500 Words or no?
Let me first start by saying this; I'm not outright considering changing our 500 word promo limit.
I really like what we do here and how we do it. I think the promos are easy for people to write in terms of length but challenging in terms of quality. I think people are free and open to take on various different styles during those promos and that they've worked from day one to now.
However, I do want to check the temperature of the room and see what others think. Are you happy with 500 words? Do you wish it was more?
Feel free to do the poll and reply to the post with your thoughts.
It is niche? Probably. Would I change it? Not really. I've not been here as long as most, maybe just a couple of years now, but the way OSW promos is unique and not difficult to understand. 500 words is perfect for people who have busy lives, or don't want to sit here talking about how their character had sex with their wife. Could exploration of the characters be fun in a promo setting? Sure. Isn't that what development promos are for? What does a characters backstory or life have to do with the match? Would you wanna see Doom with his mask off, debating the inner workings of the gym? Nah. Longer promos don't succeed in doing anything but giving a bored writer a lot more wordcount to write turgid shit. That's just my view on it.
I'm not even sure I have any thoughts. OSW is 500 words. Its worked this long, I don't think a change would benefit anyone.
Quote from DOOM on 20 March 2024, 15:59It is niche? Probably. Would I change it? Not really. I've not been here as long as most, maybe just a couple of years now, but the way OSW promos is unique and not difficult to understand. 500 words is perfect for people who have busy lives, or don't want to sit here talking about how their character had sex with their wife. Could exploration of the characters be fun in a promo setting? Sure. Isn't that what development promos are for? What does a characters backstory or life have to do with the match? Would you wanna see Doom with his mask off, debating the inner workings of the gym? Nah. Longer promos don't succeed in doing anything but giving a bored writer a lot more wordcount to write turgid shit. That's just my view on it.
Don't mince your words then frank! Lmao
Quote from Gemini on 20 March 2024, 16:07I'm not even sure I have any thoughts. OSW is 500 words. Its worked this long, I don't think a change would benefit anyone.
Don't worry, there's no change coming. I don't have the time or energy to read promos of thousands of words without being bored to death. I have way too much to do lol. I'm just taking people's temperature to ensure things are as you lot want them to be in terms of word counts.
500 words is the melting pot, baby.
Interested to hear other's thoughts and opinions, but I wouldn't want to see a change to the word count myself.
I think OSW's word count has always been pretty perfect. Sure there's a bit of a learning curve for new members, but those 500 words require us to actually use them wisely. While on occasion I do miss the ability to do character development pieces of my promos, with how the format itself has evolved I think we're in a great spot and am thankful for the limit.
I don't think our core who pick up extra things and write matches and segments each week could do as much of that with a larger format.
500 words is a challenge. Writing succinctly is difficult, so that is a plus. You have to adapt to a style, not fill 3-5 K of waffle. Here, quality wins, not quantity
I don't see anything wrong with our current word limit. We're running a fed that values quality over quantity, so 500 words seems like a good challenge to create something worth reading.
There are probably hundreds of efeds out there, with several different approaches to how things are run...including the promo style. In a world full of feds where character development is king in roleplays, I think it's great to be the niche fed with a focus on short-form promos. Personally, I love that this is one of the things that sets OSW apart from other feds.
The other thing I wanna highlight about this is, because we don't expand too terribly much on CD in the promos, it gives the segments on the shows a chance to really progress things along in that regard. Sometimes, the focus on developing your character in a roleplay can make it difficult to then get that across on the "television product," and I think we've been able to do that very well because of the shorter promos with match/opponent focus.