos, straight up monologues with or without interviewers. Any interactions between wrestlers outside of matches on the show would have to be set up in interview segments. Set it up like it's a real sport and bring back kayfabe.
Then, if you want to run the other storylines, the ones that involve the more "candid" shots of your characters, do it in RPs. Put over the behind the scenes stuff in the RPs, since in those kinds of feds they're meant to be behind the scenes anyway.
Honestly, I think the first fed who does that will be the most successful in bringing in crossover talent and bringing balance back to eW. There's a way to make things about both wrestling and writing.
And besides... it's always fun to talk a little smack ;)
But then again, in other circles, RPing has taken a different direction. It's more about the storylines rather than wrestling promos. This is fine too, once again, I'm not bashing the type or style of RPing. I wouldn't be doing it if I thought it bad. However, the focus on segments hasn't gravitated towards the wrestling promo. It's like you get one set of storylines on the write-ups, and you get another dosage of storyline, be it the same as in the shows or something completely different, in RPs.
I've always said that the soul of eW is in the art of cutting a promo, and I feel like everyone in the hobby would be better for being able to write a monologue for their character that incorporates elements of talking trash, putting over events, putting over storylines in their characters' own words and puffing their own characters up. I also believe that RPing in PTC and other like-minded circles doesn't necessarily have to be in promo style to be sound eW fodder. So, how can a fed that features storyline RPing still retain its soul?
Well, I think that feds like that should try a new concept; they should have it so that their shows only contained wrestling matches and either in-ring or backstage promos, straight up monologues with or without interviewers. Any interactions between wrestlers outside of matches on the show would have to be set up in interview segments. Set it up like it's a real sport and bring back kayfabe.
Then, if you want to run the other storylines, the ones that involve the more "candid" shots of your characters, do it in RPs. Put over the behind the scenes stuff in the RPs, since in those kinds of feds they're meant to be behind the scenes anyway.
Honestly, I think the first fed who does that will be the most successful in bringing in crossover talent and bringing balance back to eW. There's a way to make things about both wrestling and writing.
And besides... it's always fun to talk a little smack ;)
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.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Guest Bloggings: The Malice Blog!
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=
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=
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Happy Festivus: The Airing of Grievances
It's late December again, and you know what that means... Christmas Festivus for the rest of us! Yes, for a second year, I will air a grievance in the manner that Jerry Stiller's character on Seinfeld has laid out, and this year, that grievance is the shoddy treatment of the wrestling promo RP, specifically in the PTC community.
It seems that there's a condescending air and this insidious undercurrent of venom when it comes to the traditional wrestling promo. It's like that if you do that kind of thing, or if you're in a fed where that's the common practice, you're not as evolved as other e-fedders are, and those places should be looked down upon. To tap into themes that my guest bloggers have been exploring, it's like there are two different games nowadays. The PTC game has been hijacked by writers, while wrestling fans still have control of FW. The writers believe that "trash talk" is uncivilized and better left to special events, fun things that have no bearing on fed matters, like what's going on here.
Because it's now all about the writing, about crafting these fine stories, the art of the promo, at least in RP form, isn't really considered as much an art as it is something you do on the side. If you ask most people where "trash talk" or a wrestling promo belongs, it's on a show write-up. That's where wrestlers cut their promos in real life, right?
But if you look at some of these show write-ups, you aren't going to find a whole lot of promos. Outside of a few people (the lads in Fuck You, Darcy Crisis and Jack Murphy for example... all of them cut in-ring promos and are damn good at it, if you ask me), no one really uses segment work to cut promos on people. They're for the most part backstage segments used to futher storylines.
So if promos have no place in RPs, and people feel compelled not to do them on write-ups, where do they belong? Surely, you're not going to cut out the time-honored tradition of laying the verbal smackdown on your opponents completely, right? I mean, that's half of what wrestling is about. Half the time, you're talking smack on your opponent and the other half, you're in the ring beating up on your opponent. Okay, maybe those numbers are a bit skewed nowadays, seeing that there are plenty of backstage segments, skits and angles that populate wrestling television. Still though, the art of the promo has not been lost. I caught the last hour of Smackdown this past Friday and I saw JBL deliver a fine promo against Teddy Long. People still do it in real life.
