Iiiit's Beast! Yep, even though he does have his own blog (Blog of the Beast!), I'm giving Jarret some space today for a defense of the home fed, A1E. Sit back, relax and enjoy. And yes, I will have some more goodness later today. I'm actually working on a huge entry about submission moves, but that's a long-term thing. Today... I don't like to do the preview thing because if I don't get around to doing it, I get Edmunds and Mat Waters leading the angry pitchfork mob looking to burn me at the stake for not blogging ;) But today, I'm gonna try to get some quickie reviews out of the way and pimp some new blogs and eW hubs.
But now, without further ado... The Blog of the Beast on RRoaEL!
Perceptions
By Jarret Aubry, Special Guest to RRoaEL
First off, I just wanted to thank Tom for giving me the space to post this. (Note to self: remind self to later sabotage Tom for having a more popular blog than everyone else. Wait, did I just say that out loud?)
But in reality, I wanted to post this here, because Tom is such an ambassador to the e-Wrestling community, and this message would reach the most people because of him and this blog.
Human perception is a pretty powerful thing. Especially when it's a negative experience. Whether you've been involved in something directly, or heard second-hand from someone else who has been, those experiences and that feedback play a pretty powerful role in shaping your perception about a particular subject.
So what brings this kind of a post on?
For those of you that don't know, I recently took over the reigns of A1E and am the head booker there. I have a booking committee of four others that work alongside me. A few nights ago, one of my staff members was approached by a major FW star about possibly joining A1E. Quite the conversation followed, and a number of points were raised as to why this person was hesitant about joining the federation. The following was brought up:
1. You have to be invited to join.
2. The voting system is screwy.
3. Only members of a certain "clique" gets pushed and put over.
4. New members are disregarded and screwed over in favor of established members.
In this post, I'd like to address each of these points, and hopefully put some minds at ease for those that have thought about joining A1E, but haven't for some reason or another. I'm not making anything up. I'm going to be brutally honest about both the good and the bad that have gone down in A1E. We've had challenges in the past, but I think that now, we've made a ton of improvements, and if you've ever wanted to be part of A1E, now is the time to join.
1. You have to be invited to join.
Simply not true. I don't know how this got started, but A1E is not a closed fed. Anyone can join at any time. Please read the F.A.Q. on the A1E web site. All you need to do is submit your profile, and post IN for a match in the provided In/Out thread that goes up before every card. That's it. We don't turn down anyone. All I suggest is contacting myself or a member of the BC to let us know you're coming, and we can cook something up to introduce you into the fed - if you like.
2. The voting system is screwy.
This has probably been one of the biggest "issues", for lack of a better word, that's been through A1E basically throughout it's history. The premise behind the voting system is that once the promo - RP - session ends, the federation membership sends in votes on who they thought had the better RPs, and that determines the winner of the match.
The knee-jerk reaction to this is that everyone thinks "Wow, there must be a lot of bloc-voting and everyone voting for their friends."
I'm not going to lie. Of course the potential is there. It's really easy to just write down your buddy's name, or if you've got a favorite character to consistently vote for them because you're a mark for them. People wonder why we even have a voting system in the first place.
Well, we do it for two reasons. One, to give each and every member that participates in A1E a voice in how the fed works. We never have been, and don't want to be, a fed that just dictates what happens and have everyone just play along. Voting is a feedback mechanism for everyone that participates to go "Hey, Wrestler A did a good job this week. I'd like him/her to win the match." And two, it's a mechanism for the voters to ensure that the Booking Committee (BC) simply isn't putting over their own buddies and characters that we're marks for.
We realize that there have been some discrepencies in voted results in the past - but firmly believe that these are no more common that the occasional "odd" result in owner or committee judged feds. Anyone with efedding experience will tell you that judges "taste" is a prevelant factor in any federation, and our voters are not immune from occasionally having different tastes that the players might have hoped.
Rest assured, we are constantly trying to refine and update our process to minimize "screwy" voting and it has been well over a year since we have recieved a formal complaint on the voted results.
So how does it all work? Everyone votes at the end of the promo period, and votes are tabulated. The BC members' votes are equal to the public votes. My vote as head booker is worth the same as anyone else's vote. But, after the votes are tabulated - including the BC votes, the BC talks about the match and how its result fits into the grand scheme of things as far as planned storylines and pushes go. If, for whatever reason, we think that a result should be different than what is voted, we approach BOTH competitors of a match (or however number of people are in the match for a three way dance, tag team, etc), tell them what the result is, and then ASK THEIR PERMISSION to change the result for storyline purposes. Everyone must agree before we change anything.
We will NEVER, EVER, EVER, change a match result without talking to all parties involved in the match.
I can imagine some people might think "Well, you can tell me all that, but how do I know that you're not changing results and just not telling anyone?" The honest truth is that when it all comes down to it, voting is subjective. There's no way to change that. Someone might vote differently today than they did yesterday.
That all being said, at the core of this, a two-way trust system must be built between the Booking Committe (which I represent, and I am really ultimately responsible for everything that goes on) and each individual handler.
Each individual handler must trust myself and the BC that we're not going to commit any improprieties on you. But before you say that we're just expecting you to blindly trust us and that's a crock, please remember that in exchange for that trust, I'm also basically blindly trusting you, as the handler, to show up and participate when you say you're going to. It's frustrating as a booker to build all these plans, and then have them fail because someone doesn't show. Also remember that I'm blindly trusting you, as a handler, that you're going to respect the system by voting honestly, and not participate in bloc-voting, or just voting for your friends.
The thing to keep in mind - and keep an open mind about - is that this whole thing works both ways.
You have to trust me, and I have to trust you. This is no different than myself participating in a non-voted fed like EPW, UCW, or TEAM, where Dave, Shane, and Tom are trusting me, as a handler, to show up and put an effort in to make their fed as great as possible, and as a handler, I'm trusting them as a booker to treat me with respect and not kill me in angles and results.
I don't want to make the mistake of saying that this trust should be there by default, however, I believe that this should be implied when someone joins a fed - any fed - until I, the fed owner, give you sound reason to distrust me. Remember, that as the fed owner, it does nothing to benefit me personally, nor does it do anything to benefit A1E by screwing anyone over. As the fed owner, I want the absolute best for my federation, and what good is it going to do me if people are leaving my federation because they're not being treated properly?
I hope that explains how the voting process works, and how we treat it. It's treated very seriously, and is not just there as a way to mess with anyone.
For those of you concerned with "bloc-voting" or "simply voting for our friends"... the honest truth is, in the entire six-and-a-half-year history of A1E, there has been ONLY ONE proven, documented case of outright block voting, which was years ago - and that person was summarily removed from A1E. I would say that given the circumstances and potential, that's a pretty decent track record. Please know that we treat this process VERY seriously and there is ZERO TOLERANCE if we were to discover these activities going on.
3. Only members of a certain "clique" gets pushed and put over.
I fully understand how this one came about. A1E's been around for six and a half years, and there are those that have been around for the entire lifetime of the fed. During the halfway point of A1E's life, we started an angle involving "The Empire", a heel super-faction. The angle was huge, and because most of the members of this angle were on the BC, a lot of attention was paid to it. There was tons of discussions around it. My character was World Champion. Roger - then head of the BC, known as Housefly - was the leader of the Empire. Another member of the Empire was on the BC. The two main faces in the feud were my other character, my main character Beast, and Big Dog, another member of the BC. Lindsay Troy was involved, and she was on the BC - although I can't remember how much time of her in the angle and her service on the BC overlapped. We worked super hard on this angle, and it did rise to prominence, mostly because Gladiator held the World Title, and the angle dominated the fed for a long time, so I can fully understand how people took that, and I can understand how that perception came to be. I'm not going to try and deny it or work it at all. It happened.
