What the heck is Arena Roleplay?

[KremeSupreme]

I have no clue what Arena Roleplay is or how it works. Can anybody clear things up?

[ArenaSnow]

I'm not in it, so I will give the most accurate description as possible while being somewhat vague and general.

It's the site pvp forum. It has its own culture, which you should probably learn if you do get interested, and is a way of "testing" your "text war" skills in a forum atmosphere. There's rankings to it as well for winning, although winning is really a matter of being fair as well as "fighting" well (as far as text goes).

(Do ignore my name. No relation. Well, distant cousins...)

[Rilla]

I'm not in it, so I will give the most accurate description as possible while being somewhat vague and general.

It's the site pvp forum. It has its own culture, which you should probably learn if you do get interested, and is a way of "testing" your "text war" skills in a forum atmosphere. There's rankings to it as well for winning, although winning is really a matter of being fair as well as "fighting" well (as far as text goes).

(Do ignore my name. No relation. Well, distant cousins...)

@ArenaSnow

Basically this.

It's a 1 on 1, handicap, or group combat roleplay between people and their characters. Name of the game is be the last man standing.

[Skallagrim]

A common misconception is that characters just fight. A majority of arena characters are well thought out with histories. We use the fighting to further the character story, make enemies and allies, and generally try to create a cohesive multiversal setting that allows for the unique characters and their races.

[Rithy]

How is it actually possible to win a purely text based RP anyway?

Sounds like the only way to win is to write so well that your opponent is like "wooow, i'm totally giving this match to you and not being an ass and stretching this out into ad infinitum" xD

I haven't played it, but based on my general RP experience, I have a hard time imagining how a fight between two equally stubborn and competitively-oriented participants could EVER be resolved :o

[NuttsnBolts]

@RithyIt's more a case of etiquette.

Lets say you go for a stab and you're parried, you're not going to be able to be in a suitable position to make a follow up move. A good writer will realise that they are in a loosing fight and won't pull a random move out of left field to overpower their opponent. After a while both you and the opponent will realise who's character is outperforming or has a few moves left to use, and by then you should be able to write a good finale.

It's much like normal RPs. You don't go into every situation and beat down the biggest guys you can with ease. You have to loose some in order to have a better story.

[Rithy]

@RithyIt's more a case of etiquette.

Lets say you go for a stab and you're parried, you're not going to be able to be in a suitable position to make a follow up move. A good writer will realise that they are in a loosing fight and won't pull a random move out of left field to overpower their opponent. After a while both you and the opponent will realise who's character is outperforming or has a few moves left to use, and by then you should be able to write a good finale.

It's much like normal RPs. You don't go into every situation and beat down the biggest guys you can with ease. You have to loose some in order to have a better story.

@NuttsnBolts

I figured as much. That's usually how it goes in normal RPs as well from my experience. Fights between characters is usually a dodgy thing, and are usually only really good if both of the writers are on the same wavelength and haven't embedded their RL egos into their avatars :P

Still though, I see some people go around with arena scores. The fact that scores are displayed openly makes me wonder if it doesn't increase the salt level!

[Rilla]

We usually do pretty well, and all the ranked matches - which is where the points come from - are appointed judges anyway. so that salt level can be pretty damn high, it doesn't make a difference.

And since, unlike HoR, the parties don't need to validate it, we avoid the common 'nah, I ain't validating nothing' issue that arose there.

Nutts is right though, it's basically all about tactics in the fight, and getting your opponent in a position where, logically, they can't escape even with the use of their powers and whatnot.

[NuttsnBolts]

Still though, I see some people go around with arena scores. The fact that scores are displayed openly makes me wonder if it doesn't increase the salt level!

@Rithy

Something to keep in mind, probably stating the obvious, is that Arena Scores aren't like Levels in a Pokemon battle. So a Lv5 Pikachu vs a Lv100 MewTwo isn't the same as two players with different scores. By that I mean that just cause someone has a high doesn't mean that they are all powerful and mighty where others can't touch them. It could just mean that they are overly active and cause they've been in 10 battles to your 1, they have a chance to have 10 times more winnings than yourself. :)

So in a years time when a newbie looks at the Arena section and sees these high scores, they shouldn't look at it in a way that is "I'm not good enough to battle them", but more, "That person has had a lot more experience in this type of roleplaying"

[Rithy]

We usually do pretty well, and all the ranked matches - which is where the points come from - are appointed judges anyway. so that salt level can be pretty damn high, it doesn't make a difference.

And since, unlike HoR, the parties don't need to validate it, we avoid the common 'nah, I ain't validating nothing' issue that arose there.

Nutts is right though, it's basically all about tactics in the fight, and getting your opponent in a position where, logically, they can't escape even with the use of their powers and whatnot.

@Rilla

For some reason, that example reminds me of Tic-Tack-Toe, and how prone that game is to potentially endless stalemates.

<Snipped quote by Rithy>

Something to keep in mind, probably stating the obvious, is that Arena Scores aren't like Levels in a Pokemon battle. So a Lv5 Pikachu vs a Lv100 MewTwo isn't the same as two players with different scores. By that I mean that just cause someone has a high doesn't mean that they are all powerful and mighty where others can't touch them. It could just mean that they are overly active and cause they've been in 10 battles to your 1, they have a chance to have 10 times more winnings than yourself. :)

So in a years time when a newbie looks at the Arena section and sees these high scores, they shouldn't look at it in a way that is "I'm not good enough to battle them", but more, "That person has had a lot more experience in this type of roleplaying"

@NuttsnBolts

I was thinking less about their power level, and more about their ego level xD