Plus... if something is undeniably more fun, why stop doing it? I hear from people all the time that "I wish there was more of a harkening back to the old-school" or "that trash talk thread is the most fun I've had in awhile." This is a hobby... shouldn't it be fun? Why should we turn our noses up to the promo when you can get into it so much? Who cares if the writing isn't as good as if you're doing a zomg important story?
Once again, I can't stress enough that I don't think what most of PTC does for RPs is bad. I like that style and I think it has a place. I was talking to Dave Cook, Jason Snow's handler, last night, and he said that the PTC style of RPing helps people with their writing. I agree with that. I'm very interested in reading stories about wrestlers outside of the arena setting. I like writing those kinds of things too. It has a place.
I also don't think all of PTC thinks the way I described above. I mean, why else would Nova compete in NFW, and why would Pete grade a Lindsay Troy wrestling promo on the same grade as something such as a VJ masterful story epic? There isn't a total disdain for the promo. But it's there in an enclave of the community, and it's present enough to rear its ugly head.
Look, I'm not saying that wrestling promos should be instituted in place of backstage segments and non-traditional RPs. I'm just saying that non-traditional RPs shouldn't be done in lieu of wrestling promos either. There has to be a balance. This hobby has to have some kind of connection to wrestling, and it can't just be through wrestling matches. The spirit of the promo is the thing that gives eW its soul, in my opinion. To take it away is to strip the hobby of its essence.
And stripping the hobby of its essence is a major grievance to me.
It seems that there's a condescending air and this insidious undercurrent of venom when it comes to the traditional wrestling promo. It's like that if you do that kind of thing, or if you're in a fed where that's the common practice, you're not as evolved as other e-fedders are, and those places should be looked down upon. To tap into themes that my guest bloggers have been exploring, it's like there are two different games nowadays. The PTC game has been hijacked by writers, while wrestling fans still have control of FW. The writers believe that "trash talk" is uncivilized and better left to special events, fun things that have no bearing on fed matters, like what's going on here.
Because it's now all about the writing, about crafting these fine stories, the art of the promo, at least in RP form, isn't really considered as much an art as it is something you do on the side. If you ask most people where "trash talk" or a wrestling promo belongs, it's on a show write-up. That's where wrestlers cut their promos in real life, right?
But if you look at some of these show write-ups, you aren't going to find a whole lot of promos. Outside of a few people (the lads in Fuck You, Darcy Crisis and Jack Murphy for example... all of them cut in-ring promos and are damn good at it, if you ask me), no one really uses segment work to cut promos on people. They're for the most part backstage segments used to futher storylines.
So if promos have no place in RPs, and people feel compelled not to do them on write-ups, where do they belong? Surely, you're not going to cut out the time-honored tradition of laying the verbal smackdown on your opponents completely, right? I mean, that's half of what wrestling is about. Half the time, you're talking smack on your opponent and the other half, you're in the ring beating up on your opponent. Okay, maybe those numbers are a bit skewed nowadays, seeing that there are plenty of backstage segments, skits and angles that populate wrestling television. Still though, the art of the promo has not been lost. I caught the last hour of Smackdown this past Friday and I saw JBL deliver a fine promo against Teddy Long. People still do it in real life.
Plus... if something is undeniably more fun, why stop doing it? I hear from people all the time that "I wish there was more of a harkening back to the old-school" or "that trash talk thread is the most fun I've had in awhile." This is a hobby... shouldn't it be fun? Why should we turn our noses up to the promo when you can get into it so much? Who cares if the writing isn't as good as if you're doing a zomg important story?
Once again, I can't stress enough that I don't think what most of PTC does for RPs is bad. I like that style and I think it has a place. I was talking to Dave Cook, Jason Snow's handler, last night, and he said that the PTC style of RPing helps people with their writing. I agree with that. I'm very interested in reading stories about wrestlers outside of the arena setting. I like writing those kinds of things too. It has a place.
I also don't think all of PTC thinks the way I described above. I mean, why else would Nova compete in NFW, and why would Pete grade a Lindsay Troy wrestling promo on the same grade as something such as a VJ masterful story epic? There isn't a total disdain for the promo. But it's there in an enclave of the community, and it's present enough to rear its ugly head.