However, all that being said, things have changed greatly since that time. Yes, in hindsight, we allowed that to happen.
Was it a mistake? I'd like to say no, but in reality, we ended up turning people off because of it, so although I, and a lot of others, thought it was a fantastic story, we could have probably handled it differently.
But rather than focus on that, I'd like to ask people, while taking all that into consideration, think of what's gone down in the fed since that time. Even during that time, Cross won the A1E World Championship. Since then, I've won it, and people may take that any way you want to, but the reality is I went on a year long tear as Survivor Champion, and I like to think I earned that shot. It took me four years to earn a shot and get there. JA's won the Championship. Cross is the Cyber Champion, and has been put over as a machine in the last few months. Spoiler, a MBE legend, has been made to look superhuman in the past little while. Daymon has been Triple Star Champion, and is now in a feud with the Cyber Champion. He's been in A1E for a short time, but has already made waves, and he's being rewarded for it. Troy Douglas is another guy that's looked on favorably in A1E. Dan Ryan has been Tag Champion for a year, and is now poised as number one contender to the World Championship. James Irish has had a good run as World Champion, and who knows how long he can hold the title for? Duchess, a female character, has a World Title shot this week. That's an awful lot of people outside the "core" of A1E people that are getting all kinds of pushes and seeing all kinds of success.
You might point at me and say "Well, the fed owner is the Triple Star Champion." If so, you don't have all the facts. Daymon decided that storyline-wise, his character needed to drop the title, and in all honesty, that decision was made *before* I took over A1E - even before Roger approached me about it. Even with that, two brand new guys are getting a shot at it.
So yes, again, I'm not going to gloss over what's happened in the past. I'm just hoping that A1E's efforts over the past several months - and especially my most recent efforts, as well as my ongoing efforts - to get new people pushed will speak some volumes. We've learned from the past. We have a face/heel faction war going on right now - but it's not dominating the main event scene. We're trying to do things right, and will continue to do so.
Point is, ANYONE can get over. If you show up, work hard, and promo well, you WILL move up the card, and you WILL get your shots. No one is held back for who they are, the style they work in, or anything like that at all.
4. New members are disregarded and screwed over in favor of established members.
I don't really know how to describe this, other than it's all really a case-by-case basis. When someone - anyone - joins a new federation, it's a brand new environment. What works in one federation for one person may not work in another federation. But, A1E is unique in this instance, because we are, quite simply put, an old-school promo fed. When you join A1E, it's not quite the same as joining EPW (which I keep using as an example because that's where else I participate). In A1E, you're not trying to just win me over as head booker. You're not just trying to win over the BC. You're trying to win over 20 other people, because everyone votes. It's not like going to EPW, where you just have Dave to worry about. Now, Dave is a great guy, and he's very fair, but Dave is one person. In A1E, you've got to win over the majority.
First off, the rule is that I don't care who you are. Whether you're John Q. Public and this is your first fed, or your name is Dan Ryan and you've won a million world titles. Everyone - and I mean everyone - starts at the very bottom in A1E and then must work their way up. There are no pushes given to a "name" just because that's what your name is.
And because A1E tends to be a fed with an old-school feel, people who aren't part of the fed may have a hard time meshing into that feel. You may be the most fantastic narrative writer in the world, but honestly, I don't think that's going to go over in A1E. If you have a quirky style of any kind, or if you do something totally out of the norm, you can't expect to walk into the fed and tear it up right away. People have to be able to take some time to read you, to get to know you, and learn about you. I think that's the majority of what the problem is. People who do well elsewhere expect to be able to go anywhere and win the World Title right away, because either they think they're that good, or that their name deserves it.
So when these kinds of people come in to A1E, and they don't do as well as they thought they would, or as well as they'd EXPECTED to, they leave after two or three matches and tell the world that "I can't get over in A1E." I don't think it's fair to expect to get over in two or three matches ANYWHERE, let alone just A1E. People have taken this to mean that "In A1E, you've gotta pay your dues" before you get shots at titles, or can get a push. That's just simply not true. I'll use Daymon as a prime example. I think the guy's been in less than a dozen matches in A1E, and already he's held the Triple Star Championship, and is lining up to challenge for the federation's number two title at our next PPV.
When it all comes down to it, it's not about your "name" value. It's not about anyone holding you down. It's not about paying your dues. It's not about getting in close with the bookers. It doesn't matter who your friends are.
Because A1E is a voted fed, the ONLY thing that matters is connecting with the voters, and writing well enough to get them to vote for you.
If you think that people from outside can't have success in A1E, then again, let me point out to you some of the success stories...
*Cross - Triple Star Champion. One of only two men to hold the Cyber Title THREE times. Former World Heavyweight Champion.
*Daymon - Triple Star Champion and challenger for the Cyber title - all in under a dozen matches.
*Lindsay Troy - Triple Star Champion, Tag Team Champion, Cyber Champion.
*Dan Ryan - Tag Team Champion. Current Number One Contender for the World Title.
There's been a few cases where people came in and didn't connect with the voters. GUNS, Jared Justice, and Shawn Hart all came and left because they were names elsewhere, but weren't winning matches in A1E. Doc Silver, who, at the time he joined, was one of the more controversial characters A1E had ever seen, and it was that simply his shooty style didn't go over with the public. It's not a knock against him, or his writing, or anything, because the guy's obviously a talented writer, but felt so strongly about needing to do well that he felt the need to start rigging votes to get ahead, when in reality, it was just his style that wasn't connecting with the voters. Is it truly fair that when new people come in to A1E, that we expect them to conform to our "style"? Of course it's not fair, but with a voted fed, it's a reality. If you can't connect with the voters, then you're not going to have a ton of success.
But, I don't mean to say all this and place all the blame on others. People have their own style, and whether people take to it or not is their own personal preference. This is not to say that it is just the handlers that are the source of the issue. That's entirely not it at all. We in A1E have made mistakes with new people in the past as well. We're not perfect.
One particular character that stands out is Pharaoh. When he joined, he set A1E on fire, and was doing very well. In one match against Housefly, Pharoah won the votes. This was huge, and beating Housefly at that time was a monster acheivement. This match took place at the time that the Beast/Housefly monster feud was going on, and I wrote the match as Beast interfering and taking out Housefly, before placing Pharaoh on Fly for the pinfall. People didn't like that very much, and I took a lot of heat for that. People felt that I took away a huge win from Pharaoh, and once again, what seemed like a good idea in the context of the feud was proven as being a big mistake by hindsight. So, in that particular case, we made a mistake.
All that being said, that happened years ago, and that mistake has never been repeated since. It's all about learning and moving on. The whole point of this post is not to come out and shout to the world that "What's wrong with you people? A1E is perfect, and you should all be here!"
No, that's not the point at all. The point of this post is to reach out to everyone out there, and say that "Yes, because of some things that have happened in the past, we realize that in the e-Wrestling community, we have a bit of a reputation out there." We realize that in the past, some mistakes have been made, and that has caused a perception of us out in the greater community. We also want this post to educate people about how A1E truly operates, and we hope to provide some insight as to why things happened the way they did, and what we've done to correct those mistakes and learn from them. A1E has truly evolved, and we're truly not the fed we seemed to have been.
