Post by Luminous Robin on Jun 29, 2009 21:57:44 GMT -5
I got into a little discussion in the chat-box with a member about how you should treat your opponent in a match and a feud for both of their benefits, and I was asked to post the conversation here. Since I've no reason not to, and hopefully it'll help the fed as a whole, here's my own personal guide to getting over in an e-fed. Mods, if you like, feel free to sticky the thread if you think it's appropriate.
Without further ado, I give you The Wall Theory.
This was taught to me in my very first e-fed, 6 years ago now. I was 13 years old and I was just starting out then. I asked the owner for advice, and he told me to treat e-fedding like a wall that you need to knock down.
Build your opponent up. How, precisely? Simple. If you're a face, try to promote the accomplishments that your opponent has, or try to make their dastardly deeds seem that more heinous. If you're a heel, feel free to put down the opponent - and point out just how hated that makes you, or how exaggerated your claims are. Leave little clues in your RP that your opponent can use against you. Make it sound like the feud's worth watching.
The obvious question you're all asking is, why would you put your opponent over? After all, you want to beat him, right? It's simple enough, and it's for three reasons; one, it makes your opponent like working with you, two, it makes the fed at large like working with you, and three, no matter who wins or loses, both of you come out looking good.
Think of it this way. This is where the name 'Wall' theory comes from. The more you build your opponent up, the more of a 'wall' they become. Now, if you knock down a 10ft brick wall, you're going to look like a real badass, because the wall was so sturdy - so it's quite a badass wall. Who the hell cares about a guy who brags about kicking over a single brick?
You get over. Your opponent gets over. The fed takes note of both of you.
The best way to give an example of two very recent feuds that have taken the fed's attention are the two World title feuds that happened at Scars and Stripes. I'll outline the roleplays and point out just what makes them so effective. Take notes, people.
FCW Championship
Jimmy Gimmick vs. Alexander Parise
Alexander Parise posted Stories.
Jimmy Gimmick posted Loss of Innocence.
Read both of these promos. In fact, don't just read them, study them. What do you see? Solid description, yes. Good paragraph formatting, yes. Correct spelling, yes. Good use of colour, yes.
But look closer. Look at how Parise builds up Jimmy Gimmick as not only someone who he has a great deal of respect for, but someone he has that much determination to beat, because the title means so much to him. See how Gimmick counters, turning Parise's own Hellenistic citations against him, acknowledging and putting over Parise's gimmick and promoting the feud all the more. How Gimmick acknowledges that Parise is good, but that he's determined to prove that he's the master and Parise is the student.
Regardless of who wins and who loses, there's so many ways this can carry on, running off the story of the fragile partnership between two heels, each the cream of the crop, and where they take it is entirely up to them. It's fantastic storytelling, and even though it's a title match, it's more like an opening chapter than any closure.
Let's move onto our other match.
World Heavyweight Championship
Edge vs. John Cenavs. Randy Orton
Both posted in this Open RP topic, The New No. 1 Contender Is...
No point talking about Orton, since he no-showed. But nonetheless.
The baiting by Kennedy is the perfect build-up for the draft. It's shocking, it's oppurtunistic, it's a dastardly abuse of power - and how Edge knows it. See how he captures the shock of both the wrestlers and the crowd and makes himself look like an absolute bastard who you'd love to see get beaten down. That is how you write a heel.
But the real story here isn't Edge. It's Cena. Let me explain why.
For context reasons, it's worth noting that before this promo, Cena was never intended to be in the title match, and earnt his place from his performance within this Open RP. It's quite clear to see why. For one thing, and it's commented on this in the thread, Cena knows how to portray his character to a tee. He knows how to write his speech, his actions, and most importantly, how to write the crowd reacting to him without it seeming like the roleplayer is just putting himself over for the sake of it. Cena's respected because he's writing himself earning that respect from the fans.
The best part about Cena's promo is that his performance solidly puts himself in the title picture - from an e-fedder's perspective - far more than it would have if he'd simply beat Edge, Kennedy, Bourne, everyone into a bloody pulp. That would look ridiculous and an abuse of creative control. So what does Cena do? He writes himself almost getting a one-up on Edge, and puts Edge over by having Edge get free and escape. Cena hasn't quite gotten his chance at Edge, but Edge knows he could have and he's rained on his parade. You want to see Cena and Edge go at it.
It's just like it is on TV. And it's great writing.