Look, I'm not saying that wrestling promos should be instituted in place of backstage segments and non-traditional RPs. I'm just saying that non-traditional RPs shouldn't be done in lieu of wrestling promos either. There has to be a balance. This hobby has to have some kind of connection to wrestling, and it can't just be through wrestling matches. The spirit of the promo is the thing that gives eW its soul, in my opinion. To take it away is to strip the hobby of its essence.
And stripping the hobby of its essence is a major grievance to me.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Guest Bloggings: Sky's Turn
Our next guest blogger is Skylar Green, handler of Vangellus Oxios in PRIME most recently. He's got another sort of follow up to his fellow PRIMEate Dave's blog, and like his and Shane's, this one's a must read, folks.
Spectrum
by Sklyar Green, special guest to RRoaEL
I've spent most of my 5/6 years of e-wrestling in the Primetime Central community (and whatever was associated with it). Over that way, there's been a bit of a shift in RPing philosophy from time to time, usually not much that affects the overall movement of the feds except for community events such as iPPVs, tournaments, or the Infinite Gauntlet. But in the entire time that I've been handling over there, whichever feds that I've been in, the emphasis was on roleplaying to win matched. And the method by which you'd win an RP match in an RP fed over that way was by telling the most entertaining story with your character. You usually didn't have to make mention of your upcoming match or opponent, but there were exceptions. Normally it would be a good idea to give some kind of thought to opponents in the case of heated feuds. You dislike somebody that much and all those thoughts, or they've got hatred toward you, and it's gonna follow you home regardless. But most of the time, with exhibition matches, you could just do whatever and that would be fine enough so long as you had a good story.
Now, PTC provides satisfaction mostly for the “writing” itch, although I believe that I'm someone in a stuck-mode. Taking from David's (Snow) blog, I consider myself something of a hybrid writer, or maybe somebody who's just been writing in the 2002/2003 way if I had a choice in the matter. I've had to adapt my roleplaying, and I haven't really complained much about it, but David was spot on when he says that the “writers” have hijacked the place. I'll admit that I find I'd go nuts if I attempted to do a roleplay that's nothing but Wrestler A sitting in a dark room cutting a promo, but at the same time I do my best to connect my wrestler's story to the fact that they're actually a wrestler. It's been reflected in the last three characters that I've written.
Silvio Fiore is an old-school wrestling character. He joined his first federation (Death Row Wrestling Federation, over in Projekt X) by way of a developmental contract. The fed had him trained and in the meantime he traveled with the show, helping with the crew to set up the ring, ramp, and whatever else they had him do. The President and CEO of the fed only brought Silvio in when he thought that that Fiore could add to the product. Because of a physical condition that prevented him from feeling pain despite the fact that he was small by pro wrestling standards, they brought him in early. So he was a kid with a GED, undertrained, in over his head. The roleplays and the segments linked together to tell the story of a thoughtful, even-tempered country boy who would have to adapt to an environment that was much less friendly than what he was used to. The bulk of his rude awakening had to take place on the shows; roleplays were training and his reactions to the federation because with him driving to and from the shows and getting training in the meantime, he didn't have time in his life for much else that would involve a novel-level story progression.
In PRIME, Vangellus Oxios found a good tag team partner and friend in Scott Matthews. The man was a monster in size, and had anger problems, but he was still a down-to-earth guy who was trying to support his family and find a normal life as he really didn't have growing up. Did Oxios have crazy stuff going on in his RPs? Sure he did, but that was mostly in playful contrast to what Matthews was doing. But even so, they were both wrestling characters. Their whole team was tossed together spur-of-the-moment, and neither was much of an expert in the ring (Matthews being purely power, and Oxios being more of a kickboxer with a strong head but a weak neck). Each man was determined, however, to stick it out for the long haul and make it work. They sought out a trainer and worked to improve. They made themselves into a media-friendly group, with both men playing to their strengths (Oxios the more experienced media darling of the two). Matthews needed help with personal problems and Oxios was there for him. Vangellus came out of the closet to his 'uncomfortable around gays' partner, but Scott remained his tag partner and friend because they had both become emotionally vested in each other and seeing each other succeed as a team. Their chemistry on the show could only work as well as it did because their story was all about their bonding and trials as friends and tag partners, and their desire to improve themselves as people and as wrestlers as well, and all of that was in roleplays.