Quite frankly, that was the "old" A1E, and we are definitely in a new era.
A1E puts out a card regularly every two weeks. Like clockwork. We don't miss. Some people don't believe that, and if you don't, just go take a look at our results page on the web site, and look at the dates of the shows. Clockwork. If you like to be active in RP'ing, and don't want to wait a month or more for a card to come out, then A1E is the place for you.
Since I've taken over A1E, I've introduced a new method of planning for the fed. Gone is the week-to-week planning of everything else except for the major feuds. Now, feuds and PPV's are planned at the very least one month in advance, with every match on every show being planned to build towards that PPV. This guarantees that EVERYONE will be involved in a program. Also, I'm not the only one that handles all the details. Each feud is assigned a BC Staff Member who communicates directly with the participants, and they become your own personal booker for that feud, and the staff in turn reports to me. This ensures that every program is given the utmost attention, and nothing will fall through the cracks. We don't want you to be disappointed in A1E because we got details wrong or even missed something altogether.
The talent in A1E is unbelievable. Everyone in the fed is a quality writer and participant. Every fed has their superstars, but A1E is full of them. Coming to A1E will give you a chance to meet up and work with some of the very best in the e-Wrestling community, and at the very least, that can only serve to make you a better writer and give you an opportunity to tell stories with some of the best minds in the business.
We've just opened up our tag team tournament. You want a shot to come in and quickly win a title, while being able to establish yourself before diving into the singles ranks? It's perfect for you.
I don't want this to be a huge shill for A1E - I explained the point of this post earlier. I really want to open people's eyes, and try and inform people that have these perceptions of A1E that we're not this evil corporation that we're sometimes made out to be.
If at any time, you've ever thought of joining A1E, but didn't for any of the reasons talked about in this post... if you ever came to A1E and then left because things weren't as you expected... I invite you to please come talk to me. If not me, then talk to one of the members of the BC - Dan, Phil, Shane, or Andy. Tell us what you've been thinking, and why, and hopefully we can explain some things to you and put your mind at ease.
Quite simply, we believe that A1E is just as good as any other fed out there - timely cards with fantastic writers and roleplayers, solid storylines and a fun atmospehere. All we're trying to do is make the federation bigger and better, and we'd be honored if you'd think about making A1E one of your efed homes.
Thanks again to Tom for giving me this platform, and thanks to everyone for taking the time to read it. I hope we can all look forward to working together in the future.
Showing posts with label guest bloggings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guest bloggings. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
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=
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.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Guest Bloggings! Snow on New Blood
Our next guest bloggings comes from David Snow (I don't know his real last name :p), who handles Jason Snow. He writes on a subject that's near and dear to my heart, and I have to say, it's a must-read.
Now and Then
by David "Snow," Special Guest to RRoaEL
Upon returning to e-wrestling after a three year hiatus, I was staggered to see the differences in the game. First of all, it seems that angle feds turned out to be just a fad after all, and the RP fed once again reigns supreme. Second, people are much more mature, but I suppose that comes along with the fact that it’s mostly the same people, only now we’re all way too old for this game. Third, the game itself has lost a lot of steam.
Around the time I left in 2003, eW was electric. Forums were buzzing with activity, and there were chats going around the clock. No matter what time of day you were able to stop in, there was always something going on to get your eW fix.
It’s not like that now.
The forums are, for the most part, looked at, but not used. The chats are reserved for rare occasions.
Originally, I just thought the game had changed; that people just weren’t as into as I remembered. But when I got into the community, I saw that wasn’t the case either. You only need GTT6 for proof of that. Even during the most active time that I was involved in eW, I’ve never seen anything generate buzz like GTT6.
I’ve talked to many people about the state of eW today as compared to the time I left, and nearly all of them said the same thing - eW will rebound when the wrestling industry rebounds. I agreed. It sounds logical, right? More wrestling fans mean more people will trickle in to eW, populating our game with new blood. The over all numbers are down, but I think everyone will agree, the bulk of the difference is in how many “new” guys are around. In 2002/2003, there were a lot of guys who’d been involved in the game for less than four months - less than two months, even. Since my comeback, I don’t think I’ve talked to one.
But that’ll change when wrestling gets popular again, right?
Well...
Rating for WWE RAW (September 30, 2002): 3.6
Rating for WWE RAW (October 7, 2002): 3.8
Rating for WWE RAW (October 14, 2002): 3.8
Rating for WWE RAW (September 29, 2003): 3.4
Rating for WWE RAW (October 6, 2003): 3.4
Rating for WWE RAW (October 13, 2003): 3.6
Rating for WWE RAW (September 25, 2006): 3.7
Rating for WWE RAW (October 2, 2006): 3.4
Rating for WWE RAW (October 9, 2006): 3.8
Lets face it. The golden age of wrestling was over a full year, or perhaps two, before the golden age of eW began.
In preparation for this article, I decided to look around at other feds. I found one of those Top-100 sites and starting going through. I was very surprised. When you look through the “geocities” and “angelfire” feds, almost nothing has changed. These feds seem as active as ever, if not, I daresay moreso. I know what you’re thinking: “I saw one of those Top-100 feds sites too, and a lot of the feds had long-since died.” All I can say is you might be looking at 2002/2003 through rose-colored glasses, because that’s what those things always looked like. Small feds rarely made it to their six month anniversary. The point is, people are still creating the feds.
I found out recently that my first ever fed has come back from the grave - not only has it come back, but it’s now bursting with activity. It has a roster of over thirty members, and that’s a conservative estimate. They’re all very active. And yes, the fed still uses real pictures and several of it’s RP’s happen in a ring.
Looking through these feds, I came to two conclusions. You can think they’re wrong if you like, but I believe that these are cold truths that we should accept.
Conclusion #1
The decline of e-fedding is an illusion.
Conclusion #2
We have hi-jacked the hobby.
Who are we?
We are the writers.
I am, perhaps, more guilty of this than any of you. I don’t watch wrestling; I haven’t watched wrestling since roughly 2002. I don’t know who the WWE champion is, and in casual conversation, I still refer to it as the “WWF.” I don’t know who the faces and heels are. If I’m flipping through the channels and I happen to see an old face from my childhood, I’ll stop to watch. Other than that, the most it will get is a quick pause, and then I’m onto the next channel.
I’m not alone. In fact, I don’t even think I’m in the minority. That’s not to say I don’t like wrestling. I think that each of us involved in the game has, at some point or another, been captivated with the sport. It is, after all, the closest thing there is to a soap opera made for males. But to say I’m a fan? No... I’m like the guy who’s favorite baseball player has long since retired. He likes the sport - you might even say he has a love for it - but it is very hard to call him a fan.
But eW isn’t about wrestling anymore - lets face it. It’s about intriguing stories that may or may not be loosely based on wrestling. The characters in eW are not really characters at all, save for a few. Ask around.
“What’s your character?”
“Oh, I handle John Smith in GWF (Generic Wrestling Federation).”
“Oh yeah, what’s his gimmick?”
“He’s a guy that was born into a terrible family where his father abused his mother. Now he’s in the middle of a plot to blow up his city because an evil congressman is trying to divert attention away from his unnatural lust for young boys.”
