Colaborative? Competitive? What do you preffer?

Quick question:

When you setup a match with someone in irc, Y!M, msn etc. do you like to be competitive? Using your knowledge about the kind of fight you're having against a friend and try to overcome him/her with this knowledge?

Or do you preffer to "script" the match with your friend (sometimes even declaring who'll win the match), working together to make an interesting fight not only to do but for others to read as well?

I'll say I got very used to "script" the match with a friend since I joined a roleplying group that focuses more on making "colaborative fights" than being competitive to avoid Powergaming issues... I particulary like that but I do also to engage in competitive as well.

But I noticed making so many "colaborative matches" during a long time rusted a bit my skills when I go competitive with someone (since I didn't had the motivation to "study" the match logs in other rp'ing/cyberfighting groups anymore as I used to do).

And about you? what's your views in roleplaying a match?

Where's the fun in knowing how a match will turn out? The competition is where all the fun is.

Some competitive matches aren't actually competitive at all, and by that I mean that your opponent has made a decision with 80% certainty or above that their character will win. When I have a feeling that that is what the player is thinking, I would either make it collaborative or make the decision that my character is going to lose without telling my opponent. And if the opponent has decided to win and I've decided to lose, it isn't competitive, but instead more like collaborative without collaborating!!

Why would I decide to lose you might ask? The reason for this is that matches against players that are too focused on winning can make the match itself suffer. For example, I might have my character do a move that could result in really erotic or otherwise exciting outcome. However instead of allowing exploration of where this move might lead the match, my opponent decides to go for a dodge or overlook my move in order to keep their character in control of the match. Sounds small, but each time that happens a path for the match is not explored... Plus it gets annoying for me and the way I RP will change, I might even lose interest in the match completely.

Having said that though, I have had some wonderful competitive matches... if you get two players who genuinely don't care if they win or lose, a competitive match can be great

Competitive matches are fun, but are best left to people who know each other well enough that they can trust one another. Otherwise it should be at least lightly collabrative. At least in my opinon..

Outcome's sometimes handy to know, so you don't feel like you're wrenching the story left and right all the time. But I'm very lax about the whole thing, and people ask if they can lose to me at least as much as they do to win. I like it to be a friendly competition, with the story being the real objective. maybe ask if it's alright to seal the match near the end, if they don't suggest it in their post to begin with

Hi everyone!
Yeah, so far, I've been doing all collaborative matches - I'd request a match type from someone with the intention of losing (letting my opponent know that).

I've read alot of posts of other matches and i'm enjoying it so far..

I have a few quick questions, as I'm not sure if this is possible, but..

1) If it's an open match and two characters are already getting into it, is it possible for my character to simply make her presence known? as a third party just observing the match without obviously interfering?

2) I'm not sure if anyone has tried this but.. (im pretty new to RPG in general) an idea I came up with is - I guess since most matches are collaborative, is to set a limit as to how many accepts or declines or counters each party has and to use them randomly? that way, there's some sort of strategy and surprise to the match? i dunno, at first thought it sounds like a neat idea - i guess i just have to think about it more to see if it would actually work...
that way, if someone is out of declines or counters, then that person would be forced to bend to the other's will? or does that defeat the purpose and bend the rules of the forum?

sorry - just babbling on.

Personally I just do cyber wrestling the same way i wrestle in real life. I plan out the match type and the finish, then let whatever happen in between just flow naturally, while keeping a realisitc approach to it, I mean if someone is going to attempt a suplex and i want to counter it, I look at past posts and see if my character could realistically counter that move at that point in time, sometimes they do, sometimes they dont. I think its a pretty good mix of the two, in that you have a finish set, so you have a point that your trying to get through, and thus a theme or almost a story to the match itself, while at the same time you still have the competitive randomness that makes it oh so fun......except against lousy ass godmoders who think that they should be able to counter a powerbomb attempt literally 4 seconds after falling off of a ladder.....Sorry, that was meant for a different group im in, Heh.