In GCW, anybody who's read my work has learned the most about Ciel in segments that I write for the show because his interactions with the other members of the roster are just as telling of his personality as if he was just at home with his family. Nowhere in my roleplays have I mentioned that Ciel doesn't like to look directly down at shorter women because it's too easy for his eyes to wander down to their chests (he avoids doing that as a sign of respect). The roleplays I've done have said nothing of him having a degree in anthropology, thus allowing him a good deal of ability to effectively analyze the meta-society that professional wrestling builds around itself. And people can scan his history or RPs all they like, but nobody would actually know that Ciel has an affinity for sitting out in the hallways and listening to his iPod before matches because that would never come up outside of work. Roleplays aren't concerned with that because he's a single father with three kids to take care of; he's dealing with homework, cooking, and other household concerns that most wrestlers don't have to worry about to such an extent. If you want to learn about what motivates Ciel to wrestle, you read his RPs. If you want to see what kind of wrestler he is, you read the shows.
I always put a premium on having a substantive link between RPs, segments, and matches. That doesn't mean that it's just got to be wrestling all the time in everything a person ever does, but at the same time I do believe that I can have the best chance of entertaining the largest audience possible if I give the wrestling aficionados something to enjoy, and give the writing junkies something to hitch their wagon to. At the same time, I never want to create a character that a person can just totally “skip” part of their presentation. If something's introduced in an RP, there's a chance that it'll influence something on the show, so hey, read that too if you liked it and vice-versa. And that being the way that I write, that's how I read as well.
Overall, that highly influences the way that I read PTC, and why I rarely give RP feedback anymore (if I do, it's just technical stuff). Don't get me wrong, I don't mind reading RPs, but for me I still work in e-wrestling because I'm trying to portray a wrestler. I can go to Ezboard or Invisionfree roleplaying areas and depict a human being who is only 5% concerned with wrestling in their lives. I mean, I always give my characters other marketable talents (Silvio Fiore could easily work crew, or scouting; Vangellus Oxios is an international product shill and successful kickboxer; Ciel trains in wrestling, writes for his local paper, and serves as a mediator within his community). Nothing's stopping them from doing other things, but they've got to absolutely, totally, 200% *love* wrestling if they're willing to put themselves through the abuse and travel schedules and personal appearances.
A lot of what I see when I look out there… I see people who really don't need to be wrestlers. Characters who are wrestling, sure, but you take a look at the stories surrounding them and I couldn't tell you for the life of me why they're wasting their time wrestling when it clearly isn't the personal or even the professional interest in their lives. What is it about them? Do they just get off on people cheering for them? Attention whores who need to have millions of eyes on them? Sadists who want the legal indemnity that wrestling often provides them? Getting rich quick is worth the short-term pain and suffering? What is it?
Go ahead, wrap your character up in a very compellingly-produced murder mystery that spans continents and has conspiracies and plot twists at every turn. Never in your life (or mine, for that matter) will I call you a bad writer because of that alone. At the same understand that I might won't care enough, based on that alone, to want you to win a match against your random opponent Bixby Briggs because the two things have no real connection. And further understand that you may have a very well-organized wrestling feud on the shows, and I'll commend you for it, but if your roleplays seem to take place in another world altogether, I'm probably not going to get the maximum enjoyment out of your e-wrestling character as I would if the two things had some kind of link.
What was I even trying to say here? Honestly, I just started typing and whatever I had in mind came onto the page. But I guess if I had a point, it would be that David was right; the writers have taken over in PTC. But that doesn't mean that nothing can be done about it. It'd be supreme hubris to consider PTC as “complete;” without anymore room or need to expand or alter its philosophies. The writers don't have to stop, but rather I consider things to have gone on a pendulum swing from one extreme to the next. Whereas in the past you have roleplays where all a guy talked about was his opponent, now you have RPs where many people don't even remind you by the end of their work for the week that their character even wrestles for a living. It's not everybody, I readily admit that. However, what I believe would be very good is to attempt to reach more of an equilibrium state reached between the two RPing styles rather than just going from one extreme to another and considering the shift to be linear and at an end to the progression. Some people have that, some people don't; I say for myself, at least, that a balance, or at least a greater emphasis on the fact that one's character is a wrestler at all (in RPs) would be a great boon to things in PTC overall and allow for another boom (even if a smaller one than before) in membership. But that's just me.
