A Whole New World

Just call Dean and I Lewis and Clark.

And I guess that would make Ryan our Sacajawea.

I've been talking to a lot of people from around this hobby for the last several months about what they want to get out of this game. We're in a transitional period, without a doubt. PTC is still alive and well but in a different form, and there's a void left in the game. There isn't a whole lot of new blood flowing in, and though the remaining feds are still doing very well, on some level the game has stagnated.

So we want to blaze a new trail, create a whole new world. What follows is a list of plans for the future of this community. A lot of these are my ideas, many were thought up by Ryan, Dean and others. So while it may appear that I'm trying to take credit for all this, bear in mind that's I've prefaced it all by giving credit where credit is due.

I am not posting this is, so much, in hopes of garnering support just yet (though I do hope this gets people excited). Really, the main purpose is to start a wider dialogue and find out what people want to see out of such a project, so that when we finally get this thing rolling we can meet everyone's expectations. This is a rather bold and ambitious plan, but this game needs something bold and ambitious.

THE WEBSITE
-Obviously, something that was missing from PTC for quite some time was a website. Sure, PTC had a website, but it sat unused for a very long time, and most of us never bothered to stop by. But rather than just aiming to build a website, one first has to understand why the previous one failed, and what needs to be done to ensure the new one is worth visiting.

Basically, the site lacked features. Structurally our game has advanced with our growing knowledge of how to make full use of the power of the internet, but the old PTC website didn't tout any of those features. If you wanted to post your fed's news you had to manually drop in and make a new post, which, simple as it sounds, wasn't worth the effort. Any information you could get on that website was more easily found on the forums. Overall, the website simply didn't offer anything new.

What we want to do is create a central hub where content from FUSE, GCW and PRIME will be readily available. The goal for this blog, and this project as a whole, is to spawn a greater sense of community between those three feds, and create a new world where those three are in direct competition. But to create such an environment, it becomes important to give members of the community a place where they can readily view and absorb a wealth of information about all three feds with a minimum of effort.

Want to know what's going on in PRIME right now? Tough to do unless you dive in and read an entire show, something that isn't necessarily appealing to the casual eye. Heard about that Jay Terror guy in GCW but can't really find anything about him? Tough to track it down unless you're familiar with how GCW works. What the new website for the three feds would allow for is the merging of all that information in one streamlined website, so that if you wanted to know what's going on in PRIME, all you'd have to do is go to that site and it would be right there in front of you.

Now, obviously, this is all fairly vague and not necessarily revolutionary. But with the powerful new scripts we have running behind the scenes of our feds (except FUSE, which is in the dark ages!), we can eliminate a lot of the effort needed to maintain and operate such a site. What Ross's orgasm-inspiring backstage script allows one to do on the fed level is eliminate the time it takes to perform menial tasks like assembling shows, editing rosters and other such jobs, freeing up that time to simply create content. Now it's time to take that same principle to the interfed level.

By taking full advantage of that script and others we can and will develop, we can integrate information from all three feds with a minimum of effort. Post a news story on GCW, and it'll automatically be posted at the interfed site. Post a column at PRIME and it'll appear on the interfed. Knowing this, it is our hope that people will be inspired to write for a larger audience and help explain the goings-on of their fed when posting news, because they will know their post will be seen by a much wider part of the community.

Also, by integrating our individual fed-level backstage capabilities into this website, a member will have ready access to submit content to the interfed site. By eliminating the extra steps it takes to contribute, people will find it much easier to keep the site flowing with content.

Obviously, any website of this sort will rely on user participation to thrive. But our plans go beyond merely posting news and columns.

To get that participation, a website must inspire the traffic needed. That's where the innovative new features are coming along. Obviously these plans are far from final (and if you want to make a suggestion, this is the place to do it!), but some of the things we're coming up with are pretty exciting.

My own personal vision for this new interfed website relates to what you might find at ESPN.com. Pete recently wrote a good blog about how wrestler rankings don't work, because there's simply no objective, universal formula for fairly calculating such a thing. But people love rankings and stats, so what to do? Well, alter your approach. This website would feature no "official" rankings, no "official" standings, no "official" show ratings. They will be presented for what they are: the sole opinion of the person providing them. ESPN.com does NFL Power Rankings every week, and they're very popular (it's the highlight of my Tuesday afternoons). But just because they rate the Cowboys above the Packers doesn't necessarily make them the better team (even though they are). It's simply the opinion of the so-called "experts" who make the things up. They're fun, but in the end they're meaningless.

So the new interfed site will present to you, the visitor, a wealth of opinion. In all likelihood I would, at that point, abandon this blog and instead contribute regular columns to an interfed site. And there's no doubt I'll have a GCW bias, and I won't apologize for it. Sure, I'm likely to rank Lia Ambrosi above Jason Snow. But my opinion won't be the official interfed rankings, it'll merely be my opinion.

Now, while opinion in and of itself might not sound all that great, it's actually what everyone is looking for. In other words, it's feedback. A big reason I think PTC events are so popular is because people love being judged and having their work reviewed, something you don't often get from your home fed. Well, this new interfed site would not only boast a wealth of opinion and feedback, but we propose to offer more direct and simple ways of getting feedback on your work.

The interfed site would feature the writing and the storylines of each fed. Ideally, in addition to consolidating the news and columns of each fed, the roleplays would be featured as well. If a PRIME member roleplays, it'll appear on the interfed site, but it will do so in a new form.

A roleplay appearing on the interfed site will also present a number of new features; the option to leave a comment, and the option to rate the roleplay on a ten-star basis. This is a very quick and easy way to leave a person feedback; when the new Wade Elliot roleplay gets posted at PRIME, you'll be able to see it at the one-stop interfed site. Then you can quickly look it over and, if you think it was good but not great, drop him a rating of seven stars. This presents a unique opportunity to get feedback not only from the members of your own fed, but from the members of the entire community. Roleplaying for all three feds suddenly becomes less a thankless task, as every post becomes a chance to find out that people are, in fact, reading your work. Even if the feedback isn't altogether positive, it confirms that people saw it, and in the end isn't that worth it?

Ryan also has some unique ideas for rating shows in a similar manner. While I'm against ever trying to produce a head to head ratings score to rank the feds, the ability to read each fed's shows and provide similar feedback presents a great opportunity to, once again, find out that your hard work has an audience.

Clearly these ideas are still in the early speculation stage, and development has not yet begun. There is still much to accomplish. But I hope this gives everyone a little preview into what is being contemplated right now. Exciting new things are on the horizon, so please continue to return to this blog. Pete's PTC Blog will be your place for PTC news, but there is a new entity being conceived, and this will be the place to learn about it.