With Taking Hold of the Flame coming up, and more importantly, Rise to Greatness, arguably the two biggest shows the SCW holds, I’ve been thinking about what should be pounded into the heads of people. And I’m going to do something I usually do. I’m going to let you view into my head, but slightly differently than normal.
You see, typically, I sit here and give you a laundry list of things that make me want to bash my head against the wall or cause me to encourage my own baldness through viciously pulling my hair out. This time, I’m going to try and do something that probably should be addressed because EVERYONE has ended up doing these things including myself.
This Cynical View will be different, because, on this one, we’re going to look at some e-fedding myths.
1. As long as I’m creative and cover everything else, I’m set.
This is simply someone looking at what I judge. I typically judge creativity, match relevance, character development, realism, effectiveness, naturalness of the dialogue and progression of events and other factors. But some people have proven themselves to be great writers. They can write their character well. They can also write their promos well.
But a number of roleplayers can develop those skills, so they fall into a trap. The other significant area I judge is creativity. So therefore, they figure, if they amp up that area, the better for them. However, this may not always be the case and I will explain why.
Creativity is great. The problem is that it can easily be misused. I say this because I, myself, prefer realism and some people’s creativity leads them to mess with that to an extent that makes me very hesitant when judging their work. Realism is a touchy subject and this is something that any roleplayer should review with the match judges towards what they are able to do in their roleplays. For me, I am very conservative on the subject. The problem with creativity is that it sometimes can blur reality as some people don’t have that ability to edit their ideas. They come up with some great ideas. They are just ideas that cross the line.
But probably the more general part is that other factors do come into play. While creativity, match relevance and character development, for me, are the big three. The writing can often be just as significant a factor. I’ve seen some people take the simplest of situations and write it so beautifully that it overshadows the greatest of ideas. Why? Ideas are one thing. Execution is what matters in the end.
2. I have everything covered. Woo-hoo. I win.
This is why I put a disclaimer in the columns I write. In fact:
DISCLAIMER: Please realize that these are merely ideas to help refine someone’s work. By simply following what is suggested, you may not necessarily win. Roleplaying is a relative experience. Everything is relative to what your opponents put out and there is no sure-fire way to always win, even if you follow any and all of my suggestions.
So with that out of the way, here I go again and give you the reasons why in a long-winded explanations.
Chances are, when you get to the main event, most people are going to be putting out some solid roleplays with a good promo of some sort, a good backstory and their character will be strong. The problem is…you’re probably doing that too. So if I blindly judge and who covers the bases, and only that, we’re going to get a lot of draws.
In the end, my personal opinion does play a role. That may be frustrating to some, but this is the case in any fed. The fact of the matter is that I look at what the actual content is. It’s easy to say that you have it all. But it’s who does it better which matters. Comedy won’t always beat dramatic narratives. A serious promo won’t always beat a cocky heel who makes jokes. It just depends who I think writes the better roleplays. It doesn’t mean your roleplay was disappointing. It just meant that your opponent outroleplayed you. It’s that simple.
3. Oh crap…my opponent wrote a masterpiece….I need to outdo that.
This is an ego thing and I know it. I’ve seen people do a kick ass parody. How does their opponent counter it….do an even more kick ass parody. The problem is simple though. The concept has been done and often….it turns desperate. Now, this is not to say that this approach always fails. Sometimes it does pay off and I have seen someone out-parody someone else in a battle of roleplays. So please don’t think that trying to outdo your opponents will fail.
What I instead am saying is, think about it. Is it logical your character would do this? Do you have any ideas that don’t just come off as a blatant ripoff? Can you write a legitimate roleplay you can feel outdoes your opponents?
The reason I say this is because some people get flustered and freak out. They see their opponent post some great concept, so they feel the need to outdo it, just to make their opponent look less clever. The thing is, 9 times out of 10, I find people shoot themselves in the foot. They often can’t keep the concept going without turning it into a blatant ripoff of their opponent and often, it just looks desperate. People have a habit of freaking out.
And I see this also not just within the realm of ideas. I see this when someone takes on someone who can write a great compelling story and they write 25 000 words and post it. Their opponent freaks out and feels that the NEED to write 20 000 to 30 000 words to counter it.
Basic word of advice: Write what you feel comfortable with. Unless you know you can go toe to toe with someone at their strength, stick with what you’re strong in. Otherwise, you don’t look clever. You often look desperate and often, you beat yourself.
Again, this is a myth that does sometimes have exceptions. I’ve seen two roleplayers who are brilliant comedy writers who often do try to outdo each other, often both using parodies or similar ideas to each other and I have seen each roleplay, back and forth, get better than the one before it. BUT, this is something I have rarely seen happen consistently. I more often see people beat themselves by trying to overexert themselves while roleplaying in hopes of outdoing their opponent explicitly, when if they focused on what their strengths are, the match would be much closer.
4. But I did everything you asked for. Don’t you love me?
This one I laugh at every single time I hear it. I have had some people question why they lose using the reason: “But I did everything you’ve suggested when you give me feedback and from what you say in your columns.”
This is why I have the disclaimer now.
The fact of the matter is if I wanted exactly what I wanted….I’d write it myself. I write Breakdown to my vision. I write Hostility to my vision. I write pay per views to my vision. I have several characters I’ve roleplayed as, all to my vision. I have enough outlets for my vision.
When you roleplay, you’ll see me often say “Write what you, yourself, are proud of.”
This isn’t just a platitude. It legitimately is what I feel needs to be said. I find a lot of people write better when they write for themselves and write what they are proud of. And furthermore, if you lose, so what….you wrote what you were proud of and that ideally is what we should all be doing (discounting the concept of competition completely however). And if you write what you want, you will always then be able to take things as you want to. You don’t find yourself being forced to write something you don’t want to to appease a match judge. You just need to appease yourself.
These are just four myths, all very similar to each other, but all need to be clarified. And speaking of clarifications, I have one more suggestion:
KNOW YOUR MATCH
So many times I’ve seen people outright misstate what happens on shows or just forget things have happened. Or they completely ignore what happens on the shows. I realize sometimes you’re unable to take into account what happens on the shows because one’s schedule. This is one reason I encourage people to roleplay earlier for pay per views, knowing full well that opinions and focus can change drastically after a weekly show. But I have seen people completely forget something has happened and end up contradicting what their character did on the show completely, days after the show.
But this goes farther. I’ve had people completely misinterpret match stipulations to the purposes of matches. If you’re not sure, ask. I know that not every watches wrestling as much as I do. Not everyone remembers obscure facts about wrestling either. Ask me and I’ll help clarify.
But I also say this in a roleplaying context, outside of the characters. Try to roleplay for the match. I say this because certain matches can see different strategies employed to help lead one to victory. This is something a lot of people overlook. They simply just roleplay and hope for the best. But there can be strategy in roleplaying and there are always matches that are booked that would see strategy greatly enhance one’s chances to win the match. And I say this quite simply for a reason. How did I start off this column? A forty-man battle royal is coming up.Just some food for thought.
Hopefully this helps you. I don’t write these just to rant. I write these to help. But also, it is completely yours choice to agree or disagree with my points. As always, there are exceptions to the rules and you may want to find them. But regardless, here is another cynical view of the world of e-fedding and it’s nicely located on this site.
And oh yeah…some people may be wondering what happened to the planned column on an effective heel. Don’t worry….it will be coming. I’ve just chosen to push it back a bit in favour of this. So for those looking forward to that, it will be coming to a website near you.