Post by Admin on Sept 9, 2015 3:44:48 GMT -5
The crux of roleplaying is staying in character and telling a story. Normally, that story is driven by the Dungeon Master, Game Master, Storyteller, or whatever you want to call it. They guide the entire world, control the variables, so that the players can stay in their character, make every decision for their character, and deal with the consequences of their own choices and actions.
But online roleplaying is different, especially in an e-fed. Instead of a player controlling only their character, players control moments in time. They control the environment, the characters, the outcomes, and the choices, one small moment at a time. There is no storyteller/gamemaster in online roleplaying, everyone instead adheres to basic understood rules, like no God-moding or be willing to look foolish sometimes to look great other times. In an e-fed, though, there IS someone in charge. There is someone who has to reward players for all their excellent roleplaying and promo-ing with an adventure, a wrestling show. The storyteller evaluates what the players do in their own moments in time that they craft, and has to assign worth, because eventually two people come upon each other, and everyone needs to feel rewarded for their hard work. Let's face it, some people may be great at writing or at least at VOLUME of writing, like I tend to be. And others it takes hours to craft a few hundred words. And that is perfectly acceptable. But one way or another, the guy running the show needs to evaluate other players work to create outcomes. Which means that there are winners, and there are losers.
Some of that is mitigated with good writing. A great match, full of suspense, character, and great moments that can be called back upon, is reward in and of itself. But ... but it just isn't the same if you don't win. I've played in an e-fed, I know this. I was confidant in my skills, very confidant, so confidant that I basically dictated how my matches and stories went. For me, it was the story, not the win that mattered. And that's probably why I fell into the storytelling role instead of a player role. But when I wasn't able to tell those stories, for whatever reason, and things didn't go my way ... I got frustrated. I never knew why I didn't win, especially when I felt I deserved it.
I hate that feeling. That's part of the reason I have removed that evaluation from so much of 777 Championship Wrestling. I love Pro Wrestling Nexus for what it does for me as a time saver, and what it does for the fed as playing field evener. No one has any control over the out comes of most of their matches. A computer program does. One that does some crazy things I could never expect. I simulated the next months worth of matches, just to see what would happen. And some of the drama that was created just by this machine was incredible. Better than I could have written if I was given complete control of everything.
But ultimately, story isn't enough. Everyone wants to win. They want to know what they have written, and spent their time on, especially an entire month's worth, they want to know that it is worthwhile. And it will be. PPVs will be entirely written and decided by me, the showrunner/gamemeister/whatever. And because that is happening, that means I will be evaluating what you have written over the course of the month. And because I am, I want to make it completely open and honest with how I am going to evaluate the winners.
There are a few things I care about more than anything, and a few things that don't matter much, but will act as tie-breakers.
I care about wrestlers acting like they should. There is a special kind of storytelling wrestling can do, all based around heels and faces. Heels does not equal villain, and face does not equal hero. It is one of my favorite dichotomies in the artform. A "heel" is someone the crowd is supposed to despise, someone to boo. And a "face" is the guy the crowd roots for. The crowd may root for a terrible ass of a man, doesn't matter, he's a face. The crowd may hate on a completely stand-up guy, doesn't matter, he's a heel. In wrestling, there are certain things that translate those roles even more. And I will be 100% biased to them. So if you are playing a heel, but acting like a face (think Kevin Nash in the nWo, a super cool guy heel) then that'll be lower on the totem pole for me. Same as a face who acts like a heel (looking at you John Cena).
I care about continuity. We are all together crafting stories. We are building feuds. And we are keeping our own characters straight. Or we are supposed to be. When we don't, when a promo-er ignores things that happened on the show previously, or outright decides to completely forget about it, that really ruins the magic of the medium. And ruins my evaluation.
I care about logic. We are simulating a type of television show, one that we've seen many times before as fans of wrestling. That means that what I want to see are things that we can see on television. There are some liberties to be taken, like with sexuality and cursing. But no one is going to actually murder someone or break someone's limb on television. No wrestler is going to be the true incarnation of the God of Thunder. There is always a wink wink, nudge nudge feeling to wrestling gimmicks. So if you want to add a wrestler to the roster who is a mummy, fine. But if you try to tell me the dude is LEGITIMATELY living in a sarcophagus and is thousands of years old and other such nonsense, I'm going to hate it.
Those are my three big ones. There are two minor things that matter for me as well. One is grammar/proofreading. I don't care about everyone being perfect 100% of the time. But there is a spellchecker in the messageboard. You should re-read what you wrote to make sure it makes sense. You should consider doing some formatting to make it all easier to read. These are things that won't really matter, unless things are close. Two promos who did a good job with logic, continuity, and character, I have to decide a winner based on something, and this is a good criteria to use.
The last one is pure entertainment on my part. If I have nothing else to go on, the promos I liked the most will win. Or more appropriately, the story that is being told I like the most will win. And this is the most unfair of the evaluations. And why I want to remove evaluation from as much of the decision making as possible.
I hope that this nice long ramble really helps explain my thought process to you guys. And I hope that, even if you do end up losing a few times, the fun of playing the character and the messageboard and the community we'll build here is enough to make you not despise me when I do have to evaluate your stuff. Luckily, it is only one show a month.
