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Newsletter 14
In this issue
*************
1) Game progress
2) ICQ and mailing address mix ups
3) Guest editorial
4) Name that wrestling game
5) Thank you's
6) Dear THQ
1) Game Progress
****************
Our game has taken some solid steps from fantasy to reality this week.
A
few of the people that applied for the animation positions couldn't wait
for the interviews next week so I decided to let a few of them try the
animation test I had prepared for all the applicants. Each animator was
given a worst case senario from which to produce a move animation. In
this
case, I had them take a grainy, low frame rate, gif animation of a
particularily intricate combination of moves from a recent pay-per-view
and turn it into a game ready animation. I've seen some of the results
and
I have to say I was floored. A team made up of talented animators like
the ones tested so far will produce some absolutely gorgeous moves for
the
game. Interviews aren't officially taking place until next week so I'll
have more news for you then. But so far, the eager animators that
answered
the call are proving to be exactly what we need.
2) ICQ and mailing address mix ups
**********************************
In another classic "microsoft moment" I lost about 15 ICQ
confirmations
early last week. If you've been waiting for a confirmation for more than
a
few days please try again as you were likely lost during a nasty crash.
The ICQ number again is 140047363
Also, the postal code given for the WGU mailing address was wrong. I
am fairly certain it hasn't affected anything sent to us so far but just
in case please update your info to the following...
Wrestling Gamers United
p.o. box 28585 4050 East Hastings
Buraby, B.C. Canada
V5C 6J4
3) Guest editorial
******************
I try to be as diplomatic and impartial as possible when discussing the
merits and dissapointments of certain wrestling games. But every once in
a while I get something sent to me that just begs to be shared with the
people on the WGU mailing list. Mel Hauser is a writer and reporter from
Los Angeles who has penned some of the most precise, intense, and
venomous crticisms of the gaming industry I have ever had the pleasure
of
reading.
I invited Mel to share his opinions with us on a regular basis. This
is his first contribution to the WGU newsletter and it is presented here
in it's original form, uncensored and unedited.
*Telling the Big Lies: Consumer, Know Your Role and Shut Your Mouth*
Aside from the weird, complacent void now currently existing in the
wrestling
gamer's community, the arrival of TH*Q's insta-quik Gamecube offering of
Wrestlemania X-8 has been good for one thing: reinforcing the shitheaded
blabbering of a few devoted poultry chickens that we, as customers,
fans,
game players and most importantly, consumers, do not make a difference
to the
major gaming companies. That we are merely digits, ciphers and otherwise
ants
in a qeue leading up to the counter of the local Toys R Us or Babbage's,
money in hand, blindfold securely in place over our collective eyes.
In reality, it's a tough nut to crack. As people who love video games,
we're
usually so cranked up on the next big title to come down the pike that
we
sometimes miss how profound our stake in the big software pond really
is.
When something as hackneyed as WM X-8 is shit down our throats by a
company
who was raised up from obscurity on the strength of our dollars--and
trust
me, for those of you old enough to remember when TH*Q's major part in
the
video game industry was being routinely mocked for its horrible Home
Alone
games by EGM and Gamefan, they OWE your ass--it's easy to find yourself
in a
consumer slump. It happens. For every decent film that Hollywood manages
to
cough up, there's at least fifty other offerings that make you ashamed
to be
a human being on a yearly basis. But we aren't coughing up sixty dollars
earned behind the counter of Burger King or Hollywood Video to see
Pootie
Tang--yet. And theirein lies the real rub.
In the grander scheme, you make all the difference. Your decisions
created
the superstar status Shigeru Miyamoto, made "AKI" a household name, and
earned Grand Theft Auto III the title of best-selling game in the entire
world last year. Your money determined the outcome of the greatest
hardware
war of the 20th century--Sega versus Nintendo wasn't fought by some guys
locked in a basement with controllers and garrote wire. It was fought by
gamers. Passionate gamers who followed their loyalties and made ripples
in
the consumer pond that eventually became tidal in stature.
