Alignments in efedding?

[Deleted]

Does alignment matter in efeds? I think the face/heel dynamic is important in "real" fake wrestling: getting the crowd invested in seeing the good guys win and the bad guys lose adds to the spectacle. But in efedding, where there is no real fans to appeal to beyond the participants themselves, are those labels needed? Should there be a balance of heroes and villains in a "fake" fake wrestling promotion, or is it ok for it to be face- or heel-heavy?

This may or may not be a hypothetical question.

[Deleted]

I always thought that since we are basing what we do off of what is on TV, that face and heel does matter. We all are 'the fans' when the write ups happen and just like on TV you either get a good reaction, a bad reaction, or no reaction. So personally, I think the face and heel dynamic is as important in efedding as it is in the wrestling we see on TV.

I think that the character development aspect of what we do is what makes it important. Like we get to be in depth and show people why someone is a certain way. And ultimately that determines how interested people are in your character. I think you can be a face with certain heel tendencies or even a heel with a certain moral compass, but to be dead center and say 'neutral' doesn't work. We had someone here who did that and...well that's part of the reason they aren't here now. Because it didn't work.

But this is just my view, other people may see it differently.

[Deleted]

I always thought it was important in a writing sense. You have to have clear set antagonists and protagonists. It wouldn't make much sense for someone like Waylon to have a feud with someone like FPV, because they're both faces. It just helps determine storytelling parts in my eyes.

[Deleted]

I see alignment as very important in efedding. Essentially we model it after what we see on TV in that there are good guys and there are bad guys just like in any good story with a conflict. Ultimately, it is this alignment also that generally drives how our characters behave and react toward anything and everything. WIth that defined, we can make our characters have depth and generate interest in them. Like Tammy said, dead neutral is boring because then the character has no outstanding qualities and will not really generate interest for anyone.

Face heavy or heel heavy fed? Well, I prefer it to be a balance because a good feud usually should have a good guy and a bad guy. Just two good guys feuding is boring unless it's leading to a turn; same with two bad guys feuding, unless there is a turn involved, it's kind of boring. The problem with any side being unbalanced is that you end up with a shortage of the other side (ie: too many faces and not enough heels) and then you can end up with some characters not really doing much of anything and meandering from match to match. Storylines I think are the key to generating interest because just having endless random matches without a story to back them up does not generate interest. And ultimately, good storylines are derived from having conflict and every conflict and story has to have a protagonist and an antagonist otherwise it's not a conflict in my view.

So long story short, I think alignment is very important if you want to have a character that actually generates interest from your audience, which in this case is all the fed's participants.

[Deleted]

I think it's very important, but I'm more old school on things like that. One thing I will say that there's definitely people here who have face on their wrestler's profile and they act heel and I don't mean on occasion. I'm not going to say anything beyond that because it might cause an argument, but I've been confused countless times by some of the roster members in how they act in RPs or on the Twitter board.

EDIT: Just to be clear, I understand there's the CM Punk and Austin type faces, but what I'm referring to goes beyond that. There's a difference between anti-hero and being the opposite of your character's alignment.

[Deleted]

I agree. As Roddy Piper put it so well, "Do you think the fans would've loved you so much, if they hadn't hated me?"

There is always a need for good guys and bad guys. You can have the occasional anti-hero, but even then, they will still display a certain face characteristic. For instance, in his 2011 pipebomb gimmick, CM Punk played a rebel, but you never saw him doing really 'heel' actions. This in my opinion, remains the same in an e-fed.

[Jonny Fly]

Mar 27, 2013 17:10:41 GMT -5 Eric Price said:

I see alignment as very important in efedding. Essentially we model it after what we see on TV in that there are good guys and there are bad guys just like in any good story with a conflict. Ultimately, it is this alignment also that generally drives how our characters behave and react toward anything and everything. WIth that defined, we can make our characters have depth and generate interest in them. Like Tammy said, dead neutral is boring because then the character has no outstanding qualities and will not really generate interest for anyone.

Face heavy or heel heavy fed? Well, I prefer it to be a balance because a good feud usually should have a good guy and a bad guy. Just two good guys feuding is boring unless it's leading to a turn; same with two bad guys feuding, unless there is a turn involved, it's kind of boring. The problem with any side being unbalanced is that you end up with a shortage of the other side (ie: too many faces and not enough heels) and then you can end up with some characters not really doing much of anything and meandering from match to match. Storylines I think are the key to generating interest because just having endless random matches without a story to back them up does not generate interest. And ultimately, good storylines are derived from having conflict and every conflict and story has to have a protagonist and an antagonist otherwise it's not a conflict in my view.

So long story short, I think alignment is very important if you want to have a character that actually generates interest from your audience, which in this case is all the fed's participants.

Is this a good time to bring up that WCF is face heavy? It seems to basically be everyone versus Eric Price.

Hell, just to make the Fly-Orbit feud (two mostly faces) more interesting, I've basically made Fly a heel the past couple of weeks despite Pantheon itself being face for about a year now.

[Steve Orbit]

We are face heavy right now, but I think things will balance out eventually. I plan on keeping Orbit face for as long as I possibly can, but I think theres a few characters who are starting to lean towards heel and maybe will be turning in the near future. I could be wrong, but yeah, I noticed that too. Its kinda funny bcuz usually people gravitate towards heel.

[Deleted]

I've noticed that lol. Almost every other Fed I've been in is heel heavy as hell.

