It's a virtual tournament; that is to say, it's an elaborate crossover interactive fan-fiction starring characters from various fighting video games like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, King of Fighters, and Fatal Fury, among others. Our readers vote at the end of each new Section as to who will survive to the next round, and whoever is still standing at the end of the fanfic is the winner!
UVR3 is currently scripted/co-plotted by Thomas "Wanderer" Wilde, co-plotted/edited by Christopher "Birdman" Bird, with contributions and glosses from Isaac "Mimic" Sher, and is published by Scott "Silverbolt" Archer with the occasional catchy comment. In the past, it was written by Birdman with assistance from Austin Loomis, Brant "Brant Rogers" Rogers, Scott Johnson, and/or Bob "Boobwod" Wood.
Archiving duties are handled for UVR1 and part of 2 by Birdman and, for UVR2 and 3, Scott "Silverbolt" Archer, at [http://wabakimi.carleton.ca/~cbird/uvr.html] and [http://www.slack.net/~arctic/rumble.html], respectively.
Whatever fighting games are new at the time of the writing, with occasional representation by whatever games we think are cool. Arcade games usually predominate, with the occasional side-scroller or home-game fighter thrown in for variety. A roster of the fighters included will usually be archived alongside sections of the Rumble.
The roster for UVR3 is up at [http://www.slack.net/~arctic/uvr3/uvr3-roster.html].
If we think a game is cool, or if we think a game's characters would be fun to write, we add it. Usually, we try to keep the number significantly low. Also usually, we fail miserably and wind up with a character count in the triple digits. It's an addiction more powerful than heroin, this fanfic, and we hope to get help soon.
Whenever the hell they're done being written and edited. Sending Wanderer or Birdman mail asking or threatening for the next Section won't speed it up. We are, after all, college students with vital and exciting lives to lead, you know.
A lot of the characters we deal with in the Rumble were also used in the Dream Tournaments, our ideological predecessors, and thus come handily equipped with personalities. The rest we usually assign character traits based upon such things as victory quotes, victory stances, anime movies (where applicable), personal preference, or little quirks. Then again, this ain't exactly War And Peace, so we don't try very hard to stay away from cliches.
A more in-depth version of this process can be found at [http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/3975/dt.html], Sean "Kinsman" Givan's homepage, who originated a lot of the personality quirks we use today.
Other virtual-tournaments, though, aren't that common. The Dream Tournaments, which were archived at [ftp://brawl.ecom.net/pub/dream-tournament] and are no longer (DTIV is currently archived at [http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/6102/dtiv.html], started this whole breed of fanfic off. We're a spinoff of that. Another spinoff, the Multiverse Video Fighters' Council, is currently [10/16/98] on hiatus due to server changes and personal issues.
Irritatingly enough, Wanderer has written or is writing for both of them. That boy ain't right.
There should be an even number of fighters to vote for. Split your votes between those you wish to live and those who should die (example: with twenty fighters in the ring, you have ten "live" and ten "die" votes to assign as you will), and whoever have the best ratios of live to die survive the round. Those who don't, are hurled into whatever fate awaits them outside the ring.
If they're skillful and lucky (and Wanderer's feeling benevolent), no. If they're unpopular with the writers and Wanderer's coming off of a serious bad day, then they're dead meat on a stick. We're capricious bastards sometimes.
As a general rule, however, eliminations are written more to be funny than deadly. The exception, of course, is for characters who absolutely suck, i.e. Eddy Gordo or the War Gods.
Now, of course, UVR3 is here, and the chaos just keeps increasing. Wanderer leads a strange enough life that new Sections can sometimes take a while, but tirelessly, he will prevail.
Outside the fanfiction, the staff members write the Rumble and the glosses in varying amounts. Odds are good that the more a member appears in the fanfiction, the more of a role he's had in what you're reading.
Ask again and we will call in a favor from the local Mafia and have them do unpleasant things to you involving a power drill, field mice, and masking tape.
We reserve the right to override characterizations in favor of one that's more amusing than the one established by the game. For example, we stand firm in our conviction that we can write better than anyone ever employed by Namco, hence we'll obviously have different takes on the characters than those provided by other writers or by the game itself. This is why, for example, Yoshimitsu is a bloodthirsty killer in Tekken 3 and a lovable robot scamp in the UVR; it's because we can, damn your eyes.
The chatroom (available through the main page, or in a special modified version at [http://www.icok.net/~gankboy/hackchat.html], started in late October when Silverbolt thought it'd be a neat idea. It quickly got a pretty steady cast of regulars, and tends to be the most active really, really late at night. Wanderer, at least, spends way too much damn time there. Yes, you too can play fun parlor games like Beat The Hell Out Of The MMK, Cooler Than Chris, and Hiding In The Rafters From Tiffa!
As for the often-mentioned Octagon Rumble, well... sheesh. [http://www.icok.net/~gankboy/octagonfaq.html]
For a quick introduction to the chat room regulars, stop by Wanderer's spur-of-the-moment chat roster at [http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/3114/chatroom.html]. It really is that damn insane.
It was a joke; relax.
S P A C E
For those of you who don't know what the hell I just said, it doesn't really matter; it's just an in-joke.
"Life Reflects Art" Note: Vampire Savior (Darkstalkers 3) cabinets will usually have the World of Darkness logo on them as a promotional gimmick. It's interesting to have this sanctioned by Capcom. :)
This is why it is unwise to screw around with writers, ladies and gentlemen. They are extraordinarily petty.
Plus, one-armed dwarves whup ass.
The long and short of it is that UVR3 was plotted out over the summer of '97, when most of these games were not yet out. Hence, they aren't in the Rumble. Either that, or they're stupid. KOF97 isn't in the Rumble because a) it hadn't been out yet, and b) Orochi versions of characters piss us off (the New Faces team sucks now and forever, folks; they're Richard Meyer's unholy spawn dressed up in S&M gear and moon boots).
This snuck into Section Two as the arrival of a massive bribe to the UVR offices, which spurred Wanderer to include Eddy vs. Q2 in Section Four, because Wanderer dislikes hate mail just as much as anyone else.
More questions? Fire away!