Brand Split

[moafnsteel]

In my SWF game, I have as usual signed too many people. I do not like releasing people and have sent many to development to just work there. I want to do a brand split but I always struggle making it seem realistic and having two GMs draft workers "fairly." How do you all handle these?

[Remianen]

<p>Realism is in the eye of the beholder most of the time. It relies largely on personal knowledge and experience so it differs greatly from person to person.</p><p> </p><p>

For example, when I did a brand split in 2013, I based one brand solely in Ireland and spun it as a corporate inversion. Someone who doesn't know what that is (or its present day significance) would say that that's 'unrealistic' (and they would be wrong).</p><p> </p><p>

My go-to reason involves a minority owner unhappy with the product who makes waves and is given a brand to manage. The majority owner (usually my user character) believes that they'll fail so gives them just enough rope to hang themselves with. So the second brand is typically filled with workers I don't really have high level plans for. Basically just to give them something to do. My inversion split was the same thing except using onscreen proxies (Emma Chase in the US vs Lynn Cox in Ireland).</p><p> </p><p>

It all comes down to what you want the split to do or accomplish.</p>

[St. Templar]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="moafnsteel" data-cite="moafnsteel" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="41663" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>In my SWF game, I have as usual signed too many people. I do not like releasing people and have sent many to development to just work there. I want to do a brand split but I always struggle making it seem realistic and having two GMs draft workers "fairly." How do you all handle these?</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> The struggle really is to keep the two (or three) brands evenly balanced, at least if that's your goal (I'm presuming two "major brands"). As I do with just about everything in the game, I look at my roster, divide it into pushes, then start to figure out who I should keep together and who I'd want to separate (if you've got a great tag team and you want to push them to the top of your tag ranks, you probably want them together; if you're looking to push them as singles stars, you put them into different brands). The trick really is just that: planning, at least for me.</p><p> </p><p> Note: I'd probably take your biggest two guys who can put on your hottest feud and put them on separate brands. This way, there's less of a likelihood that you'll be tempted to throw them into a TV match that will have little payoff other than popping your ratings. Having them on separate brands means you'd have to be methodical about where you had them have angles and matches to build to their big blow-off match and will likely force you to do that at a major event.</p><p> </p><p> St.T</p>

[moafnsteel]

<p>Thanks guys those are both helpful. I do intend them to be two major brands, just figuring out how to handle the transition as my UC is Christian Faith and is the "CEO" brought in when Richard retired and didn't trust his sons. May have Jerry take over one brand, but he is not so good on the mic, and Emma is already the GM of my B-Show where I develop talent, and I don't want to lose her on the commentary desk, at least for now. </p><p> </p><p>

I think the biggest struggle is splitting the brands "even" enough that both shows can have some of their own PPVs without featuring the same matches every time.</p>

[Historian]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="moafnsteel" data-cite="moafnsteel" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="41663" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Thanks guys those are both helpful. I do intend them to be two major brands, just figuring out how to handle the transition as my UC is Christian Faith and is the "CEO" brought in when Richard retired and didn't trust his sons. May have Jerry take over one brand, but he is not so good on the mic, and Emma is already the GM of my B-Show where I develop talent, and I don't want to lose her on the commentary desk, at least for now. <p> </p><p> I think the biggest struggle is splitting the brands "even" enough that both shows can have some of their own PPVs without featuring the same matches every time.</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Well, it's a good thing you have developmental then!</p><p> </p><p> In all seriousness, I don't do a lot of brand splits, just because I rarely hit a level in a game where I'm that big with that many workers [i almost always start as a small or regional level company and try to build my way up]. My experiences with brand splits though have been this: I split the roster evenly. For instance, I look at my main eventers. If I have say, 10 main eventers and five are heels and five are babyfaces, I give one group 3-2 and the other group 2-3, and I alternate down the card like that, trying to make sure I have as close to equal number of guys on the roster and that I split my babyface/heels up as evenly as I can between the two brands.</p>

[moafnsteel]

That is generally what I try to do, but what I notice is I generally end up with my favorites on one brand and it becomes stacked lol. I tried a random list generator but that doesn't always come out the best either.

[djthefunkchris]

<p>I've used brand splits for various reasons. Mostly because I hire too many and is the reason I'm putting in my two cents.</p><p> </p><p>

I agree on evening it up, but sometimes there are some mid or upper cards that I count as one level higher because they are on the list as being "the future". Outside of that I agree 100%.</p><p> </p><p>

I normally hire way too many though. Some of them (in 2013) would be a burden when I threw them in development, and some of them would be totally correct in that they were already maxed out. SO... the third brand would become my "B" brand, which I would use to have hands on developing ones I personally wanted to utilize for bigger things down the road. As they climb up the card and become popular enough to throw on my main rosters, I'd move them up to whichever brand needed them most.</p>

[AfRoMaN36]

I give each show an unofficial "focus." For example RAW is the entertainment show and Smackdown is the wrestling show/previously underutilized stars show. Whenever I need to do a draft for the WWE, or once a game year when I mix up rosters I try and keep cognizant of thiss. The Bryan's, Zigglers and Sandows will work on Smackdown while Ortons and Cenas work on RAW.

[lazorbeak]

I haven't personally tried it, but I kind of like the idea of a sort of brand split where you've got the A-team on one side on your main show, feeding into ppvs, etc., and you've got your B-team appearing on WCW Worldwide and doing house show circuits, with the idea being that it's a step above developmental and a step below the "A" show. Means you don't have to worry about balancing everything perfectly.

[mrwhippy]

I've never successfully ran a brand split. I like to write for everyone (or at least those who will be appearing on the TV shows) so writing for a roster big enough to satisfy two brands is exhausting - so by avoiding a massive roster it will end up being too small to avoid repetitive booking.