Post by Alicia "Atomic" Kitsune on Aug 1, 2005 18:09:33 GMT -5
Right. I’m going to post a few thoughts here for consideration while I finish up my outside commitments; I’ve read all that others have had to say here and it’s excellent to see several people participating in the debate.
To explain how I feel on this issue, I’m going to tell you a little about my schooldays. I went through a series of tests at 11, and was selected to attend what’s known as a grammar school in this country. There aren’t all that many of them, and as such it’s reckoned that you have to have an IQ of somewhere in the top 2% of the population to be picked. (I apologise if this sounds like boasting, I hate big headedness more than almost anything but there is a point, I assure you.)
At my primary school I’d easily outpaced all my classmates, though I was very careful to conceal this from them as much as I possibly could; I didn’t want to stand out in any way that would make me different. My last few months there, when it was discovered that I would be taking a different path from everyone else in September, are not a time which I remember with any fondness; I tried to keep my head down, being a very shy child at that time, but I experienced quite a lot of jealousy, and some downright nasty teasing, from girls whom I’d previously thought of as friends. (Since I’ve never been pretty and can’t play soccer, the boys completely failed to register my existence and this didn’t do anything to change that. But I digress.)
Moving to my new school was a revelation; suddenly, I found that almost everyone was as bright, or brighter, than I was. Though at first I was daunted, I quickly came to love my surroundings, where I was no longer “different”. I was pushed to my limit and had to work extremely hard, but I enjoyed the challenges immensely.
Not everyone, though, was as fortunate as I was. Because I took the standardised tests without any special preparation, when I got to the Grammar I was basically raw talent, and the teachers there gave me the practice and skills to develop to my full potential. There were a few girls there, however, who had been intensively tutored in order to make the narrow cut in the selection; those that I got to know were all great personalities, but they had to work themselves to the bone just to keep up with the tail end of the rest of the class. Several dropped out, and those that made it through came out feeling that they were somehow lesser than the rest of us. They didn’t get much enjoyment out of what should have been a great opportunity; they were always in the lower half of the achievement lists, and rarely got a chance to shine against immensely tough compatriots, even though in practically any other environment they would have been taking top honours and seen as unmitigated successes.
What I’m trying to say, in a roundabout fashion, is that I view decent RP – only federations as the equivalent of a Grammar school environment. If you’re fortunate enough to be gifted in writing, and prepared to put in the hours of work required, you will do well and be a star name. But there’s only room for a few stars in this kind of organisation, and those that make it will forever be outshining the majority of roleplayers. People can always improve their work – but let’s be absolutely honest here, even if someone of above average talent works their tail off, they will probably still lose to a top name blessed with an outstanding writing ability, and that’s a surefire way to suck the enjoyment out of what should be, in my opinion, first and foremost a fun leisure activity. I also believe it’s a core reason of why most feds have such high turnover of members – people come in, work with people of a similar standard to them, and pretty soon they make all the significant improvement in skill that they’re going to make in the short term; they hit their glass ceiling, and unable to advance any further and having exhausted the available opponents, they lose interest and drift away.
The absolute fundamental point, in my opinion, is that these people still have excellent and worthwhile stories to relate through their characters, even if their execution doesn’t match up to that of the “star names”. I’m going to illustrate this by referring to two of our own members, and I hope that they will not be upset or offended by any of my comments, that is most certainly not the intention.
Consider two very different writers: Wyvern and Predator. Wyvern is a true top level player, I believe most of you will agree; when he’s putting 100% into his work, he can stand up to any RPer that I personally know, and his contributions are consistently superb. Predator is well above average as a writer, but when it comes to the nitty – gritty of RP decisions, he’s not quite up there with Wyvern; if the two of them were to face off, my prediction based on all that I’ve seen from both of them is that Wyvern would be most likely to prevail.