[Steve Orbit]

And yeah, I agree that its important for storylines and character development.. good guy vs bad guy is really the foundation of sports entertainment. Otherwise it would just be strictly competition with no emotion in a way. Efedding is different since the outcome of matches is rarely predetermined, but still, I think its the storylines and feuds that make us have fun and stay interested and engaged.

[CD's Old Account]

Doesn't matter at all.

In WWE, it usually matters who is heel and who is face. You rarely get a face vs face feud, or heel vs heel. E-fedding is flexible.

Case in point: Orbit vs Fly. Fly tweaked it and became more heelish. Then after Orbit, he can go back to being face or stay heel. It's a lot easier to blur the lines.

[Steve Orbit]

I would agree with my negro brother that it doesn't matter AS MUCH, but I still think it's a factor. It probably matters more to some characters than it does to others. Also, in e-fedding we do get face vs face and heel vs heel matches on a regular basis-- although, feuds are usually traditional face/heel feuds. So yeah, I mean, it definitely doesn't matter as much, but it's still a factor.

[Justin Turner]

Everyone brings up good points here, yes alignment even matters here in the ewrestling world. And at the same time, I think that a characters gimmick is one factor that can make or break their alignment. Take my Justin Turner character for example, he works better as a face with his youthful high flying gimmick. And from a fans point of view, it might be hard to boo someone when the crowd pops every time he hits one of his high flying moves.


Then there's the neutral aspect, which is what I tended to do more of with John Thomas. Neutral can work, because you can put them in a feud with a heel and have them play the face, or vice versa. Then you can take it a step further, and have it kind how it was with John during his final run (reactions depends on where show was held.) which is a way I saw it work in a real fed. Reaction for the Briscoe Brothers changed from heel one night, to face the very next all because of what they wore (their rebel flag shorts.) and who they faced (most hated team in fed.)

[Deleted]

Mar 28, 2013 8:29:33 GMT -5 Jonny Fly said:

Mar 27, 2013 17:10:41 GMT -5 Eric Price said:

I see alignment as very important in efedding. Essentially we model it after what we see on TV in that there are good guys and there are bad guys just like in any good story with a conflict. Ultimately, it is this alignment also that generally drives how our characters behave and react toward anything and everything. WIth that defined, we can make our characters have depth and generate interest in them. Like Tammy said, dead neutral is boring because then the character has no outstanding qualities and will not really generate interest for anyone.

Face heavy or heel heavy fed? Well, I prefer it to be a balance because a good feud usually should have a good guy and a bad guy. Just two good guys feuding is boring unless it's leading to a turn; same with two bad guys feuding, unless there is a turn involved, it's kind of boring. The problem with any side being unbalanced is that you end up with a shortage of the other side (ie: too many faces and not enough heels) and then you can end up with some characters not really doing much of anything and meandering from match to match. Storylines I think are the key to generating interest because just having endless random matches without a story to back them up does not generate interest. And ultimately, good storylines are derived from having conflict and every conflict and story has to have a protagonist and an antagonist otherwise it's not a conflict in my view.

So long story short, I think alignment is very important if you want to have a character that actually generates interest from your audience, which in this case is all the fed's participants.

Is this a good time to bring up that WCF is face heavy? It seems to basically be everyone versus Eric Price.

Hell, just to make the Fly-Orbit feud (two mostly faces) more interesting, I've basically made Fly a heel the past couple of weeks despite Pantheon itself being face for about a year now.

It is interesting to note that while WCF is very face heavy, the presence of three "face" stables (Pantheon, Genesis, and Rebellion), whose members make up the majority of the roster, does create rivalries that emulate the face/heel dynamic.

[Speede]

Alright, my theory on all of this is that it matters, but only to a certain extent. I mean, I'm at the point where although people portray characters in a certain light, I've gotten to the point in my mind where I'm a fan of some characters and hate other characters, just like I would in the actual wrestling world; and that's not saying anything against anyone around here, because everyone here is great, but I'll just give you a couple of examples because I've gotten to the point where the fed is so realistic that I'm a fan of some of the heels and am opposed to some of the faces, just like in the WWE...

Like how in the WWE, I'm a HUGE mark for The Shield, The Miz, and was always an Edge fan, no matter his alignment; in the same way, I never liked Evan Bourne, and in TNA, I dislike Samoa Joe.

I've gotten to that point in the game here, where I'm picturing the characters that I cheer for and boo in my mind, and there are quite a few that I boo that are 'face' wrestlers, and am a fan of a couple 'heel' wrestlers around here.

[Jeff Purse]

I think it mostly depends on the person playing the character and whether or not they want to portray themselves as 'face', 'heel', or my least favorite, 'tweener.' The lines get blurred quite often. I don't think its important for the fed to run, but for people to really get into their characters and find an identity, its important. For example, in talking with Eric Price about Eric Price, it would seem he didn't really find his characters identity until he made his heel turn. Not to point fingers, lol, but thats the ways in which I feel its important.

[Doc Henry]

Eh, I know the whole tweener thing gets overdone, but ol' Doc's a rebel and a rogue... But yeah the way the character is built is that being from the south, he gets bucked up north, but when I took him heel everyone boo'd him... I see him more as a cultural alignment than a heel/face. All in all he's a good guy, just does what he feels he needs to be it good or ill...

[Jeff Purse]

sorry, should have been more specific. I don't like the word tweener.