A Question Of Forward Thinking!

[Gnrfan]

Just wondering how everyone forward thinks in TEW.

 

I try to have a plan for 3 PPV's in advanced and also i like to have a plan for what my biggest PPV of the year will be a year in advance. I generally don't plan TV shows mind

 

Obviously things can be changed but i need that sort of idea of what i'm planning.

 

Just wondered how everyone else does it? Do you plan in advance or do you just run with it and see. A couple of friends that play do it on a Month to month basis i.e. once the PPV in Jan is finished they write the PPV for Feb and then work towards that.

[Bombstriker]

How I played in the past was really based on the workers. The ones that I really wanted to drive to the top I thought out when and where I wanted them to win a title or something of that sort. Even going beyond 3 months. As for smaller feuds I almost went show to show.

 

As for writing up full PPV cards I never really did that, things kinda just fell into place when it came time. It just based on how much I liked the worker and if I was trying to really push him or not. That was the only time I would plan far in advance.

[Colm McGrath]

I plan one year in advance and then never actually put it into action.

 

I've notebooks and spreadsheets full of plans for USPW in 2008 but never booked more than 3 shows in the game.

[Day_Dreamer]

I have my DOTT game all planned up for a good 6-7 years (just the main feuds that is). I'm gonna make Piper my Hogan and take Mid South to a whole new level.

[NicoTheUnique]

Well, i dont plan monthly, just write down a cupple of notes to my storylines, even midcard stuff...But most of the times, i pull the trigger on matches, angles and tittle changes to earlier than planned...

 

Like in my ROH game i'm playing now, i had a long term storyline between Daniels and Danielson© for the belt, begining in March and going all the way to Final Battle and ending in a HUGE-Cage match for the tittle, but after 4 months, I pulled the Cage Match and let Daniels Win it.

I had to then make a new plan for the world tittle...

 

 

its about addapting to what happens, Daniels became my most over guy, and i pulled the trigger..

 

-Nico

[Irish Wolf]

Depends I play a lot of small feds with one monthly show so usually I don't plan anything I do it show by show. I've played a few Japanese feds 5SSW and BHOTWGs and usually I'll plan the entire tour. With SWF I'll plan for the Supreme Challenge then I'll plan every other PPV between backward from that. Once I have the Supreme challenge and the PPVs set up I'll plan month to month. Once I end one PPV I'll plan all the shows up to the next one.

[Bigpapa42]

I used to start with some flexible ideas of what I wanted to do long-term, but really only plan about one month in advance, so I had a very good idea of what I wanted to do for the next PPV. When I did my SWF diary, I started to plan out a bit more on paper, which eventually lead to using a planning document where I had very strong (if still flexible) plans for about 3-4 months in advance, tentative plans for a couple months beyond that, and ideas for about the full year. Non-diary games don't get quite as much planning, but I still plan. I use spreadsheets now so its pretty use to plan and keep track of everything.

[Rayelek]

For one-show/month companies, I'll usually do it 4-6 months at a time when I'm booking the feuds. For larger companies that have tv shows, if they're storyline based, usually just a month at a time. For non-storyline based, I plan out my PPV events and then try to book tv around those so I don't have repetitive booking penalties.

[Teh_Showtime]

i try to go 3 months in advance in terms of PPV wise but most of the time i just start up feuds and dont have a determined end

[thatoneguy]

I usually book to the next big show, but I also keep the entire tour in mind, and will occasionally just book to the final big show.

[SteamOdin]

I tend to book per tour, getting my next challengers over in time for the title match at the end of it while keeping my champions strong

[Stennick]

I used to start with some flexible ideas of what I wanted to do long-term, but really only plan about one month in advance, so I had a very good idea of what I wanted to do for the next PPV. When I did my SWF diary, I started to plan out a bit more on paper, which eventually lead to using a planning document where I had very strong (if still flexible) plans for about 3-4 months in advance, tentative plans for a couple months beyond that, and ideas for about the full year. Non-diary games don't get quite as much planning, but I still plan. I use spreadsheets now so its pretty use to plan and keep track of everything.