You know who has the best “gimmick” in that? The congressman with the unnatural lust for young boys. What we call gimmicks today aren’t really gimmicks - they’re circumstances that surround the main character. A gimmick is who the character is, not what’s going on in his life.
Again, I’m probably more guilty of this than the rest of you. That’s because I’m in the game for the writing, and often times, the most interesting characters are pretty ordinary ones that get caught up in an unordinary situation. Why? Because we’re writers, and those are the kinds of characters that people can relate to.
And damn it, have we ever gotten good.
There are a handful of people involved in PTC right now that have the talent to write a novel. They might even have the talent to write professionally. And just behind them, there are several more e-fedders who are developing at a pace that will have them in that group shortly. There are guys that I would wager large amounts of money that, given enough free time, could make it as authors. And without e-fedding, they’d probably have remained above average.
But where does this leave the average wrestling fan?
They come to PTC, looking for a good wrestling game to get involved in. They see the posers, read the news columns, check out some rankings... they’re excited. They want to get involved. But then they come to the RP section, and they find that it’s not a wrestling game at all. It’s a writing game that simply uses wrestling as its platform. They’re not interested in a writing game.
And you know what’s funny? I’ll bet many of you would have been in the same boat when you got into the game. 99% of us got into it for wrestling - I know I did. Many of us were decent writers to begin with, so as the game evolved, we didn’t have much trouble adjusting. Many of us weren’t great writers, but through practice, became good writers. Many of us were terrible writers, but because of sheer competitiveness, or perhaps simply to continue having fun in the game, we got better. Maybe it was even an accident.
I’m not being critical - I want that to be known. I’m just pointing out that this really isn’t a wrestling game anymore, and that’s probably the biggest reason for the decline.
And when I say “we’ve hijacked the hobby,” I really only mean we’ve hi-jacked the major leagues of the hobby. Because it seems that in the feds that we used to call “indy” feds, where it’s still all about the wrestling, things about the same as they always were.
It’s not about making changes, it’s about accepting the way things are. We’ll probably never get back to the heights of the “Ron days,” simply because the game has changed now. Being a wrestling fan isn’t enough to thrive in PTC now. You have to have the unique combination of being a wrestling fan/like wrestling, and being a fairly talented writer or better. That combination is a lot harder to find, and thus, new blood continues come in at a trickle.
Now and Then
by David "Snow," Special Guest to RRoaEL
Upon returning to e-wrestling after a three year hiatus, I was staggered to see the differences in the game. First of all, it seems that angle feds turned out to be just a fad after all, and the RP fed once again reigns supreme. Second, people are much more mature, but I suppose that comes along with the fact that it’s mostly the same people, only now we’re all way too old for this game. Third, the game itself has lost a lot of steam.
Around the time I left in 2003, eW was electric. Forums were buzzing with activity, and there were chats going around the clock. No matter what time of day you were able to stop in, there was always something going on to get your eW fix.
It’s not like that now.
The forums are, for the most part, looked at, but not used. The chats are reserved for rare occasions.
Originally, I just thought the game had changed; that people just weren’t as into as I remembered. But when I got into the community, I saw that wasn’t the case either. You only need GTT6 for proof of that. Even during the most active time that I was involved in eW, I’ve never seen anything generate buzz like GTT6.
I’ve talked to many people about the state of eW today as compared to the time I left, and nearly all of them said the same thing - eW will rebound when the wrestling industry rebounds. I agreed. It sounds logical, right? More wrestling fans mean more people will trickle in to eW, populating our game with new blood. The over all numbers are down, but I think everyone will agree, the bulk of the difference is in how many “new” guys are around. In 2002/2003, there were a lot of guys who’d been involved in the game for less than four months - less than two months, even. Since my comeback, I don’t think I’ve talked to one.
But that’ll change when wrestling gets popular again, right?
Well...
Rating for WWE RAW (September 30, 2002): 3.6
Rating for WWE RAW (October 7, 2002): 3.8
Rating for WWE RAW (October 14, 2002): 3.8
Rating for WWE RAW (September 29, 2003): 3.4
Rating for WWE RAW (October 6, 2003): 3.4
Rating for WWE RAW (October 13, 2003): 3.6
Rating for WWE RAW (September 25, 2006): 3.7
Rating for WWE RAW (October 2, 2006): 3.4
Rating for WWE RAW (October 9, 2006): 3.8
Lets face it. The golden age of wrestling was over a full year, or perhaps two, before the golden age of eW began.
In preparation for this article, I decided to look around at other feds. I found one of those Top-100 sites and starting going through. I was very surprised. When you look through the “geocities” and “angelfire” feds, almost nothing has changed. These feds seem as active as ever, if not, I daresay moreso. I know what you’re thinking: “I saw one of those Top-100 feds sites too, and a lot of the feds had long-since died.” All I can say is you might be looking at 2002/2003 through rose-colored glasses, because that’s what those things always looked like. Small feds rarely made it to their six month anniversary. The point is, people are still creating the feds.
I found out recently that my first ever fed has come back from the grave - not only has it come back, but it’s now bursting with activity. It has a roster of over thirty members, and that’s a conservative estimate. They’re all very active. And yes, the fed still uses real pictures and several of it’s RP’s happen in a ring.
Looking through these feds, I came to two conclusions. You can think they’re wrong if you like, but I believe that these are cold truths that we should accept.
Conclusion #1
The decline of e-fedding is an illusion.
Conclusion #2
We have hi-jacked the hobby.
Who are we?
We are the writers.
I am, perhaps, more guilty of this than any of you. I don’t watch wrestling; I haven’t watched wrestling since roughly 2002. I don’t know who the WWE champion is, and in casual conversation, I still refer to it as the “WWF.” I don’t know who the faces and heels are. If I’m flipping through the channels and I happen to see an old face from my childhood, I’ll stop to watch. Other than that, the most it will get is a quick pause, and then I’m onto the next channel.
I’m not alone. In fact, I don’t even think I’m in the minority. That’s not to say I don’t like wrestling. I think that each of us involved in the game has, at some point or another, been captivated with the sport. It is, after all, the closest thing there is to a soap opera made for males. But to say I’m a fan? No... I’m like the guy who’s favorite baseball player has long since retired. He likes the sport - you might even say he has a love for it - but it is very hard to call him a fan.
But eW isn’t about wrestling anymore - lets face it. It’s about intriguing stories that may or may not be loosely based on wrestling. The characters in eW are not really characters at all, save for a few. Ask around.
“What’s your character?”
“Oh, I handle John Smith in GWF (Generic Wrestling Federation).”
“Oh yeah, what’s his gimmick?”
“He’s a guy that was born into a terrible family where his father abused his mother. Now he’s in the middle of a plot to blow up his city because an evil congressman is trying to divert attention away from his unnatural lust for young boys.”
You know who has the best “gimmick” in that? The congressman with the unnatural lust for young boys. What we call gimmicks today aren’t really gimmicks - they’re circumstances that surround the main character. A gimmick is who the character is, not what’s going on in his life.
Again, I’m probably more guilty of this than the rest of you. That’s because I’m in the game for the writing, and often times, the most interesting characters are pretty ordinary ones that get caught up in an unordinary situation. Why? Because we’re writers, and those are the kinds of characters that people can relate to.
And damn it, have we ever gotten good.
