Post by Wayne Richards on May 21, 2018 7:54:56 GMT -5
Alright ladies and gentlemen, I have a question that I’ve been contemplating on for a little while now about the future of Union Battleground. It seems like this season there have been some grumblings about our hybrid style format.
Without going into too much details, there have been some offers and discussions conjured up about making the Battleground either straight competitive or straight angle.
So, I want to hear everyone’s thoughts about where we go into the future.
Do we go competitive? Angle? Stay hybrid?
Throw your vote out and give me some feedback on your thoughts, suggestions, ideas, etc.
Post by Alex Kincaid on May 21, 2018 9:03:39 GMT -5
I LOVE the hybrid format.
If wins and losses are all you care about, yeah, it's going to be a bit annoying. Whatever. But your character should be stronger than wins or losses. Hybrid allows us to book compelling programs with the angled matches with the assurance that - when the blowoff to your feud happens - you can really dig in and write some competitive shit to win the feud. It also means that, frankly, if you're having an angled week and you're not super into fedding this week because of real life shit you can have a light week. Sometimes you need that.
Angled results will just lead to more complaining, though it does have the advantage of pushing people who don't do super well in a competitive environment but contribute positively to the fed in other ways (Matchwriting, social media promotion).
I have a full time job, a podcast that I'm launching next week that's going to take up a lot of my time, and absolutely no interest in writing competitively again full time. There's plenty of those places already.
Post by Finn Whelan on May 21, 2018 13:58:43 GMT -5
I generally am of two sides of the coin, and I know that Axel and I have spoke about this.
I’m a competitive writer, but I’m down for angles. I like the hybrid aspect, but I am under the impression that ultimate endings of angles need to be competitive. Championship matches need to be competitive unless both parties can agree to a finish. Those are my mantras. Otherwise I feel like there’s no point to even role playing for something if you’re never going to have a shot when it comes down to it. The story part of it is awesome, and yeah, like Alex said, it’s cool to have a week or so where you don’t have to get into the fedding piece if you don’t need to.
I don’t think angled would be good because honestly, there are 3000 feds now that are angled. And personally, I don’t like pure angle so I would have to say I’d be backing out if that were the case.
Post by Dick Devereaux on May 21, 2018 14:40:09 GMT -5
Here’s my take on it all.
If we stay hybrid, there needs to be open discussion between parties involved as to what is angled and what is competitive. Everybody needs to know what’s going on so they don’t waste their time killing it with an RP and the opponent puts up wet feces and they come out with the win and you’re sittin there wondering what’s going on. What I’m saying is, if it’s hybrid, make it clear before the writing starts what’s angled and what’s competitive.
I’d be all for full competitive. I’ve seen full competitive feds that angle some results when the storyline calls for it.
Ultimately I want the Battleground to be a place for everyone to have fun. Angled is a big thing these days in fedding so if we have to keep it hybrid or even maybe have an angled division, I’d be down.
Post by Blake Archer on May 21, 2018 16:02:41 GMT -5
Am I the only person here for storylines and not competition?
Don't get me wrong, for instance this week. I'm trilled to have a competitive match that I can also tell a story with. However I'm perfectly fine if Axel or even Finn came to me and asked us to angle it. I trust Axel enough to run angles and I know from experience and what I've been told, that doing an angle efed is easier on the booker.
I like that Union Battleground is a hybrid this place convinced me to give angle efeds a shot and I found out I really love them. I am not sure what the big fuss is over? Every angled match I've been in I knew I was going to be. (I think) I still worked hard on my rp because I still want to tell the best story for my character that I can.
If people are that grumbly over it though I do like Dick's suggestion of an angled division.
I did straight competitive from ‘97-2010 with 5K word limits and two RPs per cycle and it gets draining. I also find the complaining won’t stop cause people will still have issues if they think they won, the old adage of you can’t please everyone holds true, especially in this game.
I think the hybrid aspect makes UB what it is. I completely agree with Devereaux that all matches should be posted as angled or competitive when they go up, so people can prepare based on that.
