Post by Thr33XWA on Oct 7, 2007 22:37:25 GMT -5
Now I will try to lay out as best as I can the basic premise of being a good, solid heel in terms of here in XWA. Most of this is taken from an article I found on Roughkut.com by a guy named Dustin, I'm just wording it so that it applies to this fed.
As you all know by now, "heel" is the term for a bad guy in wrestling. Being a heel in wrestling in e-feds is a fine art to master as it is a lesson in humility, creativity and flexibility. You have to really work at being bad in a way that people will perceive you as "not good", but not in a way that people perceive you as "not good to work with".
In my experiences in e-feds, both simmed and text based I've worked with a lot of different guys who were all different in their approaches in being heels as I save for this year have handled predominantly faces or tweeners. From that experience as well as my own I can tell you the good and the bad, the right and the wrong and the smart and the dumb of playing the baddie in e-feds.
What's your reason?
There's a question that few can really answer. There's a point that comes where one either chooses to or is asked to become a heel in wrestling. Most of the time here it's a personal choice, but what is the motivation for that choice is the real question to be asked here. There has to be some kind of reason to choose to be bad...just like in real life there is a reason WHY a person acts a certain way. Nobody does it just because they feel like it.
Commonly used reasons (and why they're good, bad or OK):
-Angst towards the management. Maybe you feel overlooked by others and are fed up with it? If the higher-ups are generally good people this will instantly make you into a person who is unliked in the locker room. You need to have a valid argument to go with this one though or else you look like a whining little chump. ALSO, if you ever go against the Powers That Be, expect a rocky road ahead no matter what side of the tracks they ride.
-Insanity. Rarely done and with good reason. Very few can pull it off effectively.
-Showing the world you're one badass mofo. For the love of Pete, DON'T DO THIS. It's overused, it's bland and it's boring.
-Supremer mentality. This is basically believing that you are better in some way (or in all ways) than the competition, the management, the fans, the whole frickin' world. It doesn't have to be the world, but not liking a certain person is the easiest way to establish yourself as a heel, preferably if that person is a face.
Those are just a few examples there, but whatever reason you have to being a heel it had better be a good one. Also, it's important to make sure that you have an "out" should you decide you want to go face (or go face again). People don't like unexplained transitions.
Heel Tactics (Good and Bad)
The easy and obvious way to build heat as a heel is to draw ill will from all who oppose you. The easy way to do that is to be as insulting as possible and make the people despise you. That's where a LOT of people stop and think that they are good heel (oxymoron?). There are deeper techniques to being effective here. You need to be quick witted; not an essential element, but it helps a lot. You MUST be willing to put over your "target" face. If you get beat by a face and come back for more out of revenge for example, the fans will hate you more out of annoyance. If you just play it off like a fluke (or worse, "I let you win") they'll just hate you-not a good thing. See below:
-taken from Roughkut.com
Keeping In Touch
As a heel, you need to work closely with the people that you are working with (or rather against), so as to know that you are not ruffling any feathers with what you say. A simple "disclaimer" isn't enough here. You should be in contact via PM or IM with the person to brainstorm ideas or at least give a heads up on your next move or words so that the person you're working with know what's coming without knowing what's coming. We want to keep each other on our toes, but at the same time you don't want to step on any as it is possible to do dealing with different people. Planning is everything-real wrestling is scripted, so to should be your promos against others so that it has a natural flow.
As heels, that outside interaction goes one better in that while speaking with said face member you can shoot off ideas for physical scuffles or other general things in addition to the ubiquitous trash talking. This will in turn build you more heat as a heel as well as for your opponent as a face.
Victory & Defeat
This is a very delicate topic here because again of the random variable of this being a sim-league. That said, yes folks the bad guys can win...a lot. That should in no way affect the "ego" of said heel because he/she has won a lot of matches. RP governs all that happens here, so if I personally see a heel who is playing off of the fact that they have a 3 month streak ALONE, they're not going to see much for their CAW's efforts. It's what the handler does that will make or break their success.
You've seen situations in the SVR games that even after you win the match your character is still put in an otherwise unsatisfactory condition. The same should apply here in the case of feuds and such. Barring some form of agreement that the heel loses the match for story purposes (see Keep In Touch), you should gloat your wins but not in a "you're pathetic" way of speaking. You're goal is to piss off the CHARACTER and not the handler.
Conversely as I stated before in the event that you lose, you should not just blow it off like it was some fluke, that makes you lose face as a heel (oxymoron2?) and look just like some arrogant prick-and it won't net you too many more matches here in XWA either. Every win and loss is meaningful in some way or form and as a heel you have to play it up as such with a little bit of tact and a whole lot of humility no matter which way it goes.
Take note of the two statements in bold above. In order to achieve the first statement you have work at doing the second statement effectively, and THAT my friends is the key to truly being good at being bad.
