CZCW: And Justice For All

[WxRobbie]

OOC: Just a quick update here guys. In the last three weeks I haven't been scheduled much at work, but I actually had to work today so that's the reason for no updates today. I just wanted to come on here and thank you guys for the support that I see as the views go up. I also wanted to ask you guys if you had any comments, questions or things you'd like to see.

[FlameSnoopy]

Brodie Lee?

 

Yeah, Brodie Boy.

[D-Lyrium]

things you'd like to see.

 

Fox Mask!

 

Nah, just kidding. Bryan Holmes makes up for him somewhat. I am a tad concerned though... You've fired Mr. Coastal Zone, changed the product fairly drastically (from what you've told us)... I'm just wondering why you chose CZCW.

[WxRobbie]

Fox Mask!

 

Nah, just kidding. Bryan Holmes makes up for him somewhat. I am a tad concerned though... You've fired Mr. Coastal Zone, changed the product fairly drastically (from what you've told us)... I'm just wondering why you chose CZCW.

 

Let me get a bit more specific with the product changes. The default product is:

 

Match Ratio: 90%

Traditional: Low

Mainstream: Medium

Comedy: Medium

Cult: Heavy

Risque: Low

Modern: Key Feature

Realism: Heavy

Hyper Realism: None

Hardcore: None

Lucha Libre: Medium

Pure: Low

Daredevil: Medium

 

Intensity: 60%

Danger: 60%

 

I changed it to:

 

Match Ratio: 80%

Traditional: Key Feature

Mainstream: Low

Comedy: Medium

Cult: Very Low

Risque: None

Modern: Key Feature

Realism: Medium

Hyper Realism: None

Hardcore: None

Lucha Libre: Medium

Pure: Very Low

Daredevil: Low

 

Intensity: 60%

Danger: 70%

 

So yeah I guess that is quite a change. But I chose CZCW because I was sick of playing games where I started my own promotion or took control of one of the big boys. I'm simply playing a game concurrent with this one in which I started my own promotion at Cult, bumped up the cash and have been running wild with B to B+ rated weekly shows and A rated PPVs for months now and while it is fun to shoot up the ladder, I find a game like this dynasty much more fun. To be honest, since I started as a hardcore player with TEW 2007, I have never taken a company up in size in game. I think I came rather close in my 2007 diary, as I ran a regional company for 6 years, but I stopped playing it when 2008 came out.

 

I've been spending nearly every free minute trying to think up exciting and intriguing storyline ideas to incorporate for my readers and have a list of things I'd like to try. We'll see how they work out.

[WxRobbie]

I stood from my desk and grabbed my notebook, ready for the one formal meeting a month I had with Cliff. We spoke throughout the month about ideas, his concerns and other complete bull crap, but this was the only time that business was the only thing on the agenda. As I carried my frame down the hall and raised my hand to knock on his door, I had a sinking feeling. Cliff wasn’t going to be overjoyed with our financial performance from May.

 

“Come in.” He said in his usual gruff voice.

 

I opened the door and saw him sitting at his desk. He was jotting down an answer in his crossword puzzle book as I made my way in. Just as I sat down he slid the book to the side and looked up at me. That was one thing I had learned about Cliff having been around him so much; he loved crossword puzzles.

“Before you even ask, I’ll flip to the finances.” I said with a smirk.

 

Cliff found it amusing that I knew what he was going to ask for first. Never mind the fact that he had done just that the last five months. He waited patiently as I flipped numerous pages back into my notebook and finally came across May. I slid my finger down the page and found the figure.

“Not as good as the first few months.” I started. “But we still managed to make almost nineteen thousand this month.”

My feelings were right. He didn’t smile or smirk in the least. He just looked at me with a puzzled look in his eyes. I knew he was having trouble figuring out where that extra seven thousand dollars that we had been making each month had gone too. I couldn’t hold it against him because when I got the figures the day before, I had them rechecked. I couldn’t figure out where it had gone either.

 

“Why so low?” He asked. “Attendance was up wasn’t it?”

 

I nodded, proud that Cliff was able to catch that. A few times already I had spotted him pre-show just looking around at the crowd from his position at the announce table. He was always trying to figure out how much we had made on gate beforehand. I thought it was a funny habit and made him a bet that if he could ever estimate it within five hundred dollars, I’d take him out to dinner twice a month for a year. Another thing I had learned about Cliff since I started here was that his math skills weren’t stellar by any means, so I figured I was safe with that one.

 

“It was the highest since I’ve been here.” I said.

 

Cliff nodded and leaned back in his chair, still trying to figure out where the money had gone. I decided to give him a minute before I butted in and gave him all the answers, but he put a stop to that when he threw up his arms and shrugged.

 

“So where did the money go?” He asked.

 

I flipped to the back of the page that had some comparison figures from months past and May. Once these were placed side by side it was quite easy to pinpoint where things dropped off. I made a comment to Kirk Jameson as we carried stuff from the gimmick table to the truck that it seemed we had a lot left over. We did.

 

“Merchandise was down almost four thousand.” I said.

 

Cliff’s eyes opened wide. I had the same reaction the first time I saw the drop off as well. I’m sure a part of it had to do with the dipping economy, but it hadn’t gotten that much weaker since last month. Maybe everyone that was going to spend money on our t-shirts, posters etc had gotten everything there was already. So maybe it was time to roll out some new designs.

 

“Plus we paid more workers this month.” I added.

