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First of all, I would like to apologize for posting on a board where I'm not really allowed to post in, Seeing as how things are currently, I'm not a staff member. However, seeing as there are no other boards which will allow me to discuss site policies and how I was a former staff member I believe what I describe can be imperative to the evolution of this wikia.
What is Area of Effect? And how is it commonly used?
Well, Area of Effect is described to be a plot conveniance which explains why the characters don't just wipe out the setting they reside in as the result of any fight they'd get themselves in. For how it's commonly used would look something like this, say you watch a TV show where the characters within it perform only a single city block feat but there exists about twelve instances where the characters clearly fail to demonstrate this level of power. The response you would most likely get if you were to point out this discrepancy in feats would look something like this.
"Look man, all those twelve instances are nothing more than an example of Area of Effect. If we wanted to downgrade this series just because these characters didn't destroy their surroundings in those instances then as a consequence we would have to downgrade (insert verse here) to about peak human level."
There is one gigantic problem I have with this argument, and it's that by using AoE one can effectively select the highest feat they want and simply blow-off any other instance in where that feat is contradicted regardless of the quantity. Which means that outliers exist no longer depending if one wishes to exploit the AoE argument.
Should we do-away with AoE?
Not at all, as the title of this thread suggests. I don't want to remove AoE, but rather reform it. How exactly I would I achieve this you ask? Well, one can understandbly think that being able to use AoE while simultanesouly being able to catch out people who abuse it to select the highest feat they want and dealing with the inverse, people who use it to downgrade any series to peak human level is an incredibly difficult balancing act. But, I have thought up of guidelines on proper usage of AoE which will allow us to pull this act off. I now present them to you.
Area of Effect guidelines
The following are a list of examples where the use of the Area of Effect argument is acceptable:
"Why exactly is someone striking another directly without causing the environment to be effected acceptable while someone striking the environment without effecting it be unacceptable"
For the former, you can simply chalk it up to their durability. A city block level guy punches another city block level guy in the head within an office building without causing it to collapse can be explained by the victim being able to disperse the force/energy of the attack internally (again, thanks to their way higher than average durability). However, a planet level guy striking the ground while only leaving a tiny crack is inexcuseable. Because even if we assume all that energy were condensed into the size of a fist, it wouldn't at all spare the environment. It can only be rationalised as a low-showing.
"If we have an instance where a character who is shown to be consistently city block level punches the ground without causing any damage to it, should we call all of his other feats into consideration?"
Of course not, an anomaly is an anomaly at the end of day. What he's consistently shown takes precedence over this single instance, they should only be questioned if this single instance grows to a point where they outnumber his prior consistent showings by a vast amount.
"Well, these characters do violate physics by having super strength and what not, so why shouldn't we assume that the reason they fail to effect the environment is due to the AoE argument?"
Well, just because a character contradicts their highest feat it doesn't mean that we should essentially prescribe them an ability in where they can throw out attacks of a high yield to the environment while doing barely any damage to it especially when the narrative doesn't imply they are capable of doing such things. With this said, that moves me to my next point.
Miscellaneous
Characters who in-universe are able to manipulate the force/energy they distribute to such amounts that they are able to hit the environment with high yields without reducing it to rubble should be given AoE as an ability within their profile. One example has been mentioned before, and that was characters within DBZ who can use ki control.
Yes, I am aware that a revision of this scale would inevitably lead to the revision of many many series. However, it all doesn't have to be done simultaneously and there serves no reason to be do that either.
What is Area of Effect? And how is it commonly used?
Well, Area of Effect is described to be a plot conveniance which explains why the characters don't just wipe out the setting they reside in as the result of any fight they'd get themselves in. For how it's commonly used would look something like this, say you watch a TV show where the characters within it perform only a single city block feat but there exists about twelve instances where the characters clearly fail to demonstrate this level of power. The response you would most likely get if you were to point out this discrepancy in feats would look something like this.
"Look man, all those twelve instances are nothing more than an example of Area of Effect. If we wanted to downgrade this series just because these characters didn't destroy their surroundings in those instances then as a consequence we would have to downgrade (insert verse here) to about peak human level."
There is one gigantic problem I have with this argument, and it's that by using AoE one can effectively select the highest feat they want and simply blow-off any other instance in where that feat is contradicted regardless of the quantity. Which means that outliers exist no longer depending if one wishes to exploit the AoE argument.
Should we do-away with AoE?
Not at all, as the title of this thread suggests. I don't want to remove AoE, but rather reform it. How exactly I would I achieve this you ask? Well, one can understandbly think that being able to use AoE while simultanesouly being able to catch out people who abuse it to select the highest feat they want and dealing with the inverse, people who use it to downgrade any series to peak human level is an incredibly difficult balancing act. But, I have thought up of guidelines on proper usage of AoE which will allow us to pull this act off. I now present them to you.
Area of Effect guidelines
The following are a list of examples where the use of the Area of Effect argument is acceptable:
- The characters in question are striking each-other, this can range from people punching people into walls to ground and pounds.
- The character in question is holding back.
- The character actually has an in-universe AoE mechanic e.g ki control
- The character in question is shown to strike the environment.
"Why exactly is someone striking another directly without causing the environment to be effected acceptable while someone striking the environment without effecting it be unacceptable"
For the former, you can simply chalk it up to their durability. A city block level guy punches another city block level guy in the head within an office building without causing it to collapse can be explained by the victim being able to disperse the force/energy of the attack internally (again, thanks to their way higher than average durability). However, a planet level guy striking the ground while only leaving a tiny crack is inexcuseable. Because even if we assume all that energy were condensed into the size of a fist, it wouldn't at all spare the environment. It can only be rationalised as a low-showing.
"If we have an instance where a character who is shown to be consistently city block level punches the ground without causing any damage to it, should we call all of his other feats into consideration?"
Of course not, an anomaly is an anomaly at the end of day. What he's consistently shown takes precedence over this single instance, they should only be questioned if this single instance grows to a point where they outnumber his prior consistent showings by a vast amount.
"Well, these characters do violate physics by having super strength and what not, so why shouldn't we assume that the reason they fail to effect the environment is due to the AoE argument?"
Well, just because a character contradicts their highest feat it doesn't mean that we should essentially prescribe them an ability in where they can throw out attacks of a high yield to the environment while doing barely any damage to it especially when the narrative doesn't imply they are capable of doing such things. With this said, that moves me to my next point.
Miscellaneous
Characters who in-universe are able to manipulate the force/energy they distribute to such amounts that they are able to hit the environment with high yields without reducing it to rubble should be given AoE as an ability within their profile. One example has been mentioned before, and that was characters within DBZ who can use ki control.
Yes, I am aware that a revision of this scale would inevitably lead to the revision of many many series. However, it all doesn't have to be done simultaneously and there serves no reason to be do that either.