Spectrum
by Sklyar Green, special guest to RRoaEL
I've spent most of my 5/6 years of e-wrestling in the Primetime Central community (and whatever was associated with it). Over that way, there's been a bit of a shift in RPing philosophy from time to time, usually not much that affects the overall movement of the feds except for community events such as iPPVs, tournaments, or the Infinite Gauntlet. But in the entire time that I've been handling over there, whichever feds that I've been in, the emphasis was on roleplaying to win matched. And the method by which you'd win an RP match in an RP fed over that way was by telling the most entertaining story with your character. You usually didn't have to make mention of your upcoming match or opponent, but there were exceptions. Normally it would be a good idea to give some kind of thought to opponents in the case of heated feuds. You dislike somebody that much and all those thoughts, or they've got hatred toward you, and it's gonna follow you home regardless. But most of the time, with exhibition matches, you could just do whatever and that would be fine enough so long as you had a good story.
Now, PTC provides satisfaction mostly for the “writing” itch, although I believe that I'm someone in a stuck-mode. Taking from David's (Snow) blog, I consider myself something of a hybrid writer, or maybe somebody who's just been writing in the 2002/2003 way if I had a choice in the matter. I've had to adapt my roleplaying, and I haven't really complained much about it, but David was spot on when he says that the “writers” have hijacked the place. I'll admit that I find I'd go nuts if I attempted to do a roleplay that's nothing but Wrestler A sitting in a dark room cutting a promo, but at the same time I do my best to connect my wrestler's story to the fact that they're actually a wrestler. It's been reflected in the last three characters that I've written.
Silvio Fiore is an old-school wrestling character. He joined his first federation (Death Row Wrestling Federation, over in Projekt X) by way of a developmental contract. The fed had him trained and in the meantime he traveled with the show, helping with the crew to set up the ring, ramp, and whatever else they had him do. The President and CEO of the fed only brought Silvio in when he thought that that Fiore could add to the product. Because of a physical condition that prevented him from feeling pain despite the fact that he was small by pro wrestling standards, they brought him in early. So he was a kid with a GED, undertrained, in over his head. The roleplays and the segments linked together to tell the story of a thoughtful, even-tempered country boy who would have to adapt to an environment that was much less friendly than what he was used to. The bulk of his rude awakening had to take place on the shows; roleplays were training and his reactions to the federation because with him driving to and from the shows and getting training in the meantime, he didn't have time in his life for much else that would involve a novel-level story progression.
In PRIME, Vangellus Oxios found a good tag team partner and friend in Scott Matthews. The man was a monster in size, and had anger problems, but he was still a down-to-earth guy who was trying to support his family and find a normal life as he really didn't have growing up. Did Oxios have crazy stuff going on in his RPs? Sure he did, but that was mostly in playful contrast to what Matthews was doing. But even so, they were both wrestling characters. Their whole team was tossed together spur-of-the-moment, and neither was much of an expert in the ring (Matthews being purely power, and Oxios being more of a kickboxer with a strong head but a weak neck). Each man was determined, however, to stick it out for the long haul and make it work. They sought out a trainer and worked to improve. They made themselves into a media-friendly group, with both men playing to their strengths (Oxios the more experienced media darling of the two). Matthews needed help with personal problems and Oxios was there for him. Vangellus came out of the closet to his 'uncomfortable around gays' partner, but Scott remained his tag partner and friend because they had both become emotionally vested in each other and seeing each other succeed as a team. Their chemistry on the show could only work as well as it did because their story was all about their bonding and trials as friends and tag partners, and their desire to improve themselves as people and as wrestlers as well, and all of that was in roleplays.