 

I hoped he wouldn’t kill me. We had used nearly our entire roster this time around. Couple that with the fact that Bryan Holmes and Steve Flash both cost us two thousand a show and wages added up quickly. I looked at him cautiously, but his demeanor never really changed. I could see that he was disappointed we didn’t make as much money, but he was still happy we turned a profit.

“That would do it.” He said as he nodded. “I’m just glad that we’re still turning a profit.”

I nodded in agreement as I flipped another page in my notebook and looked for the other topics we would normally cover. I had already briefed him over the phone the night before about the economy and industry strength. The economy was still in a recession and getting even closer to a depression. The industry however was gaining momentum. It seemed to me that with no money to go out now, people were more apt to stay in and tune into wrestling shows. I was happy about these for two reasons, a slumping economy meant that when contracts started to come up, we might be able to drop some costs by talking guys into making a little less. I had also considered lowering our admission prices to bring out more people. At the moment we were asking ten bucks for our shows in The Junkyard, which wasn’t that bad. I figured I’d ponder the idea some more though.

 

“We finished second to AAA again.” I started. “I was really hoping to blow people away with Welcome to the Coastal Zone, but Bryan Holmes ended up not being a huge deal to anyone and a lot of the matches tanked.”

 

I must have had a somber look on my face because Cliff started laughing. I really wanted to take his company to the end of the universe and felt like organizing a lack luster showing for the biggest show of the year I had let him down. His laughs assured me otherwise.

 

“You don’t have to worry kid.” He said through his laughter. “I know you’re trying your hardest.”

 

I looked up to him and allowed a smirk to fill my face. I was glad Cliff was in a good mood today. I had an idea I wanted to pitch to him. It seemed to me that with an average of twenty-two to twenty-five thousand dollar profit each month and still just under two years to make another one hundred thirty-five thousand dollars to make that goal of his, we should be able to afford a bit of an expansion.

 

“I wanted to get your thoughts on something.” I started. “How would you feel if we started to run another monthly show in the Mid South?”

 

He sighed. I figured that my idea was going to be shot down like a fighter pilot in enemy airspace, but Cliff was full of surprises. He didn’t say no immediately; it was worse. He sat there silent for a few moments, seemingly thinking of the endeavor. At least I hoped he was thinking about it and not the answer to one of his crossword clues.

“Wouldn’t we end up losing all of that money we had been making?” He asked.

 

I had gone over these things numerous times in my head and on paper. Our popularity was so low in the Mid-South region that there was a LOT of people that probably hadn’t even heard of us. My plan of attack was to initially go in with a half hour show with myself as the main attraction and a lot of our younger talent. These shows would pretty much be independent of current storylines and be more of a one and done kind of thing. I explained all of these things to Cliff in detail and he posed more questions. He was really worried that by using all of our younger and thus less experienced talent we would end up hurting ourselves in the long run. That was the beauty of the whole thing. With such a low popularity, I hoped I could throw guys like The American Flash, Angel de Mexico and Primus Allen out there and put on shows that were watchable and good enough to get people to come back. We debated over it for a good hour or so and finally he was convinced. In July we would start running a monthly show there, pending the outcome of that first one. The only thing he did was limit me to only using workers that we were paying less than five hundred dollars. At that point, I really didn’t mind. I knew we were going to start out taking a small hit to begin with, but the plan was for more and more people to come out and eventually end up making some money on it. I guess the old cliché fits here; only time will tell.

[ampulator]

What about the NorthWest? Sounds like another good place to start.

[WxRobbie]

What about the NorthWest? Sounds like another good place to start.

 

Honestly I considered it, but importance is greater in the Mid South, so I figured I'd start there. My next step would be to head into the North West, but we'll see. I'm actually quite hyped to do the next few months of shows, simply because I've got my tournament coming up that holds some big implications in my plans for the future.

[ampulator]

That's a great point. Mid South is bigger in importance. It also makes easier for you to do good shows, or at least, have shows with better ratings.

 

I don't think you are popular enough to fill up the Ranch of San Antonio. Otherwise, that would be great spot to hold your show. It's the only place in the USA to have Modern as "Good".

[WxRobbie]

:-(

 

So I'm sitting here this morning going through the month and doing some write-ups for my overall backstory and I get the blue screen of death. It's happened before, no big deal. I rebooted and loaded up my game.....its gone. I can load the game and all my stats are there, but there are no promotions in the Companies screen and pictures are missing too.

 

So it looks like this is done for with my save file being corrupted. I'll play around with it for a bit, see if I can get it back, but I just wanted to give my readers a heads up. This really sucks because I had some big plans for the end of the year. :-(

 

Edit: Yeah I just clicked through all the tabs on the top of the game and all characters are missing too. Then when I clicked on the World tab, I got a runtime error.

[FINisher]

Try the backup folder?

[WxRobbie]

Try the backup folder?

 

Yeah I'll have to try that after work. I totally forgot about it. Thanks FIN.

[WxRobbie]

I just got home from work and tried copying the data from the backup folder, but it doesn't seem to have worked. Progress was made, but there are still some things missing. :-( I guess I'll have to retire this thing. I was really having fun with it; the first time since my first 07 diary I had had this much fun doing one. Thank you to all the readers who kept my views going up the last couple of weeks. Hopefully I'll be back sometime. I know I will be, my overall back story was too emotional not to be :-)

[Hyde Hill]

Why not restart it and make the exact same booking moves? Sure the grades will be different etc due to chemistry/destiny and other things but why not? Only thing you might need to do is have Holmes contract run out in the editor as PGHW doesn't always let him go.

 

If not up for that no problem and looking forward too your new work as I liked the work you did on this one.