My reflection about CM4 & GameTalk; CM5 and apologies to Darkraven

[Admin]

Should this be in the uncensored section? Hmm.

Many times have I commented on certain eras that this eFed faced: some awesome, some horrible.

After meticulously piecing together CM4 (right off of finishing CM1-3), it goes without saying that GTWF did bring a huge amount of content for matches at least. If you look at the transition over those years, you get, like, one-sentence-at-best replies for RPs or matches. That made it so easy for newbies to come onto the e-Fed and play, and with far less time commitment. The issue with that is quality.

Then, when GTWF comes on board, they are posting essays. I understand the importance of that and the development. But I can see why e-Feds would have a posting limit.... because as great as it was to see content like that, you can also have way too much of it. Then what DID happen is that you get players thinking they are guaranteed a win as long as they post essays. I remember back then that if we ever voted, you had to actually filter that out and look deeper at what they were doing- it was not always about the length, which got you championships or tournament wins.

And we had a clear time when a player who, hands down, can write- but he was ticked off when he did not win a tournament based on popular vote. My rationale was that "you can write. However, it's not always about length; it's also about how you take the next mile and include the reader more into the match with trying different styles like media and structure your writing so that it's visually interesting to read."

The other factor was how well can someone role-play and develop their backstory. This person hardly ever did any RPs- so it’s not all that hard to understand that he did not win. In fact, looking back on this, a lot of GTWF folks couldn’t RP well- great match writers for sure, it was clearly their passion, way better than me for sure- at least back then. Ultimately, however, if you even borrow from the status-quo: you have to be good with RPing and match writing to maximize your chances.

The winner of that tournament, Vertabreaker, could also write just as well as he could, but the public voting was aimed at him. I could only surmise that it was just the luck of the draw in the voting. But the person who got all pissed off about losing, as I remember it, sent a nasty email to the officials, and it didn't result in anything good. I don't remember if I banned him or what- but I do remember how it can be a problem when you have something huge like a tournament, and there has to be a clear winner- and the default rules of determining winners (via player choice) can't happen. If I ever had a tournament like that again, I think I would do what some other e-Feds do and just use a simulator and let it all rest on chance.

I guess the ultimate question remains- which would I prefer? An essay for posts or a sentence for a reply, lol. As with many things, there should be a balance. I did not stop people from writing a lot, and I am all for creativity, obviously, but one-sentence-per-reply posts are just as bad as overly long posts or posts that linger. It doesn't matter now since this e-Fed can't get a roster anymore due to all of the issues I underlined- but if I ever did get a roster I think I wouldn't put a post limit but perhaps indicate that one would obtain a score based on the balance of quality and quantity and make it very clear that any determination for matches or special tourneys is not about how much you write but the balance of quality and quantity you do. If a player posts one sentence or a 500-page essay, those posts will be considered throwaways because it's clear that at that point, they are posting to satisfy themselves, and it does no good if any judging happens.

I don't recall my mindset when CM4 was produced- I acknowledged that we had an overpopulation problem when GTWF came in.... and I think I handled it quite well- it made logical sense to expand the e-Fed to facilitate them, such as making up ECF. CM4 was an experiment like many other things that I did and I never done an event like this before- but thinking about what I had just gone through with copying it- it was WAY TOO BIG and there was a lot of unnecessary things about it.

However, their overpopulation and desire to post essays all the time ended up killing off newbies wanting to join the eFed (since the entrance bar was sooo sooo sooooo high now), and the added issue of game balancing ultimately made my job much more difficult and time-consuming.

Again, it was like a double-edged sword. Reflecting on all of this: still, CreatureWrestling is phenomenal if all the gears are turning in the right way, and, to be frank, I've witnessed many reputable e-Feds to this day, but not many of them come close to the sheer amount of content posted and the degree of presentation. But those eras will never happen again simply because the general audience no longer posts like that. This is why I keep referencing the effects of social media and how the world's mindset about the internet has shifted.

This further affirms that the current approach for CWE has been working. Sucks it's mostly a solo eFed; sucks that the general audience cannot see the potential this eFed has, but the unmistakable point remains... this eFed is STILL in operation. The biggest reason is my determination and skills. These two aspects are what were lacking big time for CCW and DWF. They never had it; obviously, they were not the ones to develop this, again, obviously.

There is NO such thing as the perfect system. I continue to work on that idea, but I knew then that there is no perfect system that can satisfy all of the boxes, such as fairness. Even if I shift and play around with a randomized win routine, such as a CAW/SIM, there is bound to be bad feelings from those who believe that they deserve a win based on their work. That is sorta why I like a small roster/solo e-Fed more, because it is NOT about competition but about the stories.

One of the nails driven into CWE back then was the problem of GTWF folks changing my eFed to be a competitive e-fed focused on match writing. That approach obviously could not be maintained.

When I approach the real root of the problem- I think it comes to a simple matter of understanding your limits. I was a young guy back then thinking how cool it was to have so many players and I didn’t turn away the overpopulation problem aside from eventually closing registration. And- there are obvious flaws with the “players decide” approach to match and title wins. It just created this condition where you would have to police players’ title reigns and many times players no-showed to their own matches without any notices. These conditions caused a lot of problems and bad feelings very quickly.

That I think is why I been hard fast on changing how
CWE functions today. If I were to have a roster- I think I would remove the players choice with big wins and title exchanges to be randomized like on a SIM.

[Admin]

Now I am almost done with CM5.

This one was a tough one because it was the catalyst to the fall out to many issues which eventually caused me to close the eFed down in 2005.

I kept much of my reflection about this one in the uncensored section- but I will say here that going through that tough “awards” ceremony from the perspective of equity- it felt rigged and just one massive popularity contest centered around two individuals for the most part.

Secondly, I came across a post that I made that I felt was very harsh and out of line. It was a situation I don’t remember the full context of- Darkraven had a belt for a lengthy time and I am gathering that I assigned a match for her to defend it since her STF was up.

She replies to the match in ooc stating that real life issues caused her to not be around the eFed as much.

I never said that I am innocent in this eFed back then, unlike Viper who hid her blatant lying, my excuse was that this eFed was like a full time job and I had all sorts of situations going on at the time from my dad’s heart issues ultimately resulting in a heart attack, to dealing with a shift in my life working long hours taking away from being on the internet etc.

But my reply to Darkraven I admit was out of line and I am taken back by the impact of it as a current teacher. I know it doesn’t matter squat now- but I am sorry Darkraven for what I said to you during CM5….. I know what I was going through at that time was rough obviously.

At any rate- once I get passed posting the CM5 tournament I can work on the last two CMs from Network54 and be done with that part