There are a handful of people involved in PTC right now that have the talent to write a novel. They might even have the talent to write professionally. And just behind them, there are several more e-fedders who are developing at a pace that will have them in that group shortly. There are guys that I would wager large amounts of money that, given enough free time, could make it as authors. And without e-fedding, they’d probably have remained above average.
But where does this leave the average wrestling fan?
They come to PTC, looking for a good wrestling game to get involved in. They see the posers, read the news columns, check out some rankings... they’re excited. They want to get involved. But then they come to the RP section, and they find that it’s not a wrestling game at all. It’s a writing game that simply uses wrestling as its platform. They’re not interested in a writing game.
And you know what’s funny? I’ll bet many of you would have been in the same boat when you got into the game. 99% of us got into it for wrestling - I know I did. Many of us were decent writers to begin with, so as the game evolved, we didn’t have much trouble adjusting. Many of us weren’t great writers, but through practice, became good writers. Many of us were terrible writers, but because of sheer competitiveness, or perhaps simply to continue having fun in the game, we got better. Maybe it was even an accident.
I’m not being critical - I want that to be known. I’m just pointing out that this really isn’t a wrestling game anymore, and that’s probably the biggest reason for the decline.
And when I say “we’ve hijacked the hobby,” I really only mean we’ve hi-jacked the major leagues of the hobby. Because it seems that in the feds that we used to call “indy” feds, where it’s still all about the wrestling, things about the same as they always were.
It’s not about making changes, it’s about accepting the way things are. We’ll probably never get back to the heights of the “Ron days,” simply because the game has changed now. Being a wrestling fan isn’t enough to thrive in PTC now. You have to have the unique combination of being a wrestling fan/like wrestling, and being a fairly talented writer or better. That combination is a lot harder to find, and thus, new blood continues come in at a trickle.
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
More Random Notes
I'm chock full of random notes lately, aren't I?
- First thing's first, I got a buttload of people who want to do guest bloggings, and I've only received two. Please don't disappoint me. I'm looking forward to your bloggings so. A few hints too.
1) Stick to IC and OOC... don't switch between the two.
2) Read over your entry before you hand it in and make sure it's something you want to represent you on a site that you don't operate. I don't mean to sound like a pompous ass, but I try to maintain a level of quality on the site. I'll publish whatever it is you want published (as long as it's not an out-and-out shill, that is), but make sure it's your best.
- HOLLA! HOLLA! You thought they wouldn't make it, but they did. NFW. Wild Card action, Eastern style. I haven't read through it all yet (I also have A1E and PRIME results to slog through too), but there's an interesting segment with Kooter near the beginning. Not sure what to think of it, but it certainly blurs the lines.
- In a stunning bit of GTT6 news, Iblis, that "newcomer" to the tournament, isn't a newcomer at all, but it's Andrew Delling, handler of "The Renegade" Rich Rollins. I'm surprised at who it is, but with all the raves over the writing, I guess it's not much of a surprise. Kudos to Andrew for getting another character over, into the tournament and that far before having to bow out. He says it's his tournament finale, but he said that after he lost at first in the tourney. Never say never in this hobby ;)
- Speaking of bowing out, Sean Williams, handler of Seymour Almasy among others, is bowing out of the game for now due to pressing law school concerns. I wish him the best in his endeavors, and hopefully he comes back. He's definitely one of the most creative minds in the game.
- First thing's first, I got a buttload of people who want to do guest bloggings, and I've only received two. Please don't disappoint me. I'm looking forward to your bloggings so. A few hints too.
1) Stick to IC and OOC... don't switch between the two.
2) Read over your entry before you hand it in and make sure it's something you want to represent you on a site that you don't operate. I don't mean to sound like a pompous ass, but I try to maintain a level of quality on the site. I'll publish whatever it is you want published (as long as it's not an out-and-out shill, that is), but make sure it's your best.
- HOLLA! HOLLA! You thought they wouldn't make it, but they did. NFW. Wild Card action, Eastern style. I haven't read through it all yet (I also have A1E and PRIME results to slog through too), but there's an interesting segment with Kooter near the beginning. Not sure what to think of it, but it certainly blurs the lines.
- In a stunning bit of GTT6 news, Iblis, that "newcomer" to the tournament, isn't a newcomer at all, but it's Andrew Delling, handler of "The Renegade" Rich Rollins. I'm surprised at who it is, but with all the raves over the writing, I guess it's not much of a surprise. Kudos to Andrew for getting another character over, into the tournament and that far before having to bow out. He says it's his tournament finale, but he said that after he lost at first in the tourney. Never say never in this hobby ;)
- Speaking of bowing out, Sean Williams, handler of Seymour Almasy among others, is bowing out of the game for now due to pressing law school concerns. I wish him the best in his endeavors, and hopefully he comes back. He's definitely one of the most creative minds in the game.
Guest Blogger II: It's Varga Time
Our next guest bloggings comes from the infamous James Varga, known to PTC as the Infinite Gauntlet's Gillberg and employer of more characters than myself, Dan West, Bill Dempsey, Gregg Gethard and Steve Thomas combined. He's taking a break from his e-fed hiatus to give us an insight on PTC and some comments towards one Axel Action. Are they shoot? Are they work? The world may never know! Anyway, here goes...
The Varga Voice
by James Varga, special guest blogger to RRoaEL
I bet all of you are wondering just what James Varga's been up to since he left the wrestling rings of the PTC. And now, for the ten of you out there who actually give a crap about me, here's the dirt as only I can say it.
I went to Hollywood. I am currently finishing up my first film as I type this. Now I bet a lot of you smarks out there are wondering just why in the hell would a fine specimen like myself join the ranks of the Hollywood elite? Well, it's simple really. Wrestling is fake and acting is just another part of the job.
But there's another reason I'm coming back. Throughout my career, I've had my disagreements with some limp dicks. And one of them is a man by the name of Axel Action. Action, listen to me and listen to me good. We have unfinished business, you see. Back in 2005, we were both up and coming in stars in the UWF. That's when our paths crossed and we had one of the greatest matche sin UWF history! At Live and Loud, I defeated you. Some of you may hate that fact, but it's damn well what happened.
The win was controversial, though. Two months later, I left the UWF in one of the most ugly and public incidents in that companies history. But something about what happened has been gnawing at me ever since. Someone came to me and told me that they believed that you should've won that match. The fact is Axel, we were both held back because we were different. We scared the Main Eventers. Well, actually, I pissed them off, but that's another story.
Axel, if you're reading this now, let me tell you what I have planned for you during your little match with Sledge. There is no way you are winning that match. It's impossible, so you can take this as a fact. I will not count the fall for you. You will lose, so you might as well not show up. And regardless of what happens, one thing is for sure: James Varga will kick your ass.
Now that I'm done talking about the UWF's version of Voldemort, now I can talk about the state of the PTC as a whole right now. I'm SO happy for the boys in GLOBAL. They are doing so great! How can you not love those guys? When I left with my Circus of Idiots, I told them to use my roster spots well. And boy have they ever! Pay particular attention to Alec Lancer and BloodAngel, who was a force in the NWC. Those guys are going to make an impact next year in the PTC.
I also can't believe how great PRIME is doing since the S-Man left. WOW! Great job all around guys. But what happened to GCW? They were so dominant earlier in the year and now they've fizzled out. And what happened to Rich Rollins? He lost early in the GTT tournament. Isn't it amazing how different a person can be from year to year? Maybe the competition is tougher this year, who knows? And Seymour lost TWICE in the tourney too! What the hell is going on?! That's almost as bad as me in the Gauntlet!
