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Would an online wrestling Tycoon game be successful?


Capelli King

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I am talking about something like a mesh between a e-fed and a real game. In other words you can take control of a promotion\wrestler, there will be trash talk and so on (which is standard for e-feds) but the difference that there will be wages, real wrestling skills which influence the fight ratings, promotions grow in popularity etc (like TEW). So in short a mix between TEW, e-fed and MMA Tycoon. The fights will be booked and results arranged (as with real wrestling) fighters will age and so on.

 

I am asking this because after my current game (been working on it for 1 1/2 years and spent a **** load already) is completed i am thinking of creating some online sports simulator next. Basketball, Football (soccer) or MMA are probably my other choices

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Something similar to that idea has been around for a long time, albeit without the fight ratings and popularity.

 

Wrassle.net

 

I used to play there a long long time ago, matches were simulated on an engine. Wrestlers were contracted to feds and paid for each match they wrestled with bonuses for winning titles etc. The money could be spent on learning new moves or increasing skill statistics such as strength or technique. It also had all the efed style posting and roleplaying. It wasn't perhaps as evolved as say MMA tycoon though but not that far behind.

 

In the few years I played it, it seemed to shrink a fair bit. I'm not sure how much of a market there is for a game like that since wrestling is not as popular as it once was, efeding attracts a very specific kind of player who have to have a fair bit of time on their hands, and games like this tend to have a pretty high dropoff rate.

 

While I think it would be a cool concept, I don't think it would be that successful.

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There are some gfeds that have attempted to do this. And some wrestling based MMORPGs that have tried some similar concepts.

 

You might want to try it on a small scale basis and see what concepts work and dont work.

 

Hell, recruit some e-fedders on these boards, try and run two 'competing' feds and use them as a test pilot.

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I have never been a fan of MMORPG games until I ran across Goallineblitz. And I am addicted to that game. It mixes good forums, football, and the aspect fo running/organizing a team, all of which I enjoy.

 

If the wrestling concept was like a interactive TEW I think it would be awesome. Take GLB structure for instance. In this wrestling MMORPG you are given like 1000 points to create a wrestler. You train this wrestler and can sign them with a company. People can buy company's for saying 5000 points or something.

 

It could almost be like the MMA MMORPG game floating around on these forums. I would play

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The only problem with running an online wrestling game in the vein of TEW is that people will lose interest the minute their character is consigned to jobbing. I think if it's handled correctly and played between mature adults who can accept desicions made by those above them it'll be great, but if immature people get hold of it and cry the minute their John Cena clone isn't given the Jesus push, then it won't be an enjoyable game to play.

 

If it's played as a 'sport' (results decided purely by skill without storylines) then it just becomes too like MMA to be considered wrestling IMO. But I think there's a great market out there for an online TEW where every character is played by a real person. There'll just have to be a method for dealing with the 'irritants'.

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<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="TheKenwyne" data-cite="TheKenwyne" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="26869" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>The only problem with running an online wrestling game in the vein of TEW is that people will lose interest the minute their character is consigned to jobbing. I think if it's handled correctly and played between mature adults who can accept desicions made by those above them it'll be great, but if immature people get hold of it and cry the minute their John Cena clone isn't given the Jesus push, then it won't be an enjoyable game to play.<p> </p><p> If it's played as a 'sport' (results decided purely by skill without storylines) then it just becomes too like MMA to be considered wrestling IMO. But I think there's a great market out there for an online TEW where every character is played by a real person. There'll just have to be a method for dealing with the 'irritants'.</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> I agree, and I think that's the problem. If winning/losing is based on stats it's too much like MMA Tycoon. If it's not based on stats at all it is basically an E-fed. I think to be successful you'd need it to be somewhat like TEW where the stats are based on real life like selling, mic skills, star power, etc. Let each promoter book however they want, but make show/match ratings depend on the stats. If you could find a way to rate storylines that would be ideal. I think this game would have a lot of potential but only if you really do it right.</p>
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I agree, and I think that's the problem. If winning/losing is based on stats it's too much like MMA Tycoon. If it's not based on stats at all it is basically an E-fed. I think to be successful you'd need it to be somewhat like TEW where the stats are based on real life like selling, mic skills, star power, etc. Let each promoter book however they want, but make show/match ratings depend on the stats. If you could find a way to rate storylines that would be ideal. I think this game would have a lot of potential but only if you really do it right.