And yet in at least one sense, this is absolutely irrelevant. I love reading Predator’s work; I know I’m not the only person who marks out for Wolf and Thor when they appear, and Predator’s own character has developed exponentially in the last few months. The calculations system as it stands tries to recognise this kind of achievement, so that someone like Predator at least has a fighting chance; it’s not perfect, but in my view it’s better than a pure RP system which relies solely on subjective judgements without any reference to past contributions and thus will almost always adhere to the hierarchy of talent.
Fedding is meant to be FUN. I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating - no one gets paid for this, this is not work or school and I can entirely see the point of view of people who do not wish every single thing they contribute to be subject to scrutiny. If people want to see how they measure up in a one – on – one situation, we can cater for that by basing the result on RP – only decisions, and I encourage anyone who is unsure of whether they like this idea or not to try it out by requesting an RP match. But most people here participate in one or more feds as just a tiny part of their leisure activities; they just want to tell their stories and have a few matches without having to bust a gut working on a competitive piece every time they want a match. And if a fixed result is needed for a storyline, it’s as simple as sending a PM.
It’s also my opinion that the style we developed here encourages cross – over storylines and ensures that most people will be aware of what all the other characters in the fed are up to, even if they only skin read sometimes due to time constraints. People are free to write pieces that bear little or no relation to their upcoming match, but which advance their wider character development or just give us all a laugh; they can put forward whatever they wish, knowing that their success or failure over time will be reflected by ALL their work and not just one make – or – break piece. Though the matches are placed in a rough rank order, segments can appear anywhere in a show, so being in a midcard position doesn’t cause your stuff to get overlooked or ignored.
Basically, we’ve always done our best to give our members what they want; no one here is in this for some sort of non – existent glamour. We don’t get upset if people are in several feds other than ours, or if they need to take an extended break, or even if they decide to retire a character entirely – any time they want to come back we will hopefully be here to say “hi” again. We’re not the “greatest” fed in the world, we’re not even close and we show writers and organisers can’t offer any cachet other than the fact that we put 100% effort into our shows with what talent we possess. But as long as there are people who want to share their tales with other members, then I for one will do my best to make that possible, in whichever manner(s) those members would like this to occur.
I welcome any comments either specifically on my views, or on the topic in general.
To explain how I feel on this issue, I’m going to tell you a little about my schooldays. I went through a series of tests at 11, and was selected to attend what’s known as a grammar school in this country. There aren’t all that many of them, and as such it’s reckoned that you have to have an IQ of somewhere in the top 2% of the population to be picked. (I apologise if this sounds like boasting, I hate big headedness more than almost anything but there is a point, I assure you.)
At my primary school I’d easily outpaced all my classmates, though I was very careful to conceal this from them as much as I possibly could; I didn’t want to stand out in any way that would make me different. My last few months there, when it was discovered that I would be taking a different path from everyone else in September, are not a time which I remember with any fondness; I tried to keep my head down, being a very shy child at that time, but I experienced quite a lot of jealousy, and some downright nasty teasing, from girls whom I’d previously thought of as friends. (Since I’ve never been pretty and can’t play soccer, the boys completely failed to register my existence and this didn’t do anything to change that. But I digress.)
Moving to my new school was a revelation; suddenly, I found that almost everyone was as bright, or brighter, than I was. Though at first I was daunted, I quickly came to love my surroundings, where I was no longer “different”. I was pushed to my limit and had to work extremely hard, but I enjoyed the challenges immensely.
Not everyone, though, was as fortunate as I was. Because I took the standardised tests without any special preparation, when I got to the Grammar I was basically raw talent, and the teachers there gave me the practice and skills to develop to my full potential. There were a few girls there, however, who had been intensively tutored in order to make the narrow cut in the selection; those that I got to know were all great personalities, but they had to work themselves to the bone just to keep up with the tail end of the rest of the class. Several dropped out, and those that made it through came out feeling that they were somehow lesser than the rest of us. They didn’t get much enjoyment out of what should have been a great opportunity; they were always in the lower half of the achievement lists, and rarely got a chance to shine against immensely tough compatriots, even though in practically any other environment they would have been taking top honours and seen as unmitigated successes.