Two feds that don't get enough attention are the WWA and XUW. People can talk about the newer feds all they want, but these feds are steadily pacing themselves along and are quietly having good years. AWC, as always, is top notch and high class. That was such a fun place to work for. Maybe I'll talk TAN into coming back...or not. That would kill the buyrates, lol. Good memories of my times there. But what about the HSW? They don't get no respect. They have a great thing going there. Watch for them. And dont forget FUSE. Tigera is having a strong year there, but she was doing just as good in the UWF during her stint there, too. Hopefully she can keep the success going and not listen to the wrong people like she did when she was in the last federation I'm going to mention.
And lastly, the UWF is closing. How sad is that? For eight years its been around and then BAM! It's gone. I went through the same thing with the NWC back in 2004. As a special treat, I'm going to post my 10 favorite UWF matches of all time on the PTC Forums for all of you to see. Despite everything that went on there with me during my last week there, it was still a great place to work. At times, I still wonder what some people there meant when they said to me that the UWF had "diminished credibility?" That was before everything that happened. That still has me wondering what they meant by that, though. Anyway, the fact is, after FANdamonium, the UWF will be gone forever.
Guys like Jay Phoenix, Kenny Mercury, Jamie Shock, Misfit, Slasher, Luca the Imp, the Hollywood Bombshells, the Communist, Clyde, Killer Dude, Sledge, Nick Persia, Mike Montgomery, Pete the PG Tips Chimp, Chris Storm, Tessa Windsor, Foster Nackedy, Joshua Justice, Red Rock, Seymour Almasy, and Plague all busted their asses for that place while some people abused the system and used manipulative tactics to get all sorts of things to go their way through backstage manueverings and talking to their friends to get their way. They use smear tactics and try to act like heroes to the rid the UWF of people they dont like (me, for instance) to prove how much they care only to sell out and leave 2 months later. They can say things like "I'm UWF thick and through to the end" and have the gall to criticize me only to prove me right when they leave the place high and dry, showing that they don't have any class, which is what they said of me. They said I was low. Well where did they go when the UWF really needed them? They only cared about themselves and no one else. Stuff like that ruined that place in the end.
A lot of people are going to miss the UWF. I'm one of them. But no matter what anybody says or does, nothing can stop it from closing. I'm sure people reading this are saying "Varga, are you trying to start another flame war?" No, I'm not, I'm just pointing out that I wasn't the main problem there. The main problems flared up when I left and the people who really cared got stuck high and dry because of some hypocrites who don't have any business criticizing me for anything because they're just as low, if not lower than I am. But despite all the flaming and everything, there are some people who really deserve a lot of props and rep points from everybody for everything they did to help out and promote the UWF, and they are: Ryan-O, Chris, Jay Phoenix, Tristan (Alec Lancer/Nick Persia), Ed (Communist), Clyde, Sean (Almasy), James (Shock), and Mike (Montgomery). These guys are super dedicated and deserve your respect. They have mine. My name is James Varga and I approved this message. I thank you for your time.
The Varga Voice
by James Varga, special guest blogger to RRoaEL
I bet all of you are wondering just what James Varga's been up to since he left the wrestling rings of the PTC. And now, for the ten of you out there who actually give a crap about me, here's the dirt as only I can say it.
I went to Hollywood. I am currently finishing up my first film as I type this. Now I bet a lot of you smarks out there are wondering just why in the hell would a fine specimen like myself join the ranks of the Hollywood elite? Well, it's simple really. Wrestling is fake and acting is just another part of the job.
But there's another reason I'm coming back. Throughout my career, I've had my disagreements with some limp dicks. And one of them is a man by the name of Axel Action. Action, listen to me and listen to me good. We have unfinished business, you see. Back in 2005, we were both up and coming in stars in the UWF. That's when our paths crossed and we had one of the greatest matche sin UWF history! At Live and Loud, I defeated you. Some of you may hate that fact, but it's damn well what happened.
The win was controversial, though. Two months later, I left the UWF in one of the most ugly and public incidents in that companies history. But something about what happened has been gnawing at me ever since. Someone came to me and told me that they believed that you should've won that match. The fact is Axel, we were both held back because we were different. We scared the Main Eventers. Well, actually, I pissed them off, but that's another story.
Axel, if you're reading this now, let me tell you what I have planned for you during your little match with Sledge. There is no way you are winning that match. It's impossible, so you can take this as a fact. I will not count the fall for you. You will lose, so you might as well not show up. And regardless of what happens, one thing is for sure: James Varga will kick your ass.
Now that I'm done talking about the UWF's version of Voldemort, now I can talk about the state of the PTC as a whole right now. I'm SO happy for the boys in GLOBAL. They are doing so great! How can you not love those guys? When I left with my Circus of Idiots, I told them to use my roster spots well. And boy have they ever! Pay particular attention to Alec Lancer and BloodAngel, who was a force in the NWC. Those guys are going to make an impact next year in the PTC.
I also can't believe how great PRIME is doing since the S-Man left. WOW! Great job all around guys. But what happened to GCW? They were so dominant earlier in the year and now they've fizzled out. And what happened to Rich Rollins? He lost early in the GTT tournament. Isn't it amazing how different a person can be from year to year? Maybe the competition is tougher this year, who knows? And Seymour lost TWICE in the tourney too! What the hell is going on?! That's almost as bad as me in the Gauntlet!
Two feds that don't get enough attention are the WWA and XUW. People can talk about the newer feds all they want, but these feds are steadily pacing themselves along and are quietly having good years. AWC, as always, is top notch and high class. That was such a fun place to work for. Maybe I'll talk TAN into coming back...or not. That would kill the buyrates, lol. Good memories of my times there. But what about the HSW? They don't get no respect. They have a great thing going there. Watch for them. And dont forget FUSE. Tigera is having a strong year there, but she was doing just as good in the UWF during her stint there, too. Hopefully she can keep the success going and not listen to the wrong people like she did when she was in the last federation I'm going to mention.
And lastly, the UWF is closing. How sad is that? For eight years its been around and then BAM! It's gone. I went through the same thing with the NWC back in 2004. As a special treat, I'm going to post my 10 favorite UWF matches of all time on the PTC Forums for all of you to see. Despite everything that went on there with me during my last week there, it was still a great place to work. At times, I still wonder what some people there meant when they said to me that the UWF had "diminished credibility?" That was before everything that happened. That still has me wondering what they meant by that, though. Anyway, the fact is, after FANdamonium, the UWF will be gone forever.
Guys like Jay Phoenix, Kenny Mercury, Jamie Shock, Misfit, Slasher, Luca the Imp, the Hollywood Bombshells, the Communist, Clyde, Killer Dude, Sledge, Nick Persia, Mike Montgomery, Pete the PG Tips Chimp, Chris Storm, Tessa Windsor, Foster Nackedy, Joshua Justice, Red Rock, Seymour Almasy, and Plague all busted their asses for that place while some people abused the system and used manipulative tactics to get all sorts of things to go their way through backstage manueverings and talking to their friends to get their way. They use smear tactics and try to act like heroes to the rid the UWF of people they dont like (me, for instance) to prove how much they care only to sell out and leave 2 months later. They can say things like "I'm UWF thick and through to the end" and have the gall to criticize me only to prove me right when they leave the place high and dry, showing that they don't have any class, which is what they said of me. They said I was low. Well where did they go when the UWF really needed them? They only cared about themselves and no one else. Stuff like that ruined that place in the end.
