Is Always Winning Really That Important?

[Lady_Alizarin]

When roleplaying, is it really important to win all your roleplay battles?

Have you ever noticed some roleplayers in this community find it so important to win every roleplay battle they get into? "I'm the strongest Warrior in the Clan! There's no way I can lose!" Even in some character bios I see some people put things like... Battle Wins: 7 Battle Loses: 0  
And in some roleplay battles, there's always that one character that just seems so undefeatable and pretty much ignores any attacks thrown at him/her. And when you call them a powerplayer for ignoring your attacks, they throw a big fit about it.
  
Is it so important to make your character look so strong and undefeatable in combat? WHY is it so important to win every battle you get into? Is always winning such a big deal?

[darkknight]

It's a common thing to wanting to be the perfect fighter and win every battle. Yes, we can look at the scenario in a fantasy point of view, however, even in fantasy, there is imperfection. Not everyone wins, the "hero" doesn't always get the last laugh. If they did, would they be interesting in a whole?

With a character that is spot on with everything, in this case, winning, how are they interesting? What does it say about the character themselves? Yes, we could agree they are strong, but is that it? Winning does not define the character, interaction and progression does. In my opinion, if there is no loses, how can your character grow? In developing a character, it is great to see how they learn and improve themselves in whatever story-line they are put into.

[Redlinelies]

If I'm going to be completely honest, I never understood the purpose of plain roleplay text fights in a moving chat.

Unless the one you fight is a close friend that you know will roleplay on the same terms, or that the roleplay fight is already set up with who that's going to win, it just doesn't work well. The chances of bumping into someone level headed plain off in a public roleplay that you never talked to before is just too low. I know that some people really do enjoy their roleplay fights, hence one reason why warrior cats is so popular and we we have things like fight dogs and territory fights in roleplay a lot in general, but I personally really fail to see the point of living off FeralHeart as a winning fighter in roleplays about fighting and battles, even silly, and probably a reason why I've stayed away from it.

I've seen a few users around(not only warrior cats) that has their victories in fights listed in their bio among with how fierce they are and how anyone that meets them in a fight will be demolished. It's great and all that you want to be this big butt character that is cool and all that but it feels like just because you have a bio like this, it makes you the automatic winner of any upcoming fight unless the other user is just as stubborn and has a bio put up the same way. In this case people just want to be better than others or look better, be someone that stands out in the roleplays. It's a bit like the typical thing of Male lions in prides always have to be as big as possible on the sliders in character creation, the majority doesn't want to be the smaller one in the bigger picture, and the same goes for things like warrior cats I believe since it's so focused on fighting and defending territories.

The fighting itself though inside of the game I fail to find much satisfaction in having roleplay fights since there's no good system to it other than what we the users make it out to be when we are having these, and relying on someone that is all about winning will not be an easy task. Just something like a /roll command like there was in Impressive Title would assist a lot so users could roll a dice for their turn to do a roleplay post.

People want to be the biggest and baddest even here.

[unnbrellas]

There isn't much point in it at all. I suppose if the character is just a big brute, if you want to show off that trait.....but you still need to lose a battle every now an and then.
I have 3 characters I rp with, only one of them being semi-undefeated. One of them is just very submissive, another overconfident and stupid. The semi undefeated one isn't really fighting, just tricking her opponent.

[Transatlantic]

I really don't prefer roleplaying with people who do this. Not only because they probably won't understand the idea of a fair battle ("I'm undefeated! So I /can/ block that hit, but you can't block mine!) They're...just kind of dull to roleplay with, I guess. People obsess over making big, bad, scary characters instead of real, nicely developed characters.

Maybe it's just the fact that I tend to hide out in mapped roleplays that I find this behavior so annoying? It reminds me of that Spongebob episode where he gets those gigantic fake muscles and can't actually do anything useful with them.

[Silhouette]

Irk. I don't see the point in people constantly trying to win the fights either. How on earth does that do any for you, much less develop your character? Most of the time, when I RP with friends its something to the tune of this,

Antagonist finds a means of wrecking havoc, protagonists try to stop it. Protagonists fail due to either inexperience, lack of strategy, or being caught off guard.
Protagonists move away to  "lick their wounds"
Antagonist returns in another RP randomly without warning (though its anticipated by the players that said antagonist will return at some random point), protagonist or antagonist may reap the benefits but its usually not much and the fight fizzles out
Antagonist makes a final return/Protagonist characters seek out the antagonist with a potential solution and either the protagonist wins or if that doesnt turn out and they lose, they go away to "lick their wounds" again and return again when they have another solution. Sooner or later or though, the proper solution is found and the antagonist is removed from the picture, either he/she is killed, banished, whatever.

Its a nice way of giving players on both sides of the RP some opportunity to be the strong-hold and the wounded and have fun with it. But at the end of the day, does it really matter at all? No not really. My main character has lost as many fights as she's won. There's nothing to gain from it.

[unnbrellas]

Spongebob episode where he gets those gigantic fake muscles and can't actually do anything useful with them.

YES.

[Silhouette]

Spongebob episode where he gets those gigantic fake muscles and can't actually do anything useful with them.

YES.

I must have missed this. That is probably the best analogy for this I've ever heard. LOL

[Vespian]

The pride of said individuals never cease to amuse me. I too have witnessed such behavior in a large variety of roleplays. Each one ending up with that particular individual screaming the lines of, "My character is 9ever undefeated! None shall defeat me!" Thus, when a member attempts to prove them wrong, it ends up like Lady Alizarin has stated:

And in some roleplay battles, there's always that one character that just seems so undefeatable and pretty much ignores any attacks thrown at him/her. And when you call them a powerplayer for ignoring your attacks, they throw a big fit about it.

What's beyond me however is sometimes, not all, I witness some members attempting at informing the said 'undefeated character' on how not everyone can win all the time. If that were true, it'd not only make your character be perceived as someone unfair and/or boring, it'd cause them to appear as someone under the title of perfection. Which, let's admit it, imperfection is what makes life so meaningful. Yet the said perfected member takes it not only as an IC-insult but an OOC one as well. I know not about you guys, though if someone told me a bit of advice on how to improve my character and/or roleplay style, I'd at least take consideration into their advice. However most of the time when said event happens, the member stirs up an argument and before you know it, hello senseless grudge!

I can comprehend why certain members do this from time to time. It could be because they've grown attached to their current character and fears something fatal happening to it. Which gives them the urge in making their character, how should I say it, god-like. They could also be seeking attention, such as gaining the title of, "The most feared member in all of Feralheart!", "The most strongest wolf in all of the Plains!", etc. The possibilities/reasons can very much vary from member to member.

As for me, I rarely will get involved with conflict unless it's a part of the roleplay plot or my character's general personality. Even then, most of the time I commence as long as the fight involves individuals who I have witnessed roleplay before and know their general skills or if it's a good friend. A majority of the time however, you'll most likely find me holding some binoculars and watching from the sidelines as an innocent bystander.

[Jango_Fett]

Spongebob episode where he gets those gigantic fake muscles and can't actually do anything useful with them.

YES.

I must have missed this. That is probably the best analogy for this I've ever heard. LOL

Very much so xD! I have nothing more to add.