Now, the real question. We have two feuds here. One, heel versus heel with two highly talented wrestlers. The other, fan favourite face versus dastardly heel. Does it matter who wins these feuds?
Simply put. No.
Who gets over?
Both of them.
I hope by now that all of you are starting to get the picture, but just to be sure, I'm going to include a fair few hints and tips to getting started if you feel you're lagging behind what you think you're capable of.
First and foremost, ask for - and accept - criticism. I cannot stress this enough. Every single person on this forum has their strengths and their weaknesses, and all of us can learn from them. If you feel you're lacking at, say, the promo itself, or the description, ask for tips. Ask anyone, the GMs, the champions - hell, even your opponent that week. I guarantee they'll be willing to help.
Which brings me on to my next point. Work WITH your opponent. You are both doing this to improve and for fun. Do not be a dick.
About two weeks ago, we had a member here called JaMarcus Haze. He started a feud with a member here who portrayed Evan Bourne. His idea of building up this feud was to avoid mentioning Bourne wherever he could, and whenever the two would RP together, he'd deliberately write his character absolutely decimating Bourne. It made the feud look ridiculous and killed all the heat Bourne had going into it. He was generally rude to members, particularly Bourne, out of character and refused to accept criticism. On top of it all, despite not even being a mediocre-at-best roleplayer, he bitched about not being nominated for any Awards and left the fed - before the feud with Bourne was even resolved - claiming we gave him no oppurtunities.
As far as I'm concerned, not banning him was more of an oppurtunity than he deserved.
A good feud tells a good story. A good story gets people interested. Some of the people I've feuded with in e-feds are some of my best friends today and people I've learnt so much from, and I owe my improvements as a roleplayer to them. This is a game, not a competition. Beating someone isn't such an important thing that you have to be a prick.
And my final point. The most important one.
Tell a story, and have fun.
Wins and losses, ultimately, don't mean a damn thing.
Playing a character who's dominant all the time, has no weaknesses and so on and so forth...is boring. I couldn't possibly play this game if it was just like UFC where two hard guys go at it and one guy wins and onto the next fight and uuuurgh.
Have fun with your feuds. Be creative. Try new things. Try to do things to catch your opponents off guard, things that improve the fed and get the fed involved. Make people care about your character and what he represents. If you're in this for wins and losses, you won't enjoy it. And neither will anyone else.
If you've made it this far, thanks for reading and happy roleplaying.
Without further ado, I give you The Wall Theory.
This was taught to me in my very first e-fed, 6 years ago now. I was 13 years old and I was just starting out then. I asked the owner for advice, and he told me to treat e-fedding like a wall that you need to knock down.
Build your opponent up. How, precisely? Simple. If you're a face, try to promote the accomplishments that your opponent has, or try to make their dastardly deeds seem that more heinous. If you're a heel, feel free to put down the opponent - and point out just how hated that makes you, or how exaggerated your claims are. Leave little clues in your RP that your opponent can use against you. Make it sound like the feud's worth watching.
The obvious question you're all asking is, why would you put your opponent over? After all, you want to beat him, right? It's simple enough, and it's for three reasons; one, it makes your opponent like working with you, two, it makes the fed at large like working with you, and three, no matter who wins or loses, both of you come out looking good.
Think of it this way. This is where the name 'Wall' theory comes from. The more you build your opponent up, the more of a 'wall' they become. Now, if you knock down a 10ft brick wall, you're going to look like a real badass, because the wall was so sturdy - so it's quite a badass wall. Who the hell cares about a guy who brags about kicking over a single brick?
You get over. Your opponent gets over. The fed takes note of both of you.
The best way to give an example of two very recent feuds that have taken the fed's attention are the two World title feuds that happened at Scars and Stripes. I'll outline the roleplays and point out just what makes them so effective. Take notes, people.
FCW Championship
Jimmy Gimmick vs. Alexander Parise
Alexander Parise posted Stories.
Jimmy Gimmick posted Loss of Innocence.
Read both of these promos. In fact, don't just read them, study them. What do you see? Solid description, yes. Good paragraph formatting, yes. Correct spelling, yes. Good use of colour, yes.
But look closer. Look at how Parise builds up Jimmy Gimmick as not only someone who he has a great deal of respect for, but someone he has that much determination to beat, because the title means so much to him. See how Gimmick counters, turning Parise's own Hellenistic citations against him, acknowledging and putting over Parise's gimmick and promoting the feud all the more. How Gimmick acknowledges that Parise is good, but that he's determined to prove that he's the master and Parise is the student.