A lot of people are going to miss the UWF. I'm one of them. But no matter what anybody says or does, nothing can stop it from closing. I'm sure people reading this are saying "Varga, are you trying to start another flame war?" No, I'm not, I'm just pointing out that I wasn't the main problem there. The main problems flared up when I left and the people who really cared got stuck high and dry because of some hypocrites who don't have any business criticizing me for anything because they're just as low, if not lower than I am. But despite all the flaming and everything, there are some people who really deserve a lot of props and rep points from everybody for everything they did to help out and promote the UWF, and they are: Ryan-O, Chris, Jay Phoenix, Tristan (Alec Lancer/Nick Persia), Ed (Communist), Clyde, Sean (Almasy), James (Shock), and Mike (Montgomery). These guys are super dedicated and deserve your respect. They have mine. My name is James Varga and I approved this message. I thank you for your time.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
RRoaEL Presents: Guest Blogger!
Welcome everyone to our first guest blogger. His name is Shane Gerlach, and he likes puppies, long walks on the beach and generally irritating UCW administration. This would have gone up with the last entry, but I reserve the right to keep all milestone entries to myself :p Anyway, here goes.
How Do I Know If I'm Any Good?
Shane Gerlach, Special Guest to the Blog
Good evening everyone. I’m not Tom obviously. Tom never greets us; he just gives us the news fast and hard. I’m actually Shane Gerlach, known as Irishred in A1E, MBE, EPW, UCW and TEAM. I volunteered to be a guest Blogger here on Random Ramblings of an E-Fed Lifer.
Two things to start…
In my opinion Tommy Boy Holzerman is the single most passionate person in E-Fedding. Tom gives his heart and soul to this hobby. He is responsible for surges in federations all on his own. Tom and I don’t always see eye to eye on things but for my money there isn’t anyone more important to the e-fed community.
All the opinions in this Blog are mine. Tom may or may not share my feelings on this. In know way should my thoughts and ramblings be lain at Tommy’s door.
Now on to the topic…
One of the things I do agree with Tom about is that there isn’t enough discussion and feedback in this hobby. We send out our role-plays over the internet, we pour a little piece of ourselves into each and every promo and hope for the best. Let’s be honest…while we may do this for enjoyment…we all want to win. We as a general rule think that every RP we put up is worthy of a win. Why would we write them if that wasn’t true?
Sure there’s exceptions. There are instances when a loss is booked to advance a storyline; but still those are our words out there. That is something we worked hard on and dammit we want and deserve recognition for it. Everyone wants to feel good and get that “atta boy” for the work they put into their character.
We sit in front of that blank computer screen and wait for the muse to overtake us. We wait for that moment of inspiration to guide us. What can I say that will make this be special? What can I say to make everyone take notice? How can I impress the booker or voters?
There’s the dig. This is a very arbitrary hobby. What I think is great 10 others may think is crap. What I feel is the promo of the year may be completely ignored by others. In A1E there is a voting system. This is a carry over from the old MBE system. You lay your promos out in your match thread and the rest of the community reads them and votes on whether you won or not. This is the exception to the rule in the E-Fed community. In most feds you have a fed head or committee that decides the winner based on the RP’s.
I think both have their flaws and assets. In a voting system you have the chance to get a variety of opinions. A variety of readers are looking at your work and deciding whether or not you “had” it that week. I compare it to opening a movie to a test audience. You get to “hear” the cheers and jeers so to speak. When I win the vote in A1E I know that I was on my game that week. I know that I was good enough to impress a majority of the readers.
Now there are problems. I know in the old MBE there was Bloc voting. People voted for their clique. That’s a problem that I believe that A1E has addressed. The head booker has the ability to over rule a vote if there seems to be an obvious discrepancy in the vote total. I have only seen that happen once in my time on the A1E BC.
I know that the votes that come in for A1E are by people that actually have read the threads for the most part. These are people that took the time to actually read every response in the thread and formed an opinion. I don’t always agree with the decision of the majority; but hey. I like a lot a crap that most people don’t, so I’m used to being the island in the storm.
In a “booked” fed on the other hand you only have to really impress one person. (With the occasional group of judges) You are playing to an audience of one for the most part. You are hoping to impress that head booker. You want their approval. I have been treated more then fairly in booked feds. I have vehemently disagreed with the views of bookers as well. In those cases I have not so gracefully made my opinion known to them. For the most part the Bookers have been gracious enough to explain to me why I lost.
That brings me to the point of this crap. Feedback. We all need it. We all want it. If we suck we want to be told why we suck. If we did great we want those accolades. I just don’t think that we talk to each other enough. The vast amount of knowledge out there in our e-fed vets that have had sustained success should be shared. One of the best at this is Dave Brunk. I have learned more in discussions with Dave then almost anyone else. Dave has taken the time to talk to me about the direction of my character and the moments that I hit and miss. I respect that about him. Dave’s not afraid to tell me that I stunk up the joint and why and he is equally good about giving me praise when I have done something that works.
Why can’t all of us do that? Why don’t we say to one of our E-Fed friends that they stunk? Are we afraid to be critical? Are we afraid of the backlash of their friends and the e-fed community as a whole? On the flip side of that how many of us send an email out saying to a handler “That was awesome.”?
Why don’t we make ourselves more available to each other? I long for a sounding board, but at the same time I don’t want to seem like an attention whore going to each and every board I compete on putting up feedback threads.
Let me give you a for instance. I cannot beat Andy Gilkison. It can’t be done. No matter what character he is running (Jack or Andrew) I end up losing to him. I feel like I have done some of my better RP’s against Andy; but every single time I end up on the losing end of the stick when I face him. Why? I have no freaking clue. There’s times when I finished the RP period knowing I had beat him…oh how wrong I was. What have I done wrong every single time I have faced him? Maybe Drew is just that much better then me. I don’t know and that is the point. I don’t know. The losses even bothered me for a time because it is a constant. Don’t get me wrong; Andy is a great handler. He has held titles everywhere that he has competed…I’m not saying that I deserve to beat him…I just would someday like to understand why I lose to him.
I think that all of us have that happen to us haven't we? We go into a week and bust ass on promo’s and read the results and find out we lost. I have stared at the screen absolutely dumbfounded from time to time trying to understand why I lost. I go back and re-read the Promo thread as objectively as possible and try to find where I slipped up. But honestly how unbiased are any of us when it comes to our own work? So feedback would be great.
I’m lucky in the fact that I have a core group of E-Fed friends who will be honest with me. Dan West, Josh, Dave, Tommy, James Irish, Roger, Bill, Jeff, Phil, Lindz, Mike, Shane…I count on these people to be my sounding board. I count on these people to be honest with me. I hope that I play that back. I hope that I am someone that people can come to and talk to about their character and RP’s.
Let’s face it doing this for an audience of ourselves is nothing more then literary masturbation. As with any performer we need the audience.
What do you do to help others? What do you do to encourage others? Do you take the time to talk to your fellow E-Fedders? Do you honestly even read the other threads and make yourself aware of what is happening around you? I know that has become a problem in some federations. I read each and every thread in every fed I am in.
