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Newsletter 16
Hello and welcome to the WGU newsletter #16!
In this issue
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1) This thing is out of control
2) Cutting the 'Lie' Out of License- Mel Hauser returns
3) Thank you
4) WGU website
1) This thing is out of control
*******************************
I don't think any of us lowly wrestling gamers realized just how much
power
we had in our hands or how or how much support we would get if we tried
to
do something of this magnitude. I've been spreading the word about the
WGU
project every chance I get and so have many of you. As a result, it's
become
a full time job for me just keeping the hype down! Message boards and
web
sites have sprung up all over the 'net dedicated to the WGU game and
rumors
are running wild about almost every aspect it's creation. A lot of you
have
taken up the cause and are actively recruiting other gamers to put
together
organized move lists, reversal lists, story mode concepts, marketing
ideas,
the list goes on and on.
I've also seen plenty of negative reaction. But the next time some
pessimistic fanboy tells you we're just dreaming and it'll never happen
I
want you to tell them about what happened this past tuesday.
I called in some personal favors and was able to get some time with
the
owner of an upstart marketing firm in my area. I showed her some of the
fanatically positive email you sent me. I showed her the massive mailing
list. I showed her the message boards and fan sites. I showed her
some of the beautiful animations and artwork already completed and told
her
about the talent that would be involved with the project. I told her
about
the groundbreaking plans for the new WGU website that will be launched
at
the end of August. And then I told her about the investor interest all
of
this has caused. I told her the only thing missing from this plan was a
way
to get the game into the hands of the hardcore fans around the world who
need this game.
I spoke to her later on the phone and she had a proposal for me. Now,
please understand that even I find this offer to good too be true but I
wanted you guys to know because if nothing else, it validates the
efforts
of the WGU and all of it's supporters. She told me that, based on the
tangible market demand that all of us helped prove existed, she may be
able to get a deal with a MAJOR international chain to put our game on
the
shelves around the world. We're talking about an initial order for
enough
units to pay for the entire project before one line of code is even
written.
This kind of attention is because of you. Every little thing you do to
support the WGU adds up to one hell of an impressive impression to
people
like this marketing executive. Every email, message board, and web page
that
you take the time to send and create strengthens our chances of success.
Obviously, I'm going to look into the validity of her offer more
closely
when I meet with her again in a few weeks. But if what she says is true,
then we have some hard work ahead of us. Not just creating the game
itself,
but proving to the investors and distributors that there is a large
enough demand for this game to guarantee it's success. I'm going to be
asking all of you in the coming weeks to help the WGU increase our
numbers and visibility. I've already been putting off investors anxious
to
invest in the project because I know we've only scratched the surface
and
that there are thousands more gamers like us who don't regularly cruise
the
message boards and wrestling sites and who don't yet know about the WGU.
I
want to see the number of newsletter members in the tens of thousands by
the
end of August and I encourage all of you with the ability to create web
sites to start putting up those fan pages for everyone to see. Investors
and industry people may be interested now, but I know we can make them
beat down our doors for the opportunity to get involved.
If we can get a large enough order of games from just one retail chain
it
would guarantee our game would get made. And if the people in charge of
such
decisions see our massive mailing list and hundreds of fan sites all
over
the internet they'll be much more inclined to make the order.
Let's get ready to move!
2) Cutting the 'Lie' Out of License
***********************************
This week I'm very happy to present another beautifully crafted piece
of writing from Mel Hauser, one of the WGU's most prolific and talented
members. Once again, please do not read any further if strong language
offends you. Mel was offered this forum to speak to you free of any
censorship, editing, or power tripping message board moderators. If you
have any comments you'd like Mel to read email them to me at
Dave@WrestlingGamersUnited.com and I'll pass them along to him. Enjoy.
Cutting the 'Lie' Out of License
Before we bust through the crust of another poison dissection on
the
great mysteries and indelible truths of the lives of wrestling game
fans, a
brief heads-up of thanks to everyone who took the time to hit our man
Dave up
with feedback on my last newsletter addition. I was expecting the
standard
torch-n'-pitchfork response to my commentary, but the contrary
resonance of
your responses hit me with a welcome chin-check. To you all, I say
this:
we're on the march. Keep bangin' and believin'.