I know anything that’s been an angled finish for me I’ve tried to still drop a RP that could win if the match was competitive, I don’t let the outcome change the fact that I want to do my best to tell a story and make Nemesis look strong in a RP. Obviously when it’s competitive and I know it, I’ll try even harder cause of inspiration.
But the plus side of having it hybrid is you get handlers like Kincaid in here who would stay away if it’s fully competitive but the angled aspect draws them in to work angles and with competitive guys who are down to angle stuff too. UB’a hybrid aspect also made a guy like Archer a fan of doing angled stuff like he said, so again, another positive.
Post by Kai Stevens on May 21, 2018 19:50:59 GMT -5
This is a difficult question for me without even considering how recently I joined here.
In the other feds I'm in (the kind I tend to stick to), it's fully competitive in that there is no such thing as a maximum length for an RP, and the best RP wins regardless. I personally dislike word caps, as it, in my opinion, stifles creativity. Angled matches happen on occasion to progress feuds, but otherwise every booked match is RPed by all participants, and for angled matches there is no RP, because it's angled.
I've been in a fed where I wrote an 11.4K word RP and lost to a 12K RP, but in that same fed I won a match with a 1.7K word RP against a 4K word RP.
In terms of what is being offered here, I'm not entirely sure what a fully angled fed would look like.
Post by Alyssa Daniels on May 21, 2018 20:11:35 GMT -5
I think UB does what it does very well. I haven't really heard of any drama coming from match results so from my knowledge, it sounds like the angled aspect is working out. I don't know if I'd mark matches or a division as angled. I think the better way to handle it is to tell the handlers in private that their match is being angled. It leaves the handlers that aren't involved in suspense as they read the match and, if something shocking happens, they can be surprised and not half-expecting it because it was marked angled. I also agree with championship and contendership matches not being angled. I would also lean toward championship matches never being angled to crown a new champion even if both parties agree to it. Just a personal preference but not a deal breaker.
Tl;Dr - If it ain't broke, don't fix it. UB is amazing with great handlers. Most here prefer one way or the other but using both doesn't alienate anyone.
When you get a bit swamped and competitive burns you out you can do an angle for a period then ease back into competitive match ups. Or if you have done an abundance of angled and want that surprise and chance to affect a result solely on your writing instead of it being preplanned, it's a great way to have that.
What I did wonder about was the possibility of a strictly competitive division for Union. I don't know if that works or if it would have any interest but then you could have competitive players have a focus and know that in this division they'll have to try and win. Just an idea, a rough one
Post by Alex Kincaid on May 22, 2018 16:11:29 GMT -5
There's also like...okay, look no one wants to admit it but there are only so many top writers and you want everyone to have a chance to feud with someone. You want everyone to be able to work with someone to get better. But being in a collaborative storytelling effort means you have to tell an actual story where both characters get to look like a threat. In this environment, we have the unique ability to angle things slightly to tell the story we want to tell while still having the big match be competitive and have both people right to their full potential.
We've all been in the feud where we're losing every single match every single week and you're like "...Why? What's the point of this? Where's the fun in my character losing three tag matches in a row en route to losing a big singles match?"
Post by Wayne Richards on May 23, 2018 10:06:39 GMT -5
Ok, so here’s the full disclosure. I have been debating on making UB more competitive, especially when it comes to title matches, for a little while. But here recently, I have been in talks with Perry Wallace about making UB the angle division/brand of 4CW. They are currently working on a several tiered RPing format, and I came to them about having UB become their angle brand.
The reasoning is really, for one I’m not sure how much longer I plan to keep UB around on this somewhat fully written results format. It has become quite a struggle for me to get matches and segments in order in a timely manner, and with the summer coming up, my work is going to be getting really busy. There is also another person interested in this angle division, so having someone else involved with angle experience would be very beneficial, although I haven’t spoke with them personally yet.
From what we’ve discussed, handlers can float around with the different tiers, whenever they feel either burned out from the higher word count or if they want to challenge themselves with a higher word count.
The initial plans if this were to go through was that we’d finish out our season with the hybrid format, and slowly phase into the angle format.
I know there’s several handlers in both 4CW and UB, and for those just in UB would be welcomed to any of the tiers that 4CW offers.
So that’s the possible future of UB. What’s your all’s thoughts of this proposition?