Thanks everyone for signing up, and I cannot wait to read more of the ongoing stories for 777 Championship Wrestling.
But online roleplaying is different, especially in an e-fed. Instead of a player controlling only their character, players control moments in time. They control the environment, the characters, the outcomes, and the choices, one small moment at a time. There is no storyteller/gamemaster in online roleplaying, everyone instead adheres to basic understood rules, like no God-moding or be willing to look foolish sometimes to look great other times. In an e-fed, though, there IS someone in charge. There is someone who has to reward players for all their excellent roleplaying and promo-ing with an adventure, a wrestling show. The storyteller evaluates what the players do in their own moments in time that they craft, and has to assign worth, because eventually two people come upon each other, and everyone needs to feel rewarded for their hard work. Let's face it, some people may be great at writing or at least at VOLUME of writing, like I tend to be. And others it takes hours to craft a few hundred words. And that is perfectly acceptable. But one way or another, the guy running the show needs to evaluate other players work to create outcomes. Which means that there are winners, and there are losers.
Some of that is mitigated with good writing. A great match, full of suspense, character, and great moments that can be called back upon, is reward in and of itself. But ... but it just isn't the same if you don't win. I've played in an e-fed, I know this. I was confidant in my skills, very confidant, so confidant that I basically dictated how my matches and stories went. For me, it was the story, not the win that mattered. And that's probably why I fell into the storytelling role instead of a player role. But when I wasn't able to tell those stories, for whatever reason, and things didn't go my way ... I got frustrated. I never knew why I didn't win, especially when I felt I deserved it.
I hate that feeling. That's part of the reason I have removed that evaluation from so much of 777 Championship Wrestling. I love Pro Wrestling Nexus for what it does for me as a time saver, and what it does for the fed as playing field evener. No one has any control over the out comes of most of their matches. A computer program does. One that does some crazy things I could never expect. I simulated the next months worth of matches, just to see what would happen. And some of the drama that was created just by this machine was incredible. Better than I could have written if I was given complete control of everything.
But ultimately, story isn't enough. Everyone wants to win. They want to know what they have written, and spent their time on, especially an entire month's worth, they want to know that it is worthwhile. And it will be. PPVs will be entirely written and decided by me, the showrunner/gamemeister/whatever. And because that is happening, that means I will be evaluating what you have written over the course of the month. And because I am, I want to make it completely open and honest with how I am going to evaluate the winners.
There are a few things I care about more than anything, and a few things that don't matter much, but will act as tie-breakers.
I care about wrestlers acting like they should. There is a special kind of storytelling wrestling can do, all based around heels and faces. Heels does not equal villain, and face does not equal hero. It is one of my favorite dichotomies in the artform. A "heel" is someone the crowd is supposed to despise, someone to boo. And a "face" is the guy the crowd roots for. The crowd may root for a terrible ass of a man, doesn't matter, he's a face. The crowd may hate on a completely stand-up guy, doesn't matter, he's a heel. In wrestling, there are certain things that translate those roles even more. And I will be 100% biased to them. So if you are playing a heel, but acting like a face (think Kevin Nash in the nWo, a super cool guy heel) then that'll be lower on the totem pole for me. Same as a face who acts like a heel (looking at you John Cena).
I care about continuity. We are all together crafting stories. We are building feuds. And we are keeping our own characters straight. Or we are supposed to be. When we don't, when a promo-er ignores things that happened on the show previously, or outright decides to completely forget about it, that really ruins the magic of the medium. And ruins my evaluation.
I care about logic. We are simulating a type of television show, one that we've seen many times before as fans of wrestling. That means that what I want to see are things that we can see on television. There are some liberties to be taken, like with sexuality and cursing. But no one is going to actually murder someone or break someone's limb on television. No wrestler is going to be the true incarnation of the God of Thunder. There is always a wink wink, nudge nudge feeling to wrestling gimmicks. So if you want to add a wrestler to the roster who is a mummy, fine. But if you try to tell me the dude is LEGITIMATELY living in a sarcophagus and is thousands of years old and other such nonsense, I'm going to hate it.
Those are my three big ones. There are two minor things that matter for me as well. One is grammar/proofreading. I don't care about everyone being perfect 100% of the time. But there is a spellchecker in the messageboard. You should re-read what you wrote to make sure it makes sense. You should consider doing some formatting to make it all easier to read. These are things that won't really matter, unless things are close. Two promos who did a good job with logic, continuity, and character, I have to decide a winner based on something, and this is a good criteria to use.
The last one is pure entertainment on my part. If I have nothing else to go on, the promos I liked the most will win. Or more appropriately, the story that is being told I like the most will win. And this is the most unfair of the evaluations. And why I want to remove evaluation from as much of the decision making as possible.
I hope that this nice long ramble really helps explain my thought process to you guys. And I hope that, even if you do end up losing a few times, the fun of playing the character and the messageboard and the community we'll build here is enough to make you not despise me when I do have to evaluate your stuff. Luckily, it is only one show a month.
Thanks everyone for signing up, and I cannot wait to read more of the ongoing stories for 777 Championship Wrestling.