Today's lesson is in regard to something that we've all come to
take for
granted over the last decade or so: the nature of the professional
wrestling
license. Nobody can really say when the first cracks in the bulletproof
skin
of the belief that a game without license clout isn't worth making, but
it
was pushed along in tremendous fashion by the increase of import
awareness
among game players through the nineties. In turn, this expansion was
blossomed
by the very technology that made this whole ever-lovin' WGU thing
possible
in the first place.. the internet softwire. The ability of gameplayers
to
swap ideas and move beyond the mystery of the Famicom created a monster
market for game warehouses specializing in the practice of surgical
system
alterations and Japanese titles, and mingled along with the booming
grey
market of puroresu and luche libre dubs, allowed a lot of rasslin'-fan
heads
that had been previously trapped inside a very linear box to explode
outward.
Culture lines blurred. Global appreciation for the wrestling traditions
of
other nations spread in viral patterns. The word 'smark' was born.
But strangely enough, despite the cultural wrestling awareness-boom
of
the nineties, very little of the trailblazing innovation that made its
way to
these shores by way of Japanese gaming titles like Touken Retsuden
managed to
trickle into the evolutionary curve of our homespun product. Despite
the fact
that at least one gaming company, TH*Q, was smart enough to tap these
developers to redress their native games with American skin--and made a
king-hell killing in the capitalist economy by doing so--the progress
of the
American wrestling game has actually managed.. somehow.. to retrogress.
Why?
It's a dirty secret. Filthy. Crude. And infinitely depressing.
But it's something that bubbles up amongst the flotsam and jetsam
of both
the dumb fan contingency that buys a game because the Rock's mug and
catchphrase are slapped on the front of the box, as well as the cosmic
pro
wrestling fan crusade that never fails to chirp the praises of Virtual
Pro
Wrestling in relation to its American cousins. It's a fact. An ugly
fact, but
a fact nevertheless.
Our licensing practices are a slipknot on progress.
Uh-hunh. That's what I'm saying. That which attracted us to become
fans
of both the sport, the sports-entertainment and the games that these
genres
spawned is exactly that which has led to consumer disappointment, anger
and
frustration with an almost clockwork precision. The WWE and wCw
licenses gave
us some great games and some fun times, and I'll be the first to admit
that--but it also made software like Nitro, Thunder and Crush Hour
possible
for the masses. Even worse, it succeeded in cubbyholing the structure
of the
traditional wrestling title game to such an extent that any chance it
had of
becoming an experience on par with EA Sports 'real' sports game was
progressively squashed by the year.
Sega and Electronic Arts bend over on their fingertips to kill each
other
in the NBA, NFL, NHL and soccer-slash-fringe-sports gaming genres every
year.
They are constantly forced to refine features, graphics, and the very
boundaries of their programming architecture in order to compete for
fan
bucks. Their competition has led to innovation after innovation,
including
the option in games such as NBA Live 2002 to edit any player on any
team, as
well as carry a franchise of your choice through ten years of
competition,
complete with retirement, a rookie draft, progressive statistical
improvement
affected by playing time and injuries, and a comprehensive ability
tracking
engine.
And only one month ago, we cracked open the shrink-wrap on WWE
Wrestlemania X-8.
A game with no injuries. An insulting create-a-wrestler mode. No
lateral
edit options. No season mode. A gameplay engine loosely cobbled
together on
that which has been selling on a competing system for years. No blood.
No
nothing.
And why is that? Because TH*Q's only visible competition in a genre
that
they brought to respectability in the last decade is themselves. And
furthermore, because TH*Q's success in that genre has been entirely
constructed on license dependency. A decade ago, EA Sports took the
commissioner of the National Hockey League to task on the fact that the
federation had crunched them into removing the fighting feature from
their
1994 edition of their NHL simulation series. Their sales had taken a
hit from
licensing problems a year earlier, and customers were angry at the
censorship
of a feature that happened on ESPN in their living rooms nightly. They
responded by refusing to settle for crap product.
EA stood up for its rights, and the NHL capitulated on the
argument. Not
only because the fans drove down the profit margin by refusing to be
collectively dicked, but also because the major sports commission that
brings
hockey to millions of Canadian and American fans realized that they
were
pissing off their constituency. And even a few years after that, when
EA
Sports began to try and gobble up the black tape by releasing annual
games
with bare-bones improvements over the former editions (Ironically
enough,
some of which were hocked through TH*Q to store shelves), gamers let
them
know that they weren't going to be screwed on title depth by turning to
Sega's stable of titles. Competition ignited innovation. Today, we are
the
real winners in the equation--I can edit the starting lineup of the Los
Angeles Clippers into reasonable facsimiles of myself, my friends, or
the
1972 Celtics and take that ragtag crew through ten seasons.
All because EA Sports realized that it needs my money in order to
stay in
business. The features of professional sports titles in the modern
picture
caters entirely to the whims of the player and the buyer, enabling them
to
modify their title at will. EA and Sega don't take for granted that I'm
going
to smack down another fifty bucks at the same time next year like a
pigeon,
so they compete. They make a game that's good for a year, two years, or
the
rest of my natural friggin' life. Accurate to the sport it replicates,
and
the license that motivated me to head for their game in the first
place. And
for that, I'm only too happy to cough up some of my hard-earned coin
for the
fruit of their labors.
