By The Armchair Booker

Back in the day, a roleplay was an event. You’d log into your forum, navigate to the roleplay board, and brace yourself for three to five thousand words of blood, sweat, and broken dreams. Every sentence mattered. Every comma was agonized over. Your character’s monologue wasn’t just dialogue—it was a thesis on who they were and why they mattered in the world of professional wrestling, even if that world was fictional.</I>

And now? Now it’s GIFs, memes, and “ey bro u wanna run sum heat for the tag titles?” in a Discord thread at 3AM.

So, here’s the question that has divided eWrestling circles like a barbed-wire steel cage match:

Has Discord killed the art of the RP?

💬 The Discord Era: Convenience Meets Chaos

There’s no denying it—Discord changed the game.

It’s free. It’s instant. It works on phones. It’s got threads, voice chat, bots, reactions, and even custom emojis of your fed's world champion giving a thumbs-up. But for all the convenience it offers, Discord’s real-time format has pulled the rug out from under a long-standing tradition: the roleplay as performance.

RPing used to be like stage acting. You built up to the show. There was rehearsal, polish, and presentation. With Discord, it’s improv. It’s fast and dirty. You drop one-liners, fire off gifs, and maybe write out a few lines of trash talk in character. A week later, you’ve moved on—no archives, no polish, just vibes.

For some, this is progress. For others, it’s blasphemy.

🖋️ Roleplay as an Art Form

In the golden era of forums, a “promo” could win awards. A great RP had rhythm, voice, narrative structure. Writers brought in layered symbolism, call-backs, and internal monologues. The promo was a weapon—used to carve your place in the fed's hierarchy. Lose a match, but drop a killer RP? You still earned respect.

People built entire character arcs through roleplays. They explored trauma, growth, legacy, and failure. It was less “here’s why I’m gonna beat you” and more “here’s why my soul needs this match.”

Discord’s immediacy doesn’t lend itself to that kind of depth. There’s no pressure to format or flesh things out. And with so much happening in real time, the urge to slow down and craft something longform gets buried under pings and emoji reactions.

🤼 It’s Not All Bad—Just Different

Now before I sound like a bitter mod clinging to the last remnants of a phpBB forum, let’s acknowledge this: Discord has strengths.

1. Faster Feud Building – Want to start a story with someone? Hop into a DM and go. No need for weeks of buildup.

2. Dynamic Backstage Interaction – Characters can organically interact outside of “promo” space, creating more fluid relationships.

3. Community Energy – Discord servers feel alive. You can chat, plan, joke, and react in real time.

4. Lower Barrier to Entry – Not everyone can write 2K-word essays. Discord allows new players to dip their toes in without intimidation.

For some users, the fast-paced banter of Discord is more engaging than static forum threads. You’re not writing to win a match—you’re writing to have fun, tell stories, and bond with other handlers.

And isn’t that what eWrestling is all about?

🧠 Blended Models Might Be the Answer

Some feds have embraced the hybrid model: Discord for planning and banter, forums (or Google Docs) for formal roleplays. This gives writers a place to showcase their skills, while still keeping day-to-day activity lively.

Others have created Discord-exclusive feds with structured RP channels, word count caps, and deadlines. These attempt to bring back some of the discipline of the old ways without abandoning the flexibility of modern platforms.

It’s not either/or. It’s about adapting.

🪦 Is the Art Dead?

No—but it’s evolving.

Just like wrestling itself, eWrestling has always adapted. From email feds to Angelfire sites to forums to Discord, the format changes but the core remains: storytelling, character development, and competition.

If anything, the challenge now is to preserve the art within the noise. To encourage meaningful writing even in fast-moving spaces. To remind people that characters aren’t just text—they’re personas with histories, motivations, and voices worth exploring.

So no, Discord hasn’t killed the art of the RP.

But it has put it on notice.

🗣️ Join the Debate

What do you think? Has the hobby lost something in the Discord shift, or is this just the next stage of evolution? Are longform promos a dying breed—or more important now than ever?

Sound off on X, our community forums, or tag us on Discord. Just remember to format your promo… and maybe proofread it before you hit send.