 

This is pretty much what I do. I look ahead to my Supreme Challenge, or some big ppv in the future and get a feel for what I want the top one or two stories to be going into that. Mostly though I go into it one ppv at a time and do my best to make most stories last for a few months. I'm a big fan of unique match ups and if you have guys moving onto new feuds at a rapid pace you've exhausted all your big name ppv match ups in a matter of months.

[eayragt]

As I book a PPV (of big event), I'll know most of my next PPV. However, there's normally a match or two that gets added - some undercard feud that I have running between PPV's that goes well and justifies a PPV match, or even a title match with "the title that nothing is really happening with at the moment".

 

I'll also have an idea of two or three matches from the PPV after that. Title match and main feud (if they're not the same), and then another title match if I'm building to a change, or a midcard feud that I've actually planned (which will normally be a project midcarder that I'm concentrating on).

 

Apart from that, if I've got a WrestleMania-esque show coming up in the next 3-4 months, I'll start planning that, so even if there's a logical match-up my two PPV's time, if it's "big match" I'll slow down the build a little, to put in the appropriate show. Also, I'll start to put match-ups together for upcoming tournaments (e.g. rekindle past rivalries, mark the deterioration of friendships etc).

 

Sounds organised, but in the end, plans change. A Midcard match can end up being the MOTN, and instead of moving the workers onto their next feuds their original programme is often extended... which can affect plans quite a lot. Or the dreaded long burn feud gets hit with poor chemistry, and the next match-up gets rethought to become a three way / tag match (or binned, but that's in extreme cases only). Or someone leaves, or someone's hired, or someone's injured.

 

So, in general only my main title and my main other storyline have really set plans for over two months, and even these can change.

[Reaper_ofall]

I plan one year in advance and then never actually put it into action.

 

I've notebooks and spreadsheets full of plans for USPW in 2008 but never booked more than 3 shows in the game.

 

Ah yes, the 'never actually do what I want, but I have a thousand things planned, I swear' approach. I swing between this and not planning anything out until I'm already at the booking screen... and even then I don't even really plan things sometimes.

[NickC13573]

As I play small feds with monthly shows, usually. I do what I was taught when I worked backstage for a fed and ate dinner after the shows with the booker/owner. I planned show to show, with small inuendo's relating to the previous show. If I had a 4 v 4 match, I had 1 wrestler hit his finisher on 3 of the members, and then on the next show, hit it on the 4th member of the team.

[NickC13573]

As I book a PPV (of big event), I'll know most of my next PPV. However, there's normally a match or two that gets added - some undercard feud that I have running between PPV's that goes well and justifies a PPV match, or even a title match with "the title that nothing is really happening with at the moment".

 

I'll also have an idea of two or three matches from the PPV after that. Title match and main feud (if they're not the same), and then another title match if I'm building to a change, or a midcard feud that I've actually planned (which will normally be a project midcarder that I'm concentrating on).

 

Apart from that, if I've got a WrestleMania-esque show coming up in the next 3-4 months, I'll start planning that, so even if there's a logical match-up my two PPV's time, if it's "big match" I'll slow down the build a little, to put in the appropriate show. Also, I'll start to put match-ups together for upcoming tournaments (e.g. rekindle past rivalries, mark the deterioration of friendships etc).

 

Sounds organised, but in the end, plans change. A Midcard match can end up being the MOTN, and instead of moving the workers onto their next feuds their original programme is often extended... which can affect plans quite a lot. Or the dreaded long burn feud gets hit with poor chemistry, and the next match-up gets rethought to become a three way / tag match (or binned, but that's in extreme cases only). Or someone leaves, or someone's hired, or someone's injured.

