E-Feds

[Fake Jesus]

FAWA has died, and WWE:FAN, now Wrestling Universe, is far from peak activity. What happened to E-Feds on this forum? These two used to be incredibly active. If you take the leftovers from FAWA and WU, you'd have a decent sized fed, but that's not really the argument of this.

I think that the current nadir of E-Fedding on this site is the result of two separate, yet interconnected causes:

1) The failure to innovate

2) The failure to create a membership turnover

Some would point to the lack of time of current members as a cause, but this simply would not be a factor if membership was turning over. In 2012 there were roughly 4 people remaining in WWE:FAN that had been there at the start, in 2008 (Four years). However between 2012 and 2015, a three year period, the members remained roughly the same. From my own joining date in October of 2012, I recall exactly two members of consequence joining, and one of those was in December of that year. The Wrestling Universe reboot attracted a few new members, and some returning members, but only one new member stuck around. This represents a fundamental failure to attract new users, through internal drama, too much history, or whatever.

As I understand it the FAWA federation attracted more new members over this period than we did, however the makeup of FAWA in 2015 remained roughly the same was it was the first day I checked it, in 2013.

I'm not sure as to why this is the case, but I think it has to do with the large histories of the feds, and the failure to innovate.

The games in 2015 were, more or less, the same games as had existed for the past seven years - you can't expect a 2008 format to work in 2015. It's like your new alienware PC coming supplied with Windows Vista, you just don't want it.

I think, perhaps, the solution is to combine the two old E-Fed communities, and create some kind of E-Fed superstructure. It would need to be less involved. I don't think that the current WU structure is ideal for this - let's face it, people like storylines and such. Perhaps the solution is to look towards, (and I'm aware I sound like squaredcircle mod or something) NXT. NXT has a few big specials throughout the year, and multiple weekly shows through that. Perhaps this perspective new fed could allow both RL stars and created people, and smaller, more tight shows. You'd only be allowed one wrestler, or something, and like NXT, you might only get booked once every few weeks. It's a way to keep some kind of show structure with a reduced workload, just brainstorming.

Anyway, agree? disagree? Have at it, please.

[2coldMack is even more baffled]

I don't know what the solution is, but if you find it, let me know, I've been dying to join an E-Fed.

[MrBRulzOK]

For me the culprit was simply burnout. I haven't been able to muster enough creativity to do anything promo-wise. I'm the kinda guy who is either going all in or not doing anything at all. There's no middle ground for me.

That may be the same case for alot of people. And of course certain drama that will go unnamed also didn't help matters.

[TOO SWEET]

I think you're going to run into the same issue that always faces e-feds then: the time committment of GMs/hosts.

Honestly, I think the current WU method (which literally has just begun) might be able to alleviate some of that so I wouldn't write it off as quickly as it seems you are.

Besides: This isn't just a FAN issue, e-feds in general are a dying game. They're fun for what they are but let's not act like this is some life changing thing we're doing. It's just a game, like Survivor, FAN Idol, pick 'ems, video game sims, etc. Rather than fretting and trying to reinvent the wheel 500 times to try to make them the best thing ever... just enjoy it, entertain yourself, and move on when you're bored.

EDIT: Also, e-fedding is kind of lame. There's no shame in enjoying it, obviously I have and do given my history with them, but you also need to recognize that this sort of thing just isn't going to appeal to most people.

[Some Baritone guy IS REDEEMED!]

Maybe when I'm graduated I'll have time to start one, but right now it's a no go.

[armbar]

Yeah, I was in there from start to what seems like the finish. I do think it was people burning out without anyone coming in that killed them. People have to understand that it's only a game and not spend hours upon hours on making a great promo, when a shorter, simpler one would do the same job.

It's like difference between a Jake "the Snake" Roberts promo and a modern Authority one. And when you are writing multiple extremely long speeches a week you are more likely to get writers block, which makes you stressed which makes you quit the fed.

I think I spent around 10 minutes writing those Bo Dallas promos during the autumn. The Charlie Haas promos in the end of his run were written in half an hour or so. I wrote them and they were good because I had a ton of fun writing them. And that's what the games are supposed to be, fun.

[Triple H buried SnS]

The promo when you want thing is a good concept, it really is. And I eventually adopted it in order to stop the self imposed stress I was putting on myself.

The biggest thing is that people(at least for me) was that I wanted to "succeed" in an e-fed. And how do you succeed? By outperforming(read:outpromoing) your competition. Its the foundation of any e-fed. And with the flow of challengers ranging to the semi-active to full out promoing ever week type, you always feel like you have to participate every week/show in order to get/stay ahead, cause even though you may be against someone that isn't very active this week, you might be matched up with the other type the next week, and don't want to feel like you might be at a disadvantage against them by not promoing all the time.

On top of that, for me, I never wanted to write a generic promo. And while I had a ton of ideas when I started, writing every week(sometimes for multiple characters) you begin to burn through those ideas pretty quickly. And when those are gone, you begin to struggle with "what to do now".

Once I got out of the "I must succeed/win/get titles", and started trying to tell stories on my own pace, and not really caring about the matchups(I still won a lot btw), it worked out a lot better for me.

[suave]

To me, the biggest thing was the atmosphere around it. I started in late 2012 (I think I was the one the OP mentioned) and it was like an subculture. Guys were regularly talking shit in the thread, Twitter roleplaying, making jokes about random bullshit. It really was a unique environment of people, and the reactions to each promo were fun. I enjoyed hearing what others thought of my work. And there were actual thriving divisions too. I wrote for mostly midcarders, and every week/match was important, because you wanted to look good for the gms so you'd get into the title matches. Every match got a decent amount of votes, every person had to come through with promos or they'd get no title shots. And then there were those Cards/BGO games everyone played. It was easy to take for granted back in the day, but looking back WWEFAN had so much going for it. IMO the M/Mac drama took the wind out of a lot of people's sails (including mine) and led to mass burnout on the fed. I'll never forget that late 2012-late 2013 period though. We were on f***ing fire and I miss that.

[Fake Jesus]

Jan 5, 2016 2:36:24 GMT -5 suave said:

To me, the biggest thing was the atmosphere around it. I started in late 2012 (I think I was the one the OP mentioned) and it was like an subculture. Guys were regularly talking shit in the thread, Twitter roleplaying, making jokes about random bullshit. It really was a unique environment of people, and the reactions to each promo were fun. I enjoyed hearing what others thought of my work. And there were actual thriving divisions too. I wrote for mostly midcarders, and every week/match was important, because you wanted to look good for the gms so you'd get into the title matches. Every match got a decent amount of votes, every person had to come through with promos or they'd get no title shots. And then there were those Cards/BGO games everyone played. It was easy to take for granted back in the day, but looking back WWEFAN had so much going for it. IMO the M/Mac drama took the wind out of a lot of people's sails (including mine) and led to mass burnout on the fed. I'll never forget that late 2012-late 2013 period though. We were on f***ing fire and I miss that.

I'd extend that, honestly. We didn't really have a single bad show between when I joined, and our Mania 30. But, yeah,  a singular sad neckbeard essentially caused the burnout of the majority of the people in the e-fed, and discouraged new members.