Welcome Wagon Tourney - An Invitational that's half newcomers, half vets. Pair them up to fight, getting them acclimated with the site and welcomed directly into the community.
THIS 1000% I know I'm not one to talk since I haven't yet finished my own first character/intro (life got in the way but I'm back to working on it I swear!) but I love this idea and I think I can speak a little bit to what draws people to void (not necessarily stay since idk about that.) I think what is both really appealing about void and
completely terrifying about it is the depth of the history and community. What makes it unique from an OCT is that you can come back and fight the same artist you fought before, and also the living history of void city as shaped by the artists that came before you. I remember seeing Angela's plot (not that it's typical) and dreaming, DREAMING of facing off against her and helping her build her story. Or imagining what the plot of my comic would be when I faced off against my favorite voiders
(and how much it would pwn them!!!1! thanks high school self) That's the attraction of void (at least for lurkers familiar with it), but it's also a giant hurdle. People
want to battle their favorite veterans and to build that shared story, but it can be a little hard to actually penetrate into the "core" of void that people want to participate in. It's scary to approach veterans, and it's also hard for veterans to build serious plots off of completely new characters that have no shared history and no comics to explain their personality and history. What I've seen is that mostly, newbies end up challenging other newbies, or people join with friends, challenge each other, and then don't know where to go from there with strangers. Maybe they start character relations with another person, but that person leaves and leaves their plot hanging and they can't bring themselves to tie it up awkwardly without completion...
I think this idea does what a lot of others don't, which is giving unstable newcomers still finding their feet a chance to interact with the stable core of void. Maybe they find that one cool plot point with a veteran they want to explore, and since the veteran isn't as likely to leave as another newbie, the new plot isn't as likely to fizzle and die. It'll also just help people TALK to veterans, and get involved with the actual people of void not just the characters and plot
If you have friends here you like just chatting with, that's probably the best reason to say, all plots and characters aside!
But I see one big problem with how it's proposed right now. The big problem is... well, newbies are
newbies and veterans are veterans! The veterans have a huge leg-up on the new people, and are way more likely to win as they're experienced with making deadlines, and already have proven themselves in dedication and skill. How many times do new people default on their first battle? A lot more than their second or third battle that's for sure. What happens when after round two, only a couple newbies have survived the gauntlet of veterans and it ends up being 4 veteran vs veteran rounds and only two newbie vs veteran? Maybe it'd be better set up as a tag team tournament, where it's a veteran and newbie teamed up against another veteran and newbie? That way each "loser" would actually be keeping the ratio even, and if you wanted you could shuffle the teams up each time. The only thing is that collabing might not be everyone's cup of tea, and it's sort of an added complication. I guess it's possible even though they're in a "team" to make their own individual comics, but that seems a little forced. Also veterans may end up shouldering most of the work.... Maybe the very last match would be a final exhibition where the winning team faces off against itself, or maybe the last match could be a free-for all 1v1v1v1 instead of teams, just so the newbies get to spread their wings on their own a little bit. The team-up would be better for building that artist-to-artist bond though, as they'd be forced to communicate in order to collaborate. As long as no one ends up despising the person they're paired with haha.
I've done a lot of rambling for someone with zero on-site-comics. Sorry U'''B
einsam
Colbitzer
@ 3:32 PM Apr 17th