 

So, in general only my main title and my main other storyline have really set plans for over two months, and even these can change.

 

 

so you are a better run WWE?!

[Ranson]

I generally only plan out a few of my storylines/setpieces, usually leading up to that month's PPV (occasionally the next). Everything else is week-by-week adjustment to account for who I'm pushing/de-pushing.

[G-Prime]

I usually have a storyline or two planned out a few months in advance, making everything else up on the fly. There are still months worth of ideas for WWE Rebirth's main storylines, for example, but it's the on the fly stuff that's got me stumped and has me left floundering.

[jesseewiak]

I stupidly plan things too far in advance, then get frustrated doing the actual booking to get there. For TEW 2035...it reads your mind and does the booking while you sleep!

[Phantom Stranger]

I have a general game plan up to about six months in the future regarding the big feuds, and I have plans for the general direction beyond that at any given time. The details tend to evolve on only a week by week basis, though, as new workers become available, current workers get injured, people pull good results, etc. End result is that anything can happen ahead of time or get padded out to take longer.

 

Midlevel feuds get pencilled in to take place whenever they fit around the big feuds. Minor feuds tend to be resolved between PPVs.

 

The biggest issue I've found with this strategy is that it does mean that at any given time, some of my guys - including reliable big names - will be treading water waiting to be needed for one feud or another. (In the TCW diary, for example, RDJ and Eddie Peak have had this on a chronic basis.)

[Remianen]

I start at a point 13 months in the future (so February 2011 this time around) and determine who I want to be where (titleholders and #1 contenders and the like). Then I work backward with each storyline and set the PPV steps. The shows between PPVs are freestyle, but designed to feed into the story going into the next PPV.

 

Like in my aborted QAW diary, Golden Delicious was finally going to win the World title in a match with Lauren Easter. Tamara McFly would finally beat Wanda Fish once and for all (sending her back to the announce table or out of the promotion, for good). Fuyuko Higa would lose the North American title but gain a sort of Money in the Bank briefcase in the same night, setting herself up as a possible #1 contender for the world title.

[Enkay]

As I play small feds with monthly shows, usually. I do what I was taught when I worked backstage for a fed and ate dinner after the shows with the booker/owner. I planned show to show, with small inuendo's relating to the previous show. If I had a 4 v 4 match, I had 1 wrestler hit his finisher on 3 of the members, and then on the next show, hit it on the 4th member of the team.

 

...o.o

[Gnrfan]

I start at a point 13 months in the future (so February 2011 this time around) and determine who I want to be where (titleholders and #1 contenders and the like). Then I work backward with each storyline and set the PPV steps. The shows between PPVs are freestyle, but designed to feed into the story going into the next PPV.

 

 

Thats seems pretty much what i do. Although it always goes tits up

[praguepride]

I'm going to try a "rule of 3's" type of style.

 

1/3 of the show will be booked at the time of the show.

1/3 will be part of a 3-month story-arc

1/3 will be part of a 9-month mega-story arc.

 

 

Can't wait to start a new RIPW diary. Mine has fizzled with the announcement of 2010 but I'm pumped to see the roster changes and to start it up again.

[Zero]

What works for me is:

 

I only play historical mods, so I'll set up the first three months to go as planned, for instance when I play the 1997 WWF mod, I have everything the same for Wrestle Mania then right after BOOM my game.

 

Once I do that, I go in sections like I'll pick out the major pay per views like King of the Ring, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, Royal Rumble and Wrestle Mania and I'll focus on the main feuds I want for those events, for the pay per views inbetween mostly filler only to build up to my big events.

 

So far it has always worked and as for television shows, I just try and build on the story and deliever quite a few matches. I like to get everyone in my company match time so a lotta tag matches and short singles with a good 15 minute main event for a title.

 

Always works and usually my roster is very happy. I'm looking forward though to TEW2010, because with a historical mod, I can change future events, and such so I'm pretty amped for that.