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What's the first thing that pops into your mind when you think of an
arena? Russell Crowe? Perhaps "American Gladiators"? Or maybe Judge
Mills Lane yelling "Let's get it on!"? Regardless of what you
specifically see, the general idea should remain the same: you'll
envision combat between two or more opponents, going after each other
in some way to achieve victory, usually at the expense of the life of
another.
Surely everyone has experienced the thrill of seeing a combat
spectacle at some point in their lives - perhaps even in their
favorite gaming genre. RPGs are practically built for dueling; true to
form, most have arena-type setups where one or more of your characters
can battle scores of combatants, usually for some prize upon victory.
They're always a fun little distraction from the main plot; in such
battles, players can focus on pure combat and enjoyment of the battle
system, not to mention the awesome bonuses and satisfaction that come
from mastering it.
But I'm sure you've noticed that your own characters rarely ever fight
each other. Indeed, you probably get extremely tired of watching your
ubered characters beat on puny random enemies after a while. Haven't
you ever imagine what would happen if, say, Auron (of Final Fantasy X
fame) were to fight Locke (from Final Fantasy VI)? I'm sure you have.
It's probably popped into your mind at the most random times, like
during class. Wouldn't it be great to actually see these fights and
how they ended up?
While this may really seem to be going into the real nitty-gritty of
RPG geekdom, they are questions we've all asked ourselves from time to
time or even argued about with other fans. Everyone has their own
interpretations and they tend to conflict. Some gauge it by plot power
that you see the character wield in the story, others by in-battle
power only. It's a pretty big difference, as you see Sephiroth destroy
a solar system every time he casts Supernova, but it's not enough to
kill the rag-tag band of misfits assembled to fight him. Whatever your
particular way of arguing, is this simply a phenomenon held strictly
to message boards? An activity where fans argue with each other until
they are blue in the face with no clear outcome; or are there actually
places where (gasp!) they take such arguments seriously? With a bit of
searching, you might find the answer is yes.
For a long time, various fan-made sites have popped up around the
Internet where visitors were allowed roleplay as their favorite RPG
character and fight. Such sites typically gather a small but dedicated
group of friends to have some fun. They also generally focus on one
particular game or series of games, so the interpretation issues
between battle systems are not that difficult to deal with. Such sites
can usually be found with a simple search on the topic of "RPG Arena
Fighting," or something similar. Other sites eschew the roleplaying
and put the characters in a tournament format, a simple poll deciding
who would win. Again, this is usually done with a focus on a
particular series. However, large-scale projects, which encompass the
entire genre of games and the characters that go with them, have
sprung up from time to time. The most well known example of this,
while not stictly RPG-oriented, was the GameFAQs character battles in
the summers of 2003 and 2004. Being popularity-based in nature with
vote counts in the tens of thousands, it gathered quite a bit of
support, as well as a cult following on the likewise named "Summer
Contest" board with debates raging about who really would win in
battles not strictly left up to popularity. But do such sites actually
exist where this holds true? The answer, again, is yes.
The tournament style format is by no means a new thing to the
internet. The earliest known wide-scale attempt at such a website that
encompassed all of RPGdom was Bobbin Cranbud Presents, which was
located at www.bobbincranbud.com. Beginning humbly on AOL Instant
Messenger as a group of friends, it grew into quite a
professional-looking site as Mr. Cranbud and two friends provided
everyone with forums, weekly joke news articles in the tabloid
fashion, fan fiction, game reviews, and the feature attraction, the
weekly RPG character tournament. With a fanbase of well over three
hundred at its heyday and incorporating over fifty different RPGs, it
really set a standard in web-based RPG Arena-dom. When Mr. Cranbud
decided to retire the site in 2003, several attempts to pick up the
torch were attempted. The now defunct RPGduels.com was one such site,
which worked off a central leadership like the RPGP did. It continued
the tradition of arena-style combat and also ran forums. A second
site, the RPG Duelling League, also sprang up around this time. The
RPGDL also features the tournament format and forums, but also added
new features like a grand-scale strategy league where armies of RPGdom
duke it out. However, they run off a democratic system where almost
any newcomer can submit material.
Regardless of their wildly varying philosophies, the RPG character
tournaments are only the most prominent of the facets these sites
present. Admitting that character duels can be done in a fun and fair
fashion, and that anyone can come, vote, and argue about who is really
the best - this is what those sites are all about. Debating, and
finally agreeing, about which one of these deserve the glory of battle
- be it Cloud against Squall or Citan against KOS-MOS. And, just
between us... the joy of seeing your favourite character win a good
match may well be just as satisfying as a hard-fought victory of your
favourite sports team.
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