"Yoohoo. I'll make you famous!"- Billy The Kid
I always found that one line to be very fitting for that character, I mean here you have Billy The Kid, one of the most notorious outlaws the old west had ever known; the mythos of him grew with every law he broke, every man he killed; and thus when he would look into the eyes of his next would be captor, he would tell them that one line because they'd be immortalised as the latest man to fail at capturing him.
What does this have to do with this blog you might be asking yourself, my dear readers for my first ever blog post. Well for those of you who don't know what I do in my spare time, I write in a competitve creative writing game called E-feds. Basically I write stories pretending to be a pro-wrestler on the internet.
You can laugh...
But my brothers and sisters in this little hobby of mine know why we really do this; because its a fun little activity where we test our writing skills against one another and for the most part it IS fun. I can't deny that, I love writing; its always been a passion of mine right next to singing but that's a random aside. You know what's not fun though?
Getting buried in words.
Basically seeing the person you were placed up against just churning out work after work and you've not even began your first piece because real life is kicking your teeth down your throat; whether it be work or taking care of a sick relative that is getting sicker and sicker and you are the only one who is willing to take care of her. I'm sure one of you readers if you actually read this will tell me to get over it and to stop being 'butthurt' over it. Well I'm human and I'm not going to 'get over it'. What happened to being fair in this game? What happened to it being the best ONE piece wins? What happened to qaulity over qauntity? What happened to the game I played all those years ago?
Sadly this isnt the same game I started out in. Gone are the various gimmicks replaced with the same cookie cutter characters in every fed I go look at. The Baddass that fears no one aka no-sells everything their opponent would have accomplished. The 'perfect' one that has NO flaws. The ladie's man that every woman goes gaga over and no woman ever tells him 'no' and are even okay with him having multiple partners. The Weed smoker that somehow never gets busted for being high and never fails a drug test... ever.
I miss GIMMICKS, honest to god gimmicks.
I miss "The Outlaws" Gutter Rat and Leandro, the 'all or nothing' characters that instilled fear in the hearts of all that opposed them, they made you famous if you actually beat them in this game. Before Sons of Anarchy there were :"The Outlaws". Take them into a fed I'm in now though? They'd be no-sold and riddiculed because they wouldn't be 'gotten'. What's not to get about them? Seriously, its a simple yet gritty gimmick.
I miss "General Bones McCoy", another simple yet very effective gimmick and by far one of the greatest story-tellers I've ever had the pleasure of both facing and working with. He SOLD your accomplishments before putting both you and him on a pedestal so no matter who won the judging, both of you looked great. None of this 'build up to tear down' or just not build you up at all like I read now a days.
I miss "Flashman" Ashley Riot; you knew his gimmick just by the nickname; he was about being flashy in the ring and stealing the show... it worked and you want to know why? Because the man behind the character he had created was actually training to become a pro wrestler and used efeds to perfect the character he would become on the Australian indy scene. Last I heard, Mr. Riot is still living his dream and I couldn't be prouder of having watched him create the magic he did in our game.
There are many gimmicks and characters over the years I could name that I miss, but then we'd be here all night, and some I've not named because I still get to enjoy their work and read them as they are still playing it. But there are other things that make me go 'this aint the game I started with.'
It started with the birth of the off-camera... oh God how I hated that when it first showed its face in this game; because before then, it was all about who could do the best promo... but the off-camera, that was uncharted ground; a way to play the game that not many of us old guard ever saw coming and it has forever changed it. In a good way? Yes I'd say so... but the old me hated it. Because it was material that could not be used as it wasn't 'seen' by my character.
Then after the off-camera came the length of the pieces of writing we would produce. It was no longer just about doing say a thousand words and hit post... NO, it had to be nearer to three thousand or more if you wanted to stand a chance.
Goodbye qaulity over qauntity.
We had to adapt to the ever changing rules and I watched as my brothers and sisters from the past fall by the wayside because they just couldn't keep up. "The Minister", the guy who helped me out when I first started this game... he's gone, he couldn't adapt. Yet I'm still here...still fighting the ever changing landscape in the game.
"Best Piece Wins" is basically dead, don't fool yourselves. Sure there are a few feds out there that still follow that rule, but they are a dying breed... now its three piece maxx, hell I saw one where it was five maxx! How can someone compete against someone who can churn out five pieces of writing?! There is no level playing field anymore... its adapt or get the fuck out of the way. Fight and lose or just give up; like right now I'm staring at an empty doc for another piece of writing and I can't help but think 'what's the point?'
It never used to be like this... and I miss that. So my question I find that I ask myself alot lately is...
Am I too Old for this?
A part of me says yes... but then there is the competitor in me that says 'hell no...' I'm going to leave you with a qoute that my dad, who doesn't know I exist by the way said to his doubters when he left to persue his career choice of an actor...
"You suffer for your art."
Think about that, dear readers.. and have a good night or morning.
-Jer