The reason is twofold. Number one I owe it to the fed to do that. No fed is there just for one handler (No matter how many characters you run in that fed). The federations are a playground for all of us to escape our problems in real life. A place to go out and play. I try to be as active as I can. I try to reference other storylines in my RP’s. I try my best to act like I am part of a group.
Number two, if I read all the threads I am prepared when I face another wrestler. I know where they are in the storylines. I know what their RP style is. I know how they work and can counteract that and hopefully get a win.
Tommy preaches participation in this blog like Jerry Falwell begging for your money and I second that emotion.
Talk to each other. Work with each other. Help each other.
That’s all I’ve got. I’m done. I’m spent. Thank you Tommy for letting me be the first guest on your Blog. I hope I haven’t ruined your reputation.
How Do I Know If I'm Any Good?
Shane Gerlach, Special Guest to the Blog
Good evening everyone. I’m not Tom obviously. Tom never greets us; he just gives us the news fast and hard. I’m actually Shane Gerlach, known as Irishred in A1E, MBE, EPW, UCW and TEAM. I volunteered to be a guest Blogger here on Random Ramblings of an E-Fed Lifer.
Two things to start…
In my opinion Tommy Boy Holzerman is the single most passionate person in E-Fedding. Tom gives his heart and soul to this hobby. He is responsible for surges in federations all on his own. Tom and I don’t always see eye to eye on things but for my money there isn’t anyone more important to the e-fed community.
All the opinions in this Blog are mine. Tom may or may not share my feelings on this. In know way should my thoughts and ramblings be lain at Tommy’s door.
Now on to the topic…
One of the things I do agree with Tom about is that there isn’t enough discussion and feedback in this hobby. We send out our role-plays over the internet, we pour a little piece of ourselves into each and every promo and hope for the best. Let’s be honest…while we may do this for enjoyment…we all want to win. We as a general rule think that every RP we put up is worthy of a win. Why would we write them if that wasn’t true?
Sure there’s exceptions. There are instances when a loss is booked to advance a storyline; but still those are our words out there. That is something we worked hard on and dammit we want and deserve recognition for it. Everyone wants to feel good and get that “atta boy” for the work they put into their character.
We sit in front of that blank computer screen and wait for the muse to overtake us. We wait for that moment of inspiration to guide us. What can I say that will make this be special? What can I say to make everyone take notice? How can I impress the booker or voters?
There’s the dig. This is a very arbitrary hobby. What I think is great 10 others may think is crap. What I feel is the promo of the year may be completely ignored by others. In A1E there is a voting system. This is a carry over from the old MBE system. You lay your promos out in your match thread and the rest of the community reads them and votes on whether you won or not. This is the exception to the rule in the E-Fed community. In most feds you have a fed head or committee that decides the winner based on the RP’s.
I think both have their flaws and assets. In a voting system you have the chance to get a variety of opinions. A variety of readers are looking at your work and deciding whether or not you “had” it that week. I compare it to opening a movie to a test audience. You get to “hear” the cheers and jeers so to speak. When I win the vote in A1E I know that I was on my game that week. I know that I was good enough to impress a majority of the readers.
Now there are problems. I know in the old MBE there was Bloc voting. People voted for their clique. That’s a problem that I believe that A1E has addressed. The head booker has the ability to over rule a vote if there seems to be an obvious discrepancy in the vote total. I have only seen that happen once in my time on the A1E BC.
I know that the votes that come in for A1E are by people that actually have read the threads for the most part. These are people that took the time to actually read every response in the thread and formed an opinion. I don’t always agree with the decision of the majority; but hey. I like a lot a crap that most people don’t, so I’m used to being the island in the storm.
In a “booked” fed on the other hand you only have to really impress one person. (With the occasional group of judges) You are playing to an audience of one for the most part. You are hoping to impress that head booker. You want their approval. I have been treated more then fairly in booked feds. I have vehemently disagreed with the views of bookers as well. In those cases I have not so gracefully made my opinion known to them. For the most part the Bookers have been gracious enough to explain to me why I lost.
That brings me to the point of this crap. Feedback. We all need it. We all want it. If we suck we want to be told why we suck. If we did great we want those accolades. I just don’t think that we talk to each other enough. The vast amount of knowledge out there in our e-fed vets that have had sustained success should be shared. One of the best at this is Dave Brunk. I have learned more in discussions with Dave then almost anyone else. Dave has taken the time to talk to me about the direction of my character and the moments that I hit and miss. I respect that about him. Dave’s not afraid to tell me that I stunk up the joint and why and he is equally good about giving me praise when I have done something that works.
Why can’t all of us do that? Why don’t we say to one of our E-Fed friends that they stunk? Are we afraid to be critical? Are we afraid of the backlash of their friends and the e-fed community as a whole? On the flip side of that how many of us send an email out saying to a handler “That was awesome.”?
Why don’t we make ourselves more available to each other? I long for a sounding board, but at the same time I don’t want to seem like an attention whore going to each and every board I compete on putting up feedback threads.
Let me give you a for instance. I cannot beat Andy Gilkison. It can’t be done. No matter what character he is running (Jack or Andrew) I end up losing to him. I feel like I have done some of my better RP’s against Andy; but every single time I end up on the losing end of the stick when I face him. Why? I have no freaking clue. There’s times when I finished the RP period knowing I had beat him…oh how wrong I was. What have I done wrong every single time I have faced him? Maybe Drew is just that much better then me. I don’t know and that is the point. I don’t know. The losses even bothered me for a time because it is a constant. Don’t get me wrong; Andy is a great handler. He has held titles everywhere that he has competed…I’m not saying that I deserve to beat him…I just would someday like to understand why I lose to him.
I think that all of us have that happen to us haven't we? We go into a week and bust ass on promo’s and read the results and find out we lost. I have stared at the screen absolutely dumbfounded from time to time trying to understand why I lost. I go back and re-read the Promo thread as objectively as possible and try to find where I slipped up. But honestly how unbiased are any of us when it comes to our own work? So feedback would be great.
I’m lucky in the fact that I have a core group of E-Fed friends who will be honest with me. Dan West, Josh, Dave, Tommy, James Irish, Roger, Bill, Jeff, Phil, Lindz, Mike, Shane…I count on these people to be my sounding board. I count on these people to be honest with me. I hope that I play that back. I hope that I am someone that people can come to and talk to about their character and RP’s.
Let’s face it doing this for an audience of ourselves is nothing more then literary masturbation. As with any performer we need the audience.
What do you do to help others? What do you do to encourage others? Do you take the time to talk to your fellow E-Fedders? Do you honestly even read the other threads and make yourself aware of what is happening around you? I know that has become a problem in some federations. I read each and every thread in every fed I am in.
The reason is twofold. Number one I owe it to the fed to do that. No fed is there just for one handler (No matter how many characters you run in that fed). The federations are a playground for all of us to escape our problems in real life. A place to go out and play. I try to be as active as I can. I try to reference other storylines in my RP’s. I try my best to act like I am part of a group.
Number two, if I read all the threads I am prepared when I face another wrestler. I know where they are in the storylines. I know what their RP style is. I know how they work and can counteract that and hopefully get a win.
Tommy preaches participation in this blog like Jerry Falwell begging for your money and I second that emotion.
Talk to each other. Work with each other. Help each other.
That’s all I’ve got. I’m done. I’m spent. Thank you Tommy for letting me be the first guest on your Blog. I hope I haven’t ruined your reputation.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)