E-Fedding 400: It's Not Just About You
Aug 25, 2020 20:46:21 GMT -5
Mongo the Destroyer, Dave D-Flipz, and 10 more like this
Post by ForeverKuroi on Aug 25, 2020 20:46:21 GMT -5
So this thread is going to be a boomer alert, but I think it's important.
This is one of the most recent lessons I've been learning myself and I didn't even begin to realize the scope of this until I started the AWF. I remember when I started with Kuroi in 2004. The concept was simple, at least to fourteen/fifteen year old me who didn't know better. Be the best. Be all about strength. Be without weakness. I mean, logically that's how you're the best, right? If you're all pros and no cons, you're technically perfect, right? *Gets sued by Chris Card.*
Well, if e-fedding was just wrestling, perhaps. But it's not.
E-fedding is a mix between wrestling and character development. We don't judge people solely on how awesome their skill set is. It's not judged based on how big your muscles are, how awesome your theme music is, how tall you are, none of that. It's by what you do on the promo board. And while we all have a different idea on what makes a quality RP, I'm sensing some common themes among most admins. I won't repeat them all, but in a nutcase it's about your story and how your character deals with the circumstance.
It's also how your character rises to the challenge, and in retrospect, I've been a fool to not see that my strength was my weakness.
What do I mean?
Your OPPONENT is a part of the story. They're a piece of the circumstance. They're the other side. Now imagine this. Imagine your character is Captain Bad Ass and they go off saying, "My opponent sucks! He's garbage! Not even Copycat could defeat him!" and let's say Captain Bad Ass' opponent promos their heart out and the judges decide on the opponent, how does YOUR character look?
I'll tell you how.
They looks weaker than Copycat.
I find that when I see people putting over their opponent, I LOVE their promos so much more. It makes a more down to Earth story. It makes them human, and makes you look better - not just in character, but out of your character too. This kind of goes hand in hand with the fact that every character needs a weakness. But I won't go too deeply into that.
Now I am NOT saying be afraid of your opponent or act like you're a guppy in an ocean. If your character is Kuroi, that'd look weird. In the AWF saga of Kuroi, I've tried to give him some humanity. I've tried to give him something to worry about. I remember at AVAC in 2019, I kept challenging LGBTKO for their ideals. I put them over by talking about how they've managed to get as far as they have, while attacking them philosophically. I called them weak, but not because they're bad at wrestling (for the most part). I called them weak because they defended the weak. I've also had him be concerned about not taking his opponents lightly because if he lost, it makes the entire goal of Legion to be worthless.
And wrestling is a team sport in real life too. Ask Bobby if you don't believe me. Ask him how you can body slam, chokeslam or suplex someone if they won't jump along with you. Ask him how you can wrestle someone without communicating at all with them.
E-fedding is the same way. Without communication, teamwork, sportsmanship and respect (all the values we make fun of Felix Ziko for), e-fedding makes the proverbial measuring contest seem much less fun.
Every little thing we do impacts the very culture of what e-fedding becomes. Now I won't name where I got this from, although I'm sure a lot of you can guess, but I've come across a community outside of the XHF Network which revolves around insulting each other, sporting a lot of the phobias that are just not cool. The longer I focused on it, the more I realized how much I didn't want to be associated with it.
Now there's insulting each other in character. And then there's just attacking one another out of character. Now that's just not cool.
How you interact places connotations and feeling as to who you are. These can be good or they can be bad and I think we all know a lot of people we shouldn't be like. Whether it be known as a hot head and a provocateur, or someone who constantly cheats - this can tarnish your name and if you run a fed, it will follow along every root that's embedded. What you do matters and it shapes the future of e-fedding.
Now I have a question for you all. Do you remember your first time learning about e-fedding and what it's all about?
I do. I remember googling "Internet wrestling" and after some time on Google, I found my first e-fed.
Imagine how it'd feel for your first exposure to be filled with N words thrown around, calling gay people terms that can also be 'a bundle of sticks' (Saying the F word typically means something else), or **** threats. Now imagine if you're a white male, what it's like to be a person or color or a female.
I'll take an extreme example. I'll call myself a black lesbian and come to this e-fed. If I saw this, I'd be disgusted. Not only would I not want to go to this e-fed, I'd have such a disgusted reaction, I may not want to go to ANY e-fed. For someone with this as my first reaction and not knowing any better, I'd possibly think this is what they are ALL like. Then the whole e-fed community would miss out. I could be like Anthony Caffrey and be an amazing RPer out the get go or be like Maverick, someone who started out rough around the edges before really showing the world what a diamond can look like after it gets polished. Without RPing, the world would never know what creative talent this hypothetical character could have.
Has anyone ever eaten a kind of food a long time ago and it was disgusting? Just horrible, like you'd never want to try it again? Maybe ten years later, someone told you, "Hey, want to try this food?" You'd reply, "No! I hate it!" Then you get convinced to try it and realize it's not so bad? Maybe that restaurant or cook just sucks? Either way, a bad experience can ruin something entirely.
The point of what I'm trying to say is we foster the future of e-fedding. There are some folks who have e-fedded since the 90s. I'm not one of them. Then again, I didn't just join e-fedding yesterday either. We have a lot to learn and while it sounds kind of boomerish to say, "What's the legacy I want to leave?" Think about it now. It's like that quote from Gladiator, "What we do in life echoes throughout eternity." If we treat each other like crap, e-fedding will turn to crap. But if we are patient, supportive of one another and hold each other accountantable for our actions, we will find that we're preserving a form of creative writing and expression that all can enjoy throughout the future.
Let's make the future a good one.