If you need the slightest reminder that you, as a video game player,
buyer
and afficianado are the real catalyst for change, then I offer you this
little nugget of joy. Coming from the creaky experiences of a lifetime
spent
in the video game trenches, from age three and an Atari paddle in my
fist to
the shelves upon shelves of games and systems that currently piss my
girlfriend off.
Less than ten years ago, a company with pitiful prior experience in the
programming realm announced that it was releasing a game system on a
propietary format that had been, up to this point, the death knell for
progressive hardware. People laughed. It couldn't compete with the big
licenses, the established players. Anyone else who had tried to wade
into
that sharkpool had been sent home in a sack wrapped with red tape and
their
legs chewed off to the knees. When the company announced that it would
be
launching its new undertaking with three games, the buzz was acid
cynicism.
It couldn't last. It wouldn't last. The guys with the big names, the big
licenses and the big money were going to use these pissant newcomers for
a
toothpick.
The company was Sony. The system was something called "The Playstation".
The gamers realized that they were seeing something they had never seen
before, and reacted accordingly. On the strength of their dollars, and
the
fact that the system they were pulling for responded in kind to their
interest with innovations in software and hardware that Nintendo and
Sega
weren't selling, the gaming community made Sony the most dominant force
in
the video game industry since the heyday of the 8-bit Nintendo.
Today, there's the Playstation 2. And somewhere in the dust, there's the
big
names, the big licenses, and Bill Gates. The casual gamer kicked up that
dust. You kicked up that dust. In less than a decade, the decisions of
little, burger-flippin' mofos like you and I turned the landscape of the
billion-dollar video game industry on its ass. You and I convinced Bam!
that
there was a democratic market Stateside for an obscure little game
called
Fire Pro. You and I showed TH*Q that it can't take us for granted by not
kowtowing to its spin doctoring, its flimsy product, or its abuse of a
license. They feel that fifty bucks. Trust me. It may not crumple the
company
in the span of a few hours, but the hairline cracks are the ones that do
the
most damage in the long run.
And the next time some pinprick bitch tries to tell you that you don't
make a
difference when you're criticizing the lackluster actions of a
programming
company that depends on you to pay its bills, just laugh. And keep in
mind
that when the seeds of what Dave's setting out to do with the WGU and
all of
us eventually bears its fruit, that guy'll be talking about how he was
inv
olved in the process all along.
How 'he' made a difference.
-Mel Hauser
4) Name that Wrestling Game
***************************
Thank you to everyone who sent in ideas for naming our game. I thought
you'd like to see some of the more creative ones...
-Screw Yukes Wrestling
-Peoples Choice Wrestling
-Super-Suicide Twisting Crazy Plancha Time!
-Insane Championship Wrestling
-It's Da Powerbomb
-Blood and Piledrivers (The anti-WWE game)
-We got Masks!
-WGU vs. THQ Revenge
Keep sending in those names and making my day
Dave@WrestlingGamersUnited.com
5) Thank you's
**************
I'd like to thank Gordon Dutrisac from Digipen for announcing the WGU
project to students and graduates. I'd also like to thank all of you
once again
for sending in page after page of great ideas for our game. Some of
you have sent up to fifteen pages of things you'd like to see in our
wrestling game! Keep 'em coming...
6)Dear THQ
**********
And finally, of all the bad reviews and rants I've read about THQ's
latest
wrestling game, the picture at the link below seems to sum it up
perfectly.
This link should be posted at every message board containing WMX8
reviews.
Warning, if the sight of cat droppings offends you do not follow this
link...
http://www.wrestlinggamersunited.com/dearthq.htm
That's all for this week. Keep rollin' rollin' rollin'...
Talk to you next week,guys.
Dave W.
Dave@wrestlinggamersunited.com
http://www.WrestlingGamersUnited.com
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