Regardless of who wins and who loses, there's so many ways this can carry on, running off the story of the fragile partnership between two heels, each the cream of the crop, and where they take it is entirely up to them. It's fantastic storytelling, and even though it's a title match, it's more like an opening chapter than any closure.
Let's move onto our other match.
World Heavyweight Championship
Edge vs. John Cena
Both posted in this Open RP topic, The New No. 1 Contender Is...
No point talking about Orton, since he no-showed. But nonetheless.
The baiting by Kennedy is the perfect build-up for the draft. It's shocking, it's oppurtunistic, it's a dastardly abuse of power - and how Edge knows it. See how he captures the shock of both the wrestlers and the crowd and makes himself look like an absolute bastard who you'd love to see get beaten down. That is how you write a heel.
But the real story here isn't Edge. It's Cena. Let me explain why.
For context reasons, it's worth noting that before this promo, Cena was never intended to be in the title match, and earnt his place from his performance within this Open RP. It's quite clear to see why. For one thing, and it's commented on this in the thread, Cena knows how to portray his character to a tee. He knows how to write his speech, his actions, and most importantly, how to write the crowd reacting to him without it seeming like the roleplayer is just putting himself over for the sake of it. Cena's respected because he's writing himself earning that respect from the fans.
The best part about Cena's promo is that his performance solidly puts himself in the title picture - from an e-fedder's perspective - far more than it would have if he'd simply beat Edge, Kennedy, Bourne, everyone into a bloody pulp. That would look ridiculous and an abuse of creative control. So what does Cena do? He writes himself almost getting a one-up on Edge, and puts Edge over by having Edge get free and escape. Cena hasn't quite gotten his chance at Edge, but Edge knows he could have and he's rained on his parade. You want to see Cena and Edge go at it.
It's just like it is on TV. And it's great writing.
Now, the real question. We have two feuds here. One, heel versus heel with two highly talented wrestlers. The other, fan favourite face versus dastardly heel. Does it matter who wins these feuds?
Simply put. No.
Who gets over?
Both of them.
I hope by now that all of you are starting to get the picture, but just to be sure, I'm going to include a fair few hints and tips to getting started if you feel you're lagging behind what you think you're capable of.
First and foremost, ask for - and accept - criticism. I cannot stress this enough. Every single person on this forum has their strengths and their weaknesses, and all of us can learn from them. If you feel you're lacking at, say, the promo itself, or the description, ask for tips. Ask anyone, the GMs, the champions - hell, even your opponent that week. I guarantee they'll be willing to help.
Which brings me on to my next point. Work WITH your opponent. You are both doing this to improve and for fun. Do not be a dick.
About two weeks ago, we had a member here called JaMarcus Haze. He started a feud with a member here who portrayed Evan Bourne. His idea of building up this feud was to avoid mentioning Bourne wherever he could, and whenever the two would RP together, he'd deliberately write his character absolutely decimating Bourne. It made the feud look ridiculous and killed all the heat Bourne had going into it. He was generally rude to members, particularly Bourne, out of character and refused to accept criticism. On top of it all, despite not even being a mediocre-at-best roleplayer, he bitched about not being nominated for any Awards and left the fed - before the feud with Bourne was even resolved - claiming we gave him no oppurtunities.
As far as I'm concerned, not banning him was more of an oppurtunity than he deserved.
A good feud tells a good story. A good story gets people interested. Some of the people I've feuded with in e-feds are some of my best friends today and people I've learnt so much from, and I owe my improvements as a roleplayer to them. This is a game, not a competition. Beating someone isn't such an important thing that you have to be a prick.
And my final point. The most important one.
Tell a story, and have fun.
Wins and losses, ultimately, don't mean a damn thing.
Playing a character who's dominant all the time, has no weaknesses and so on and so forth...is boring. I couldn't possibly play this game if it was just like UFC where two hard guys go at it and one guy wins and onto the next fight and uuuurgh.
Have fun with your feuds. Be creative. Try new things. Try to do things to catch your opponents off guard, things that improve the fed and get the fed involved. Make people care about your character and what he represents. If you're in this for wins and losses, you won't enjoy it. And neither will anyone else.
If you've made it this far, thanks for reading and happy roleplaying.