"E-fedding isn't a team sport, right?"
Wrong.
Wrong.
"But I'm not even an admin. I'm just an e-fedder!"
Wrong.
Wrong.
This is one of the most recent lessons I've been learning myself and I didn't even begin to realize the scope of this until I started the AWF. I remember when I started with Kuroi in 2004. The concept was simple, at least to fourteen/fifteen year old me who didn't know better. Be the best. Be all about strength. Be without weakness. I mean, logically that's how you're the best, right? If you're all pros and no cons, you're technically perfect, right? *Gets sued by Chris Card.*
Well, if e-fedding was just wrestling, perhaps. But it's not.
E-fedding is a mix between wrestling and character development. We don't judge people solely on how awesome their skill set is. It's not judged based on how big your muscles are, how awesome your theme music is, how tall you are, none of that. It's by what you do on the promo board. And while we all have a different idea on what makes a quality RP, I'm sensing some common themes among most admins. I won't repeat them all, but in a nutcase it's about your story and how your character deals with the circumstance.
It's also how your character rises to the challenge, and in retrospect, I've been a fool to not see that my strength was my weakness.
What do I mean?
Your OPPONENT is a part of the story. They're a piece of the circumstance. They're the other side. Now imagine this. Imagine your character is Captain Bad Ass and they go off saying, "My opponent sucks! He's garbage! Not even Copycat could defeat him!" and let's say Captain Bad Ass' opponent promos their heart out and the judges decide on the opponent, how does YOUR character look?
I'll tell you how.
They looks weaker than Copycat.
I find that when I see people putting over their opponent, I LOVE their promos so much more. It makes a more down to Earth story. It makes them human, and makes you look better - not just in character, but out of your character too. This kind of goes hand in hand with the fact that every character needs a weakness. But I won't go too deeply into that.
Now I am NOT saying be afraid of your opponent or act like you're a guppy in an ocean. If your character is Kuroi, that'd look weird. In the AWF saga of Kuroi, I've tried to give him some humanity. I've tried to give him something to worry about. I remember at AVAC in 2019, I kept challenging LGBTKO for their ideals. I put them over by talking about how they've managed to get as far as they have, while attacking them philosophically. I called them weak, but not because they're bad at wrestling (for the most part). I called them weak because they defended the weak. I've also had him be concerned about not taking his opponents lightly because if he lost, it makes the entire goal of Legion to be worthless.
And wrestling is a team sport in real life too. Ask Bobby if you don't believe me. Ask him how you can body slam, chokeslam or suplex someone if they won't jump along with you. Ask him how you can wrestle someone without communicating at all with them.
E-fedding is the same way. Without communication, teamwork, sportsmanship and respect (all the values we make fun of Felix Ziko for), e-fedding makes the proverbial measuring contest seem much less fun.
"So this is where the whole 'It's not just about you' ends, right?"
Wrong. To the contrary, this is where it just begins.
Wrong. To the contrary, this is where it just begins.
Every little thing we do impacts the very culture of what e-fedding becomes. Now I won't name where I got this from, although I'm sure a lot of you can guess, but I've come across a community outside of the XHF Network which revolves around insulting each other, sporting a lot of the phobias that are just not cool. The longer I focused on it, the more I realized how much I didn't want to be associated with it.
Now there's insulting each other in character. And then there's just attacking one another out of character. Now that's just not cool.
How you interact places connotations and feeling as to who you are. These can be good or they can be bad and I think we all know a lot of people we shouldn't be like. Whether it be known as a hot head and a provocateur, or someone who constantly cheats - this can tarnish your name and if you run a fed, it will follow along every root that's embedded. What you do matters and it shapes the future of e-fedding.
Now I have a question for you all. Do you remember your first time learning about e-fedding and what it's all about?
I do. I remember googling "Internet wrestling" and after some time on Google, I found my first e-fed.
Imagine how it'd feel for your first exposure to be filled with N words thrown around, calling gay people terms that can also be 'a bundle of sticks' (Saying the F word typically means something else), or **** threats. Now imagine if you're a white male, what it's like to be a person or color or a female.
I'll take an extreme example. I'll call myself a black lesbian and come to this e-fed. If I saw this, I'd be disgusted. Not only would I not want to go to this e-fed, I'd have such a disgusted reaction, I may not want to go to ANY e-fed. For someone with this as my first reaction and not knowing any better, I'd possibly think this is what they are ALL like. Then the whole e-fed community would miss out. I could be like Anthony Caffrey and be an amazing RPer out the get go or be like Maverick, someone who started out rough around the edges before really showing the world what a diamond can look like after it gets polished. Without RPing, the world would never know what creative talent this hypothetical character could have.
Has anyone ever eaten a kind of food a long time ago and it was disgusting? Just horrible, like you'd never want to try it again? Maybe ten years later, someone told you, "Hey, want to try this food?" You'd reply, "No! I hate it!" Then you get convinced to try it and realize it's not so bad? Maybe that restaurant or cook just sucks? Either way, a bad experience can ruin something entirely.
The point of what I'm trying to say is we foster the future of e-fedding. There are some folks who have e-fedded since the 90s. I'm not one of them. Then again, I didn't just join e-fedding yesterday either. We have a lot to learn and while it sounds kind of boomerish to say, "What's the legacy I want to leave?" Think about it now. It's like that quote from Gladiator, "What we do in life echoes throughout eternity." If we treat each other like crap, e-fedding will turn to crap. But if we are patient, supportive of one another and hold each other accountantable for our actions, we will find that we're preserving a form of creative writing and expression that all can enjoy throughout the future.
Let's make the future a good one.