In GCW, anybody who's read my work has learned the most about Ciel in segments that I write for the show because his interactions with the other members of the roster are just as telling of his personality as if he was just at home with his family. Nowhere in my roleplays have I mentioned that Ciel doesn't like to look directly down at shorter women because it's too easy for his eyes to wander down to their chests (he avoids doing that as a sign of respect). The roleplays I've done have said nothing of him having a degree in anthropology, thus allowing him a good deal of ability to effectively analyze the meta-society that professional wrestling builds around itself. And people can scan his history or RPs all they like, but nobody would actually know that Ciel has an affinity for sitting out in the hallways and listening to his iPod before matches because that would never come up outside of work. Roleplays aren't concerned with that because he's a single father with three kids to take care of; he's dealing with homework, cooking, and other household concerns that most wrestlers don't have to worry about to such an extent. If you want to learn about what motivates Ciel to wrestle, you read his RPs. If you want to see what kind of wrestler he is, you read the shows.
I always put a premium on having a substantive link between RPs, segments, and matches. That doesn't mean that it's just got to be wrestling all the time in everything a person ever does, but at the same time I do believe that I can have the best chance of entertaining the largest audience possible if I give the wrestling aficionados something to enjoy, and give the writing junkies something to hitch their wagon to. At the same time, I never want to create a character that a person can just totally “skip” part of their presentation. If something's introduced in an RP, there's a chance that it'll influence something on the show, so hey, read that too if you liked it and vice-versa. And that being the way that I write, that's how I read as well.
Overall, that highly influences the way that I read PTC, and why I rarely give RP feedback anymore (if I do, it's just technical stuff). Don't get me wrong, I don't mind reading RPs, but for me I still work in e-wrestling because I'm trying to portray a wrestler. I can go to Ezboard or Invisionfree roleplaying areas and depict a human being who is only 5% concerned with wrestling in their lives. I mean, I always give my characters other marketable talents (Silvio Fiore could easily work crew, or scouting; Vangellus Oxios is an international product shill and successful kickboxer; Ciel trains in wrestling, writes for his local paper, and serves as a mediator within his community). Nothing's stopping them from doing other things, but they've got to absolutely, totally, 200% *love* wrestling if they're willing to put themselves through the abuse and travel schedules and personal appearances.
A lot of what I see when I look out there… I see people who really don't need to be wrestlers. Characters who are wrestling, sure, but you take a look at the stories surrounding them and I couldn't tell you for the life of me why they're wasting their time wrestling when it clearly isn't the personal or even the professional interest in their lives. What is it about them? Do they just get off on people cheering for them? Attention whores who need to have millions of eyes on them? Sadists who want the legal indemnity that wrestling often provides them? Getting rich quick is worth the short-term pain and suffering? What is it?
Go ahead, wrap your character up in a very compellingly-produced murder mystery that spans continents and has conspiracies and plot twists at every turn. Never in your life (or mine, for that matter) will I call you a bad writer because of that alone. At the same understand that I might won't care enough, based on that alone, to want you to win a match against your random opponent Bixby Briggs because the two things have no real connection. And further understand that you may have a very well-organized wrestling feud on the shows, and I'll commend you for it, but if your roleplays seem to take place in another world altogether, I'm probably not going to get the maximum enjoyment out of your e-wrestling character as I would if the two things had some kind of link.
What was I even trying to say here? Honestly, I just started typing and whatever I had in mind came onto the page. But I guess if I had a point, it would be that David was right; the writers have taken over in PTC. But that doesn't mean that nothing can be done about it. It'd be supreme hubris to consider PTC as “complete;” without anymore room or need to expand or alter its philosophies. The writers don't have to stop, but rather I consider things to have gone on a pendulum swing from one extreme to the next. Whereas in the past you have roleplays where all a guy talked about was his opponent, now you have RPs where many people don't even remind you by the end of their work for the week that their character even wrestles for a living. It's not everybody, I readily admit that. However, what I believe would be very good is to attempt to reach more of an equilibrium state reached between the two RPing styles rather than just going from one extreme to another and considering the shift to be linear and at an end to the progression. Some people have that, some people don't; I say for myself, at least, that a balance, or at least a greater emphasis on the fact that one's character is a wrestler at all (in RPs) would be a great boon to things in PTC overall and allow for another boom (even if a smaller one than before) in membership. But that's just me.
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