As you all know by now, "heel" is the term for a bad guy in wrestling. Being a heel in wrestling in e-feds is a fine art to master as it is a lesson in humility, creativity and flexibility. You have to really work at being bad in a way that people will perceive you as "not good", but not in a way that people perceive you as "not good to work with".
In my experiences in e-feds, both simmed and text based I've worked with a lot of different guys who were all different in their approaches in being heels as I save for this year have handled predominantly faces or tweeners. From that experience as well as my own I can tell you the good and the bad, the right and the wrong and the smart and the dumb of playing the baddie in e-feds.
What's your reason?
There's a question that few can really answer. There's a point that comes where one either chooses to or is asked to become a heel in wrestling. Most of the time here it's a personal choice, but what is the motivation for that choice is the real question to be asked here. There has to be some kind of reason to choose to be bad...just like in real life there is a reason WHY a person acts a certain way. Nobody does it just because they feel like it.
Commonly used reasons (and why they're good, bad or OK):
-Angst towards the management. Maybe you feel overlooked by others and are fed up with it? If the higher-ups are generally good people this will instantly make you into a person who is unliked in the locker room. You need to have a valid argument to go with this one though or else you look like a whining little chump. ALSO, if you ever go against the Powers That Be, expect a rocky road ahead no matter what side of the tracks they ride.
-Insanity. Rarely done and with good reason. Very few can pull it off effectively.
-Showing the world you're one badass mofo. For the love of Pete, DON'T DO THIS. It's overused, it's bland and it's boring.
-Supremer mentality. This is basically believing that you are better in some way (or in all ways) than the competition, the management, the fans, the whole frickin' world. It doesn't have to be the world, but not liking a certain person is the easiest way to establish yourself as a heel, preferably if that person is a face.
Those are just a few examples there, but whatever reason you have to being a heel it had better be a good one. Also, it's important to make sure that you have an "out" should you decide you want to go face (or go face again). People don't like unexplained transitions.
Heel Tactics (Good and Bad)
The easy and obvious way to build heat as a heel is to draw ill will from all who oppose you. The easy way to do that is to be as insulting as possible and make the people despise you. That's where a LOT of people stop and think that they are good heel (oxymoron?). There are deeper techniques to being effective here. You need to be quick witted; not an essential element, but it helps a lot. You MUST be willing to put over your "target" face. If you get beat by a face and come back for more out of revenge for example, the fans will hate you more out of annoyance. If you just play it off like a fluke (or worse, "I let you win") they'll just hate you-not a good thing. See below:
"Now, you may be wondering why someone should be willing to put over their opponent. Heels without faces are useless. Faces are hard to build and they need help. If you aren’t willing to help, you’re just a dick, not a heel. As much as you think it isn’t, wrestling is a team effort."
-taken from Roughkut.com
Keeping In Touch
As a heel, you need to work closely with the people that you are working with (or rather against), so as to know that you are not ruffling any feathers with what you say. A simple "disclaimer" isn't enough here. You should be in contact via PM or IM with the person to brainstorm ideas or at least give a heads up on your next move or words so that the person you're working with know what's coming without knowing what's coming. We want to keep each other on our toes, but at the same time you don't want to step on any as it is possible to do dealing with different people. Planning is everything-real wrestling is scripted, so to should be your promos against others so that it has a natural flow.
As heels, that outside interaction goes one better in that while speaking with said face member you can shoot off ideas for physical scuffles or other general things in addition to the ubiquitous trash talking. This will in turn build you more heat as a heel as well as for your opponent as a face.
Victory & Defeat
This is a very delicate topic here because again of the random variable of this being a sim-league. That said, yes folks the bad guys can win...a lot. That should in no way affect the "ego" of said heel because he/she has won a lot of matches. RP governs all that happens here, so if I personally see a heel who is playing off of the fact that they have a 3 month streak ALONE, they're not going to see much for their CAW's efforts. It's what the handler does that will make or break their success.
You've seen situations in the SVR games that even after you win the match your character is still put in an otherwise unsatisfactory condition. The same should apply here in the case of feuds and such. Barring some form of agreement that the heel loses the match for story purposes (see Keep In Touch), you should gloat your wins but not in a "you're pathetic" way of speaking. You're goal is to piss off the CHARACTER and not the handler.
Conversely as I stated before in the event that you lose, you should not just blow it off like it was some fluke, that makes you lose face as a heel (oxymoron2?) and look just like some arrogant prick-and it won't net you too many more matches here in XWA either. Every win and loss is meaningful in some way or form and as a heel you have to play it up as such with a little bit of tact and a whole lot of humility no matter which way it goes.
Take note of the two statements in bold above. In order to achieve the first statement you have work at doing the second statement effectively, and THAT my friends is the key to truly being good at being bad.
