The Size Advantage

A big barometer of success in running an e-fedding seems to be the size of your fed - the number of weekly shows you produce, the number of members you have. The larger the better. RoughKut definitely works on this principle. Something occurred to me about that recently - it's bullshit. I've been on feds with 200+ members and you know something? I hated them. They're impersonal and cliquey. More members means you're less likely to go under but it also means that newer or less active members are more likely to be marginalised.

I can see the counter-argument to that; newer and less active members ought to have an incentive to become an active part of the community and get further up the card. The larger a roster is, the tougher the field is, the harder the glass ceiling is to break, and that stimulates members to work harder. Those who aren't interested in pushing themselves that hard shouldn't have joined in the first place.

This makes the mistake of assuming everyone wants the same thing, that everyone wants to be the most successful wrestler, and every fed ought to want to be the most successful - what about those who just want to hang out and have fun? It's a chicken/egg situation - on large feds, very often, only established veterans become big players - but only big players become established veterans. Furthermore, I for one have always found storytelling less involved in any fed of about 100+ members; there's so much going on you're expected to keep track of and so few people are interested in anyone else's storylines.

Now, I'm not saying that all large feds ought to keel over and die. Promotions like Pro Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. have their place, no doubt, and there's nothing wrong with being competitive. But there's also nothing wrong with NOT being so competitive. But personally when I want to get to know a bunch of people, kick back and have a laugh, and more than anything really roleplay with others rather than just compete for championships, I'm going to go to a smaller and more intimate place.

I'm stopping now before this devolves into ludology versus narratology - don't worry, I'm sure that one will come too at some point. :P

Indie Grand Scheme Of Things

The question of whether fedding can or should have a larger unified canon is a long, complex and often tedious one. I'm not aware of any groups of feds bigger than about 5 or 6 that fully recognise each other as part of the same single wrestling world with no contradictory canon between them.

Personally, I'd like to see it. CAWS only - otherwise you get twenty Undertakers and CM Punks running around - but a decent-sized group of feds with a proper structure and relationship, so you have a couple of global-sized ones at the top, then a handful of national sized ones, and then a whole load of niche and regional companies. This would open up the potential for transfers, interpromotional events and make being 'world champion' really mean something.

What I really, really mainly want to see out of something like that most is a proper indie circuit. I'd like to take my character into occasional matches in, say, Wrestling Asylum and Phoenix Wrestling Enterprise without her actually being a full-time member of either promotion's roster. What would be really, really cool is if for example she had a big feud in PWE and once it was done disappear for a while - during which time she puts in more appearances with WA, maybe goes for a title run say.

But then, I try to keep my characters' canons the same between feds, and I know not everyone does. Baby Dogg's home is Global Extreme Wrestling (which I see as RoH in terms of popularity and mainstream recognition) but her day job is Championship Wrestling Federation (TNA-ish level - or would be if it wasn't on hiatus right now) and between the two, where is she meant to find the time for a third, if it has to be full time by default? John Waylon's Psychotic Championship Wrestling had its flaws but in hindsight, the one-show-a-month approach it had actually made a lot of sense.

As it stands, to be in a few promotions at once and thus really feel like a part of a broader wrestling world, here's both the OC problem of having the time to do 5 or 6 matches a week (been there, done that, bought the brain meltdown) and the IC problem of, how the hell is she meant to work four matches a night in different states or even countries? It's stretching it with just two frankly.

If anyone has any thoughts on this subject please let me know.

E-fedding In 100 Words

A blog about the crazy world of online text-based roleplaying revolving around professional wrestling - e-fedding.

In e-fedding, each involved player (sometimes called a 'handler') takes on the role of a pro wrestler or mixed martial artist and, together with other handlers, collaboratively creates the ongoing story of a promotion. It can be somewhat difficult for those not into both roleplaying and wrestling to understand, exacerbated by the fact there's an almost endless combination of approaches to the hobby.

I’ll explore these over the course of this blog and hopefully this will serve as a forum for discussion on the world of e-fedding and its modes, customs and inhabitants.