In comparison, the crippled, creaking grossero mentality of the
hands
gripping the WWE license is enough to make one blow chunks. The player
isn't
the sum of the equation. The blood money squeezed from faceless sales
figures
is. It's almost as if TH*Q has gone into some sort of obscene
devolution act,
forgetting everything that transpired over the span of the last
generation of
software and hardwire, becoming a gaggle of flinthearted pricks whose
sole
interest is consolidation of assets and fucking anyone who came to
trust them
during the 64-bit wars. The license isn't held with pride; it's gripped
with
white knuckles and used as a prybar to hustle sub-par product to the
public.
WM X-8 is as blatant and wretched a proof as anybody could ever ask
for.. a
game obviously designed to tide over players for about a year, until a
sequel
gets hacked together. And by contradictory admission, Smackdown 4 does
look
like the quantum leap in comparison; but in that, it only makes TH*Q's
corner-carving practices on the Gamecube medium look more criminal.
They had
four games on the last Nintendo system to get their heads straight.
They
built a cash-money empire off of those games, and a devoted legion of
admirers in the gaming community.
And because they had a license that would sell regardless, they
blew it
all out of their capitalist asshole and right into our faces. No blood?
Thanks, Vince. No CAW? Thanks, Sanders. No story mode, editable
wrestler
costumes, lacking entrance themes and menu presentation on par with
Acclaim's
Super Wrestlemania?
Fuck you, TH*Q.
We built you. And this is how you thank us.
It's an unfortunate fact to also consider that the only major
competition
to the Yuke's smash-n'-bash monopoly is the company that started the
licenseholder race, and was responsible for some of the sorriest
software
mutations on the theme... Acclaim. It's an even more unfortunate fact
that
TH*Q hasn't learned a thing from their example. When the WWF went into
the
business of marketing clowns and crocodile hunters in the early
nineties,
Acclaim bucked its principles of making solid titles for the 16-bit
systems
and started spewing out monstrosities based entirely on the bogus
direction
of their WWF license. From WWF Royal Rumble to.. In Your House.
Acclaim bit the rasslin' bullet accordingly when they began using
their
license as a crutch for bad games, and now finds themselves in the
unenviable
position of trying to copy the mold of American wrestling games that
TH*Q and
Yuke's are pimping. A race with no clear winners, based on selling
likenesses
instead of loosening up their stranglehold on the cash cow and giving
the
heart of the game back where it belongs.. the players. The customers.
The
supporters.
Remove the license, and you take the noose off our necks. And
between
BAM! and the game currently on a slow boil somewhere in Canada, made
possible
by your interest, the player's field is about to become a very
interesting
place to be.
As it damn well should be.
-Mel Hauser
3) Thank you
**************
Response to last week's question regarding your preferred method of
implementing special moves and finishers into the game was met with the
biggest response I've seen yet to any question regarding gameplay. I
want
to thank all of you who took the time to write in or catch me on ICQ to
share
your thoughts on the subject. I also want to thank one WGU member in
particular who has been running one of the biggest WGU message threads
I've
ever seen and regularly sending me fantastic word docs consisting of
nicely
organized ideas solicited from gamers on the message board. He goes by
the
nic "Chocoburger" and he's turning out to be a high ranking member of
the
WGU army. If you see him around thank him for all the hard work he's
been
doing to make a difference.
4) WGU Website
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The WGU website will not likely be updated again until the end of
August
when it will be re-launched bigger, badder, and better than ever. When
it is,
you will find a ton of exciting news about the WGU game project and it's
team members as well as a revolutionary new way for gamers to get
involved
that no other game developer has had the guts to try. Stay tuned...
In the meantime and in between time, that's it. Another edition of
Wrestling Gamers United.
Thanks for your time and support,
Dave W.
Dave@WrestlingGamersUnited.com
ICQ# 140047363
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