What I’m trying to say, in a roundabout fashion, is that I view decent RP – only federations as the equivalent of a Grammar school environment. If you’re fortunate enough to be gifted in writing, and prepared to put in the hours of work required, you will do well and be a star name. But there’s only room for a few stars in this kind of organisation, and those that make it will forever be outshining the majority of roleplayers. People can always improve their work – but let’s be absolutely honest here, even if someone of above average talent works their tail off, they will probably still lose to a top name blessed with an outstanding writing ability, and that’s a surefire way to suck the enjoyment out of what should be, in my opinion, first and foremost a fun leisure activity. I also believe it’s a core reason of why most feds have such high turnover of members – people come in, work with people of a similar standard to them, and pretty soon they make all the significant improvement in skill that they’re going to make in the short term; they hit their glass ceiling, and unable to advance any further and having exhausted the available opponents, they lose interest and drift away.
The absolute fundamental point, in my opinion, is that these people still have excellent and worthwhile stories to relate through their characters, even if their execution doesn’t match up to that of the “star names”. I’m going to illustrate this by referring to two of our own members, and I hope that they will not be upset or offended by any of my comments, that is most certainly not the intention.
Consider two very different writers: Wyvern and Predator. Wyvern is a true top level player, I believe most of you will agree; when he’s putting 100% into his work, he can stand up to any RPer that I personally know, and his contributions are consistently superb. Predator is well above average as a writer, but when it comes to the nitty – gritty of RP decisions, he’s not quite up there with Wyvern; if the two of them were to face off, my prediction based on all that I’ve seen from both of them is that Wyvern would be most likely to prevail.
And yet in at least one sense, this is absolutely irrelevant. I love reading Predator’s work; I know I’m not the only person who marks out for Wolf and Thor when they appear, and Predator’s own character has developed exponentially in the last few months. The calculations system as it stands tries to recognise this kind of achievement, so that someone like Predator at least has a fighting chance; it’s not perfect, but in my view it’s better than a pure RP system which relies solely on subjective judgements without any reference to past contributions and thus will almost always adhere to the hierarchy of talent.
Fedding is meant to be FUN. I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating - no one gets paid for this, this is not work or school and I can entirely see the point of view of people who do not wish every single thing they contribute to be subject to scrutiny. If people want to see how they measure up in a one – on – one situation, we can cater for that by basing the result on RP – only decisions, and I encourage anyone who is unsure of whether they like this idea or not to try it out by requesting an RP match. But most people here participate in one or more feds as just a tiny part of their leisure activities; they just want to tell their stories and have a few matches without having to bust a gut working on a competitive piece every time they want a match. And if a fixed result is needed for a storyline, it’s as simple as sending a PM.
It’s also my opinion that the style we developed here encourages cross – over storylines and ensures that most people will be aware of what all the other characters in the fed are up to, even if they only skin read sometimes due to time constraints. People are free to write pieces that bear little or no relation to their upcoming match, but which advance their wider character development or just give us all a laugh; they can put forward whatever they wish, knowing that their success or failure over time will be reflected by ALL their work and not just one make – or – break piece. Though the matches are placed in a rough rank order, segments can appear anywhere in a show, so being in a midcard position doesn’t cause your stuff to get overlooked or ignored.
Basically, we’ve always done our best to give our members what they want; no one here is in this for some sort of non – existent glamour. We don’t get upset if people are in several feds other than ours, or if they need to take an extended break, or even if they decide to retire a character entirely – any time they want to come back we will hopefully be here to say “hi” again. We’re not the “greatest” fed in the world, we’re not even close and we show writers and organisers can’t offer any cachet other than the fact that we put 100% effort into our shows with what talent we possess. But as long as there are people who want to share their tales with other members, then I for one will do my best to make that possible, in whichever manner(s) those members would like this to occur.
I welcome any comments either specifically on my views, or on the topic in general.
