[quote=@Terminal]
<Snipped quote by Rilla>
Well, all of my Arenas do have rule Variants intended to reduce the impact of the environment in order for the fighters to have more of a conventional slugging match. That said, basically all of them have properties and features which, when not hazardous to the fighters, nonetheless impact the battle in a significant fashion.

So yeah, if you want your safe, boring, featureless but functional battleground - just use [url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/20746-arena-battlegrounds-2-0/ooc#post-2556365]The Fighting Fields[/url]. It has invisible and indestructible boundaries, undynamic terrain, and is completely uninteresting in any way shape or form. There is no reason to use any other arena if you think the facets of the arena itself shouldn't be important factors in a fight.

<Snipped quote by Descartes>
That said, one of the acmes of skill is not only being able to defeat the opponent - but being able to defeat them anywhere, under any circumstances, under any condition. If a character is concerned that they'd have too much to worry about in more sophisticated arenas, or that it would be too risky - perhaps they should consider a different line of work.

Life and Roleplay is All Characters, All Items On, Random Stage.
[/quote]

I don't think you have a very good grasp of what tournament play is, which I saw as an earlier problem in your lack of activity with Arena Fighting. If you look at any form of tournament in any game any 'gimmicky' map is almost always banned, Smash Tourneys for example ban all the stages with unfair terrain etc, Total War they fight on flat maps, the point is that only the skill of the fighters becomes a factor, not the Arena giving someone an advantage.

Though there is a very thin line where you can create an Arena where both characters have a fair chance to exploit something, adding an extra and useful dynamic to a fight, it can very easily become an unfair advantage which skews tournament play. Not saying you won't produce something great, but it is a potential issue and the reason why as you say, we fight on 'boring' maps.