[quote=@Crimson Raven]Edit: To address your statement, too often the battle dissolves into a dick measuring contest, where one (usually the loser) does something incredible, then the other one ups them, then, because neither wants to lose, and there really is no limit to what you can do in writing, the battle becomes more and more ridiculous. 

This is just one way a battle can go, another, would be one does something the other sees as unfair, they argue, and one gets so frustrated they either quit or stall.

Predetermining the winner is by no means a perfect solution, but it is one solution.[/quote]
Ah, yeah I have seen this happen before as well. Often some easy measures of certain skills (in bleach: Hoho, Hakuda(hand to hand combat) Zanpakuto(ability to wield it, rather than its abilities), reiatsu/reiryoku, and Kido tend to help with that a lot.

Having a measuring stick that's the same for everyone helps figure out who is good at what and assist in making sure that someone who has better swordsmanship than someone else wins in a sword clash (barring special circumstances and tactics) helps. That way you can objectively go “Oh, your character is faster than mine, alright, so I won't be blitzing them or vanishing from sight unless it's an ability or I trick them with clever footwork and obstacles.” Etc etc etc. So on and so forth.

[quote=@Raineh Daze]I've always gotten more bored having to take fights seriously, especially as half the time it turns into someone churning out a wall of text trying to cover the next several moves in a fight that reads something like:

Do X
If X Succeeds, Do Y
If Y Succeeds, Do Z else Do A
Else Do Z a different way OR A

With so many conditions that it's never clear what the hell is going on and replying posts have to navigate a damn flowchart and [i]then[/i] end up looking the same... whilst being an unreadable rat's nest that has gone from past tense to various forms of future. 

If you know who's going to win, then you can focus on making it... well, readable. And have both players working towards the same outcome rather than two different victories. It's not hard to work together.[/quote]
Yeah, this often happens when someone--foolishly--tries to do one hundred things in the same post OR, conversely, tries to cover any possible action with a beneficial reaction (one that benefits them to be specific). It's not a good move and it is often far more intelligent (and saves time) to keep your responses relatively simple, or at least without too many "what ifs."

Not only is having too many clunky and breaks immersion, but there is no possible way to cover all possible actions of your opponent, there just isn't. I know this from experience, also because people try to do that to me all the time and every single time they do it, it fails and blows up in their faces (because I like attacking from oblique angles, so to speak. If you give me two options, I'm more likely to [i]make[/i] a third, fourth, and fifth option and take one of those instead).