Newsletter 7

Wrestling Gamers United newsletter #7
Hello and welcome to the WGU newsletter #7!

In this issue
*************
1) Mr. X speaks *MUST READ!*
2) Platform fight
3) Sign the petition
4) Which wrestlers will be in the game?
5) Money money money
6) Want to work for us?

1) Mr. X Speaks!
**********************
This last Sunday I was finally able to schedule a meeting with the man I've been calling, "Mr. X". I've been eager to talk with him for weeks and when the meeting was over I had a whole new attitude about the WGU and our plans for the future. Mr. X earned my respect by means of his impressive resume. His past experience includes animation work with some of the worlds biggest game developers including one WCW and one WWF game. He has also worked on various 3D platform games as well as a popular online strategy game. But what most interested me was his behind the scenes knowledge of the gaming industry and how we at the WGU could benefit from his experience.

I learned a lot from this man in two hours.

I started by giving him an overview of the WGU and our plan to get a better wrestling game made. I told him how current games seem to be geared towards younger kids who prefer an arcade style game and how there is a whole army of gamers who want a super-realistic wrestling simulation instead. I pointed to the fact that games like Smackdown3 sell like hell for the first month and then gamers get sick of them and they end up in the used game bin shortly after. What Mr. X said next floored me, "That's exactly what they want to happen." WHAT?! I couldn't believe it!

He explained how the retail game industry worked and it began to make sense. According to Mr. X, game publishers have to fight for shelf space at stores like EB and they only have a few months, tops, of premium shelf space at prime locations in the store. That's why they need a game that will sell like hell for the first little while after it's initial release. That's also why something like the WWF logo or a recognizable face like The Rock on the box is so bloody important. They need to maximize hype and brand recognition as quickly as possible to attain that all-important early spike in sales. They couldn't care less if you return the game because it sucks. As long as you buy it because, "It's a WWF game, it must be good" they get their money and that's all that matters. They don't have months to wait for word of mouth to spread about a good game to start making sales. They have a very small window of opportunity to make the bulk of their sales. That's why they hype the game with pretty screen shots and carefully selected movie clips instead of telling gamers how the game actually plays.

Do you see why most game developers won't take a chance on producing a wrestling game without the brand name power of a WWF license?

I have to say that, initially, Mr. X was very honest about how little chance our game had without the WWF logo on the box. However, by the time I finished showing him the stats and survey answers from the WGU website his attitude about our project changed. Apparently, the popularity of the WGU website and the sheer number of responses we'd gotten was UNHEARD of in the gaming industry for a game that wasn't even officially announced yet and had no major publisher behind it.

I was very happy when he smiled, leaned ever the table, and said, "Listen, what would you say if I told you there may be a way for your WGU to create a game that could not only compete with other games, but could actually crush the competition...all of them?"

continued next newsletter.............

2) Platform fight
*****************
I'll continue the very long but exciting conversation with Mr. X next newsletter, but one very important part of our talk included the issue of platform. Making a game for a console or PC entails a long list of pro's and con's for each system. This week's survey asks you which platforms you would most like to see our game appear on. We've deliberately kept the list of pro's and con's for each system off the survey because we want to get your honest, unbiased opinion. We need you rinput, so please drop by www.WrestlingGamersUnited.com and check out the new survey as soon as you can.

3) Sign the petition
*********************
I know we're always beating this issue to death, but we can't stress enough how important it is to have as many people as possible on our newsletter mailing list. The list acts as a kind of petition and the more people on it, the better we look to people interested in helping us develop our game. We urge you to please sign up all your friends email addresses and tell everyone you can about us. You can sign up using all the email addresses you want and those people WILL NOT GET SPAMMED because they will be asked to confirm their desire to join the mailing list before they are actually added. So get out your address books and get working for the WGU Yeehaaww!

4) Which wrestlers will be in the game?
****************************************
We get this question a lot and we can honestly say that if things go as planned the answer will be simple...all of them.

5) Money money money
********************
At the risk of looking like opportunistic scam artists, we have reluctantly agreed to accept donations to WGU through the trusted Ebay partner, PayPal. We hadn't even considered the possibility of taking money from you guys but we got so many emails from desperate and fanatic gamers practically begging to give us money to get the game made that we went ahead and set it up on the Help Us page of the site. I'm sure you've all noticed that the WGU website is free of pop ups and that's because we've been paying for hosting out of our own pockets. If some of who have the means of helping us cover the costs then, hey, thanks. We appreciate that there are so many of you who are as passionate about this as we are. It's good to know that we are not alone in this :)

6) Want to work for us?
************************
It has become shockingly clear that the WGU and it's agenda have snowballed into a much greater monster than just one man can handle. I've had to take on help with webmaster and email duties (thanks, Jim and Les!) but I will very soon be looking to hire a staff of people for various jobs including;

1) Accounting-Canadian and U.S. tax law knowledge a must.
2) Artists-Graphic design, promotional material, etc.
3) Public relations-Can you talk and write like an intelligent human being? Contact us!
4) Programmers/animators-Director and 3DSMax and asset
5) Voice talent-Voice over, looping, etc.

If any of these job descriptions fit you, please contact me, Dave, at Dave@WrestlingGamersUnited.com and we'll take it from there.

That's all we have time for this week. Check your email next friday for more of the Mr. X meeting and other WGU news.

Thank you for your support!

Dave
Dave@wrestlinggamersunited.com
http://www.WrestlingGamersUnited.com