[OOC] Arena Chat Thread

[Guru]

Melonhead will ALWAYS be an argumentative little twatwaffle.

[Rilla]

How long until you disappear again?

[Guru]

How long until you disappear again?

@Rilla

I don't know. Give me a reason to stay.

[Rilla]

We both know I wont.

[MelonHead]

Arena probably has a bad reputation, but ultimately, a lot of the shit talk, the banter, the ego, that's literally what you get in really competitive atmospheres and that's a large part of what the Arena is at its most fundamental. It's opposing sides fighting with words, like debate, to win a contest. We could probably butter it up, ease people in, but in the end they will have to face all of the negative sides of competition at some point or another. The people that come out the other side fired up, ready for the next one, they stick around. Some people aren't cut out for it, they roleplay for collaborative story telling in a safe atmosphere, not an antagonistic contest of wits and argument. That's fine too.

[Guru]

We both know I wont.

@Rilla

But you could...

[mickilennial]

The people that come out the other side fired up, ready for the next one, they stick around. Some people aren't cut out for it, they roleplay for collaborative story telling in a safe atmosphere, not an antagonistic contest of wits and argument. That's fine too.

@MelonHead

Honestly, even when I was on other website’s variations of Arena subforums I never described it as “antagonistic”, it was still collaborative and friendly despite being a contest of actions-versus-actions. So, I guess I find this point-of-view obtuse per my perspective. I think largely this is another problem with Arena and its issue with being inclusive and inviting. Just throwing it out there you can be friendly and collaborative and still competitive.

[Rilla]

We are friendly. Ans collaborative. And competitive.

[mickilennial]

not sure if trolling or melon is outlier

[Rilla]

When it's serious, I don't troll. The only time we get really unfriendly is when someone comes in and tries to bosshog the arena into their way of thinking. Otherwise, we are quite capable, and often do, hold friendly conversations and competitions. All it takes is spending time in here and seeing how the community operates on a regular basis.

[mickilennial]

If I do give Arena a shot, I imagine I will be quite rusty as it has been many moons. Not sure where I'd begin. Maybe I'll hit up @Fallenreaper or @Altered Tundra about some one-on-one scuffle play. I do know Fallen loves to play.

the kinkster

[MelonHead]

not sure if trolling or melon is outlier

@Inkarnate

I'm an outlier in the sense that I'm generally more competitive than the majority of players, which is why I tend to beat them. Going easy on someone would feel like doing them an injustice, at least to me. However, my comments about the nature of competition are something I still stand by. You only have to look at boxing, and past the showboating, to see that there is a genuine level of antagonism between people beating each other up. The same mindset, I believe, can carry over into beating people up with words and debate. Not to say it always happens, but when two people of a similar competitive mindset clash, it is quite common.

The trick to enjoying the arena if you're not looking for that sort of high intensity debate and competition is to simply seek out like-minded individuals, and to avoid all forms of tournament.

[mickilennial]

One of my first roleplays I ever engaged in was an interdimensional tournament, so I am not afraid of them conceptually. With that said, just because I view things differently does not mean I won’t be a tenacious and argumentative writer when it comes to my actions and argumentation.

[ImportantNobody]

it fuels us, makes us strongaaaah

@MelonHead

Funny enough my other joke would be to include memes such as palpatine saying "dew it!" Before every execution of an opponent.

On a serious note for getting newbies, maybe a tournament without very strict rules? We tell them the rules so they know in the future but the battles themselves can be more rule of cool as long as they dont ruin the fun of the competitor.

[MelonHead]

There have been talks of a noob tournament before, might not be a terrible idea.

[Rilla]

In sometimes hold a fairly popular lower end type tournament.

[ImportantNobody]

Perhaps even a little more story, like halfway between arena and normal roleplays. Characters can chill out with each other between fights (which is definitely something we've discussed on the past but throwing it out there again). Even though the winner IC is the character who actually wins the fight, we could have shout outs to people who play characters really well, have great sportsmanship etc. not using rule of cool to smash opponents, but instead to have clever and interesting fights.

[mickilennial]

Perhaps even a little more story, like halfway between arena and normal roleplays. Characters can chill out with each other between fights (which is definitely something we've discussed on the past but throwing it out there again). Even though the winner IC is the character who actually wins the fight, we could have shout outs to people who play characters really well, have great sportsmanship etc. not using rule of cool to smash opponents, but instead to have clever and interesting fights.

@ImportantNobody

Honestly I am surprised you guys don't design tournaments this way in the first place. It seems way more engaging. @Mr Allen J's World Warriors is basically a hybrid of Arena and Advanced concepts, so I've always wondered why I didn't see similar ideas done on the other end of the spectrum.

[Cyndyr]

There have been talks of a noob tournament before, might not be a terrible idea.

@MelonHead

Just another outsider who is reading all of your comments towards our discussion thread and I just wanted to say that I think this would be a fantastic idea. I know quite a few people who would likely be interested in learning the Arena-based Roleplaying style and would probably benefit from having such an area to begin and receive feedback. It seems like an excellent way to welcome new users into the Arena subforum.

[MelonHead]

Honestly I am surprised you guys don't design tournaments this way in the first place.

@Inkarnate

We do, or at least, some of us do. Rilla's WoTW has numerous background machinations going on throughout the fights and the lobby interactions were very meaningful when I played. My character stopped a girl from hanging herself in the lobby in the first one I joined, there were poisonings and betrayals throughout. Skallagrim's Nexus of Worlds always had a strong story arc running through it as well, the last one was essentially a tournament as a cover for the possession of a key that basically decided if the Nexus (multiverse) crumbled or hung on in there. Luckily my character, who won, had a personal vendetta of sorts against the evil, and when he got the key he sealed him up tight.

I much prefer tournaments that really play up the 'lobby' angle at the very least, they give me something to work with, as my characters are rarely prize fighters it's hard to explain their presence in a tournament. In the two seasons of the GCL I participated in, my first character was coerced by people who kidnapped his sister, who he later rescued, and my second character was doing it to get close to another competitor away from his bodyguards, who he subsequently kidnapped.

Generally, the tournaments that don't push forward a story angle tend to be the forgettable ones, at least in my experience.