// This eFed tutorial was originally posted in 1999 on FWLnet.com, the largest eWrestling website of the time and highly regarded as one of the core foundations to our hobby. Although it is old and refers to wrestling simulators for results, this is maybe one of the best eFed tutorials ever written and really holds up over time for great advice. Enjoy. //

There are over 2000 e-feds in existence at any point in time on the Internet. There is no true right way to run an e-fed, so what you will read on is simply what I believe is the best way to get things done based on experience. I’ve been on the Executive Board for an e-wrestling federation since January ’98. I have worked with the the best, and in the document I will give you my advice to making the best possible e-wrestling site you can.

Running an e-fed is not an easy thing to do. It’s extremely stressful. You make decisions that affect people’s opinions, you run cards constantly and get complained to A LOT. The first key to a good e-fed is to spread out your power. The goal here is not to be the boss of something, rather for everyone to have as much fun as possible. So before you even get your fed started, find 2-4 people that you can trust who are interested in e-wrestling, divide positions up and jobs up, and create something similar to the IWO Executive Board. You can then vote on major problems and keep the fed running smoothly, working as fallbacks for one another. The best e-federations were never run by one man.

The second thing to do is to decide how you’re fed is going to be. Perhaps your Board should vote on this, if you choose to use one. Should you use TNM, Zeus, or another simulator? Or perhaps you should hand type matches? My advice is to start your fed up using a simulator. The IWO hand types now, but that’s because we’ve grown enough to support a writing staff. My personal suggestion is TNM over all other simulators. I believe, not only because IWO Online is teamed with TNM, that Oliver Copp, the creator of TNM, did a fine job making everything user friendly. You can get special plug-ins to develop specific kinds of matches and wrestlers, and thus create as realistic a fed as possible with ease. The second key to a good e-fed is your match quality. Let the people read what happens, don’t just give out winners.

Third on your agenda should be deciding how roleplaying should take place. I’ve roleplayed on message boards, e-mail, and the newsgroup rec.sports.pro.wrestling.fantasy. From experience, I find that going through e-mail is the most well rounded. Roleplays tend to be longer and more well thought out, and it’s easy to communicate that way. Add in that you don’t get distractions from other e-federations, and you’ve got yourself ready in this respect. Either use Address Books to keep your RolePlay List together, or use a mass mailing program like Listbot. I prefer the RP Lists, they’re easier to manage. The third key is to decide how roleplays will take place. 85+% of e-feds use message boards, but this is perhaps the least efficent and poorest quality RPing on the ‘net. It’s your decision on how to run things.

The fourth key is to now get a web site started. One of your Board members (or yourself) should have experience in a graphic design tool and with web pages. Create something that will catch a person’s eye. Something that didn’t take you 5 minutes. The better the web page, the more interested a person will be in your e-fed. 20,000+ votes were tallied for IWO Online as TNM’s E-fed of the Year, but we’ve had no more than 200 members in our league since it’s roots in November 1997. It’s extremely important that you get a top notch web site, for this is what will keep a person’s attention.

Now comes the fun part. The fifth key is to come up with an original name. ‘Hard Core’, ‘Extreme’, ‘Xtreme’, and other violent type names are always taken. Being the most hard core fed on the web doesn’t prove to a person that you’re a good fed. Furthermore, making a fed based after a WCW or WWF character doesn’t do much good either. Come up with an original name that will catch the person’s eye. My personal favorites (all taken, sorry) are Fantasy Wrestling League, GYeah Wrestling, and (of course) Internet Wrestling Organization. The choice is up to you for a good fed name. Once you’ve done this, come up with names for all your pay per views (in advance) and your weekly card(s). It’s important to be prepared with this stuff. Again, be original about it.

There are many little details that you should attend to now. Small decisions that may affect the popularity of your site. Perhaps consider joining an interfed system. These often result in a lot of talent from other feds joining yours, as well as inter-fed pay per views, which are always fun. The IWO is not in any of these, but we still believe that they work well and any new e-fed should consider joining one. Unfortunately, we have no links for you at this time. Also, decide if you’re going to run your fed through roleplaying or just pick winners yourself. Roleplaying is probably more fun, but you’ll have less troubles in the long run without it. Another thing to look out for is original wrestlers or not? The best roleplayers are usually the original ones. Anybody can copy Steve Austin or the Rock off TV…..so I suggest you try original wrestlers. However, again, this may result in people turning away from your fed. Key Number Six is to make all the minor decisions for your fed like the ones I’ve mentioned above.

Ok, you’ve got all this done?! Great! Well, now start accepting applications to your fed. Things will NOT work like the IWO….we get more applications than we can use, so we have to turn down certain people. This may not be the case for you. Get a World Title Tournament started (one of the minor things from the above key should be naming your titles…you should have no more than four titles total to start with) and declare a champ ASAP. From here on it gets to be a little easier. There are only a few things I suggest you look out for.

In order to keep your fed stable, I suggest you never give your opinion about who’s winning to your e-wrestlers. Don’t tell them who’s winning, who’s going to win, who’s the better RPer, anything. Keep it between you and your Board (if you have one). In this way, people can’t whine to you throughout the week, and you can go on with life. From time to time you will get the occassional jerk in your fed. Somebody who believes that he’s better than you, that he should win every time, that he’s the best, ect., ect. These are the people that will cause problems. Fire them from your federation, don’t take BS from them. If they say they think you’re a horrible President, live with it. Which would you rather be, a horrible President or an Ex-President of your e-fed? If you let him have his way, it will lead to the downfall of your fed. In order to please the rest of your fed, kill him off in the next card in some amusing fashion. The IWO enjoys the fact that we can be unrealistic about this at times, simply because we feel those that try and bring us down deserve to have it put up on the Internet for all to say. Plus it’s a great stress reliver…..

Never let friendship affect your winners. People you know should not have the advantedge over people you don’t. Treat them as if you don’t know them. If people kiss up to you constantly in an effort to look better, just judge them lower…give them less a chance of winning, or ignore them completely. These people are the kinda people who are your best friend in front of your face, and your worst enemy behind you. Don’t let it bother you, just completely ignore them.

If you follow the above steps, your chances for having a successful e-fed should be greatly improved. Remember, having YourOwnName.Com only means something if you’re fed has really gotten itself up. IWO Online goes back to August ’97, we got a domain in June ’98 simply because we felt the need to expand after almost 2 years. Don’t think Geocities or Angelfire is bad, use whatever you can to bring yourself to the top of the e-wrestling charts… we hope that come December ’99 you’ll be competing against us for the TNM E-fed of the Year for 1999!