 

It wont be based on stats, as you said it would be like MMA Tycoon if it was. To an extent it will be more like an e-fed with in ring meaning. There will be in ring skills, which improve as you win gain experience. Match rating will depend allot on those ratings. The biggest issues as you mentioned is the storylines, i was thinking of adding something like this:

 

Total views of the story, total votes, total weekly posts (maximum 3) topic size\length. The storylines need to play a serious role in the actual success of a fighter, meaning that the better, more regular and active wrestlers will get better hype going for them. Maybe in ring skills will make up around 50-60%, if not then it will be down to simply booking well built up fighters. Then again simply being a noob with good storylines wont take you all the way to the top in record time, you will still need in ring skills.

 

If lets say the booker has someone really crap (poor in both skills) winning titles and leading their promotion it will mean that their promotion will also suffer in popularity. Also having matches between the same guys or holding the title on one guy forever will hurt the hype and so on.

 

The biggest issue i think is popularity of wrestling, is it really worth the bother?

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It wont be based on stats, as you said it would be like MMA Tycoon if it was. To an extent it will be more like an e-fed with in ring meaning. There will be in ring skills, which improve as you win gain experience. Match rating will depend allot on those ratings. The biggest issues as you mentioned is the storylines, i was thinking of adding something like this:

 

Total views of the story, total votes, total weekly posts (maximum 3) topic size\length. The storylines need to play a serious role in the actual success of a fighter, meaning that the better, more regular and active wrestlers will get better hype going for them. Maybe in ring skills will make up around 50-60%, if not then it will be down to simply booking well built up fighters. Then again simply being a noob with good storylines wont take you all the way to the top in record time, you will still need in ring skills.

 

If lets say the booker has someone really crap (poor in both skills) winning titles and leading their promotion it will mean that their promotion will also suffer in popularity. Also having matches between the same guys or holding the title on one guy forever will hurt the hype and so on.

 

The biggest issue i think is popularity of wrestling, is it really worth the bother?

 

It sounds like an e-fed to me. I think that's going to be hard to get around.

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I would buy it for sure, and I think your idea has a lot of merit Capelli...but as you well know, the people on this board are a minority of a minority of a minority.

 

Take all the people in the world, divide them into people who play video and computer games, and those who don't. Now, of those people who play, divide them into people who understand English (I doubt very seriously that we have anyone playing TEW who doesn't at least read English, probably speak it as well) and those who don't. Of the English speakers, divide that group again into people who would play a wrestling-based game (any wrestling game, from Fire Pro to Smackdown to TEW) and those who would not. Of that group, divide it again into people who would play a text-based, kayfabe-breaking wrestling simulator on his/her computer...and then divide that group into people who would pay for the chance to do so.

 

We are the very definition of "niche market." And I couldn't be happier about it!

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Thing is, that niche market should be in this forum, as far as i know the best promotion wrestling game there ever was is TEW, so if there is limited interest here then pretty much there is little to no reason to even look into this one.

 

mMMMMmMM..I think you're misunderstanding who you're trying to attract.

 

At it's base, your idea is an e-fed. With some very cool additions; but still an e-fed.

 

The people who play TEW like wrestling, but an e-fed is a very different thing to be involved in than a simulator. Maybe go to one of the bigger e-fed boards and make this suggestion?

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mMMMMmMM..I think you're misunderstanding who you're trying to attract.

 

At it's base, your idea is an e-fed. With some very cool additions; but still an e-fed.

 

The people who play TEW like wrestling, but an e-fed is a very different thing to be involved in than a simulator. Maybe go to one of the bigger e-fed boards and make this suggestion?

 

Yeah i see what you mean, essentially it is both though, the e-fed side of it could possibly not even be a rated part (ie in ring skills could be the rating, the talking part could be simply what helps the booker make decisions)

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Yeah i see what you mean, essentially it is both though, the e-fed side of it could possibly not even be a rated part (ie in ring skills could be the rating, the talking part could be simply what helps the booker make decisions)

 

True. And I do think it's an interesting idea. i'd sign up.

 

But even if a part of it is asking people to 'cut promos' or be creative and do some original writing, that's still something that not every body likes to do or they avoid doing because they aren't confident they'll be good at it.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Unless that request includes money and points on profits, I doubt the answer will be yes.

 

well if we did something like that we would offer that, thing is the wrestling spirit simulator is not really what we need because they are "booked" fights, not simulated. In fact TEW would be closer to what we need because there is allot of things which could be implemented from that

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Depends on how you define 'success'. As folks who have played MMOs for more than 10 years can tell you, that definition has changed drastically over the last 5-6 years. By some people's estimation, Grey Dog isn't successful, after all.

 

A Tale in the Desert is a very successful MMO, even if it doesn't have the sheer numbers of World of Warcraft (as an example of scale).

 

I think this could be successful in a 'profitable' sense. As long as it finds a following of people willing to pay for it, it'll do fine.

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