Scampers Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 I'm in my early 30s now, and it feels like I've been playing this series for fifteen years or something. I love it. I can't think of any games, even MMOs, I come back to as often as this one. I love other management games, but I'm almost always comparing them to TEW in some way and finding them lacking. All that said, I can count on one hand how many times I've watched/seen any real world wrestling. Growing up I always had friends that liked wrestling, so I have a passing familiarity with the late 80s/early 90s WCW/WWF stuff, the "Attitude" era, and a couple documentaries, but beyond that you couldn't pay me to watch wrestling. Zero interest. SIDE NOTE - This is not intended to crap on wrestling, by the way, not even a little bit. In fact, I find myself defending wrestling all the time now to people by saying crap like "I don't watch wrestling, but..." and proceed to talk about it like I took a college course in the subject. I have a ton of respect for the art/business/skill now thanks to this game, I just don't partake. OK, anyway, all that just to get to my question - anyone else out there a non-wrestling fan obsessed with TEW? Seems like the vast majority are real-world fans, but I can't be the only rube out here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoxy Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 While I myself am a wrestling fan, I've not really followed wrestling for a good half a decade or so, due to lack of interest in the current scene, I just wanted to say I find it pretty interesting that you took a class on it. Doubly so, as I am very much into discussing wrestling from a literary/intellectual point of view. I got my partner interested in wrestling as theater through my interest in it and explaining why I find it interesting (and the sheer number of hours I put into TEW). I've since showed her some of the best (and worst) matches I remember from the 1990s, when I was a huge fan, to spur discussions on the psychology and execution, and the literary merit of particular spots and sequences, and so forth. Yay, intellectual analysis of professional wrestling! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Narcizo Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 I hadn't seen any wrestling since the FA Cup Final day Big Daddy & someone vs Giant Haystacks & someone matches in the 70s. I started reading someone's diary on another site and started playing after that. Then I started watching some wrestling. So it was becauase of TEW that I discovered wrestling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheOtherJamesCameron Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 I'm in my early 30s now, and it feels like I've been playing this series for fifteen years or something. I love it. I can't think of any games, even MMOs, I come back to as often as this one. I love other management games, but I'm almost always comparing them to TEW in some way and finding them lacking. All that said, I can count on one hand how many times I've watched/seen any real world wrestling. Growing up I always had friends that liked wrestling, so I have a passing familiarity with the late 80s/early 90s WCW/WWF stuff, the "Attitude" era, and a couple documentaries, but beyond that you couldn't pay me to watch wrestling. Zero interest. SIDE NOTE - This is not intended to crap on wrestling, by the way, not even a little bit. In fact, I find myself defending wrestling all the time now to people by saying crap like "I don't watch wrestling, but..." and proceed to talk about it like I took a college course in the subject. I have a ton of respect for the art/business/skill now thanks to this game, I just don't partake. OK, anyway, all that just to get to my question - anyone else out there a non-wrestling fan obsessed with TEW? Seems like the vast majority are real-world fans, but I can't be the only rube out here! I watched wrestling when I was a really young kid. I LOVED Bret Hart and old school surfer Sting, but one night when I was 7 or 8 my mom picked me up from my neighbors house and saw Goldust on screen doing his Goldust thing and I wasn't allowed to watch anymore. But after picking up WMMA3 (I am a huge MMA fan) I was turned on to TEW by a random click on these forums. Started playing and now I am a casual wrestling fan. After nearly 20 years without I now watch Raw most weeks and Smackdown every once in awhile. Wrestlemania was my first PPV, and my favorite night of the week involves sitting on the porch, smoking a cigar and watching NXT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramaeno Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 thats amazing. I cant imagine how you or anybody could get into a game as detailed and complicated etc. as TEW or EWR but have 0 interest in the core product of it, the wrestling. But it is cool, nonetheless. I guess it isnt a crazy notion, if you think of all those Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Nobunagas Ambition games, they had or have tons of fans and followers but how many of those fans give a whopper Jr. about true Chinese or Japanese history? Or as a young kid, picking up Madden but not knowing the name of a single football player ("uhh what team is Brian Bozworth on?" "uhh he retired a long time ago man") i guess it makes sense. I myself, well, I lov*ed* wrestling but i think my situation is similar to Adam and alot of others here where we dont know much at all about the current product but were rabid fans of the 80s/90s with encyclopedia knowledge of the workers, angles and history from back then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AfRoMaN36 Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 I myself, well, I lov*ed* wrestling but i think my situation is similar to Adam and alot of others here where we dont know much at all about the current product but were rabid fans of the 80s/90s with encyclopedia knowledge of the workers, angles and history from back then. I certainly fall into this camp. I'm super apathetic about the current product. So much so that when I tried to get back into TEW in 2013, I booked Brodus Clay as a cruiserweight and thought DOlph ZIggler was supposed to be gay. The game is really the only thing that makes me even remotely care anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Hook Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 I fall into that camp: I haven't watched a wrestling show since the Monday Night Wars days. As a kid I was a big WWWF fan through the late 70s into the early 80s, came back to watch WCW in my late 20s, then move on again. But I love TEW. I heard about TEW13 on the SI/Fm forums, checked out the demo and had a blast, and now I am hooked Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingster Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 I wouldn't say I have zero interest in wrestling, but I'm an extremely casual fan these days. I read/listen a bit about what's going on in WWE, but the only wrestling show I watch is NXT because that's the kind of wrestling I like: Simple, effective story-telling with the focus on the in-ring action and wrestling as a competition where everyone's ultimate goal is to win the title. Having said that, I used to be a big wrestling fan as a kid, especially during the Attitude Era. So, I feel like I've seen enough wrestling to know how to book TEW. I can't imagine how someone who has zero interest in wrestling and has never seen a wrestling show could get into such a complex game as TEW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AfRoMaN36 Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 I wouldn't say I have zero interest in wrestling, but I'm an extremely casual fan these days. I read/listen a bit about what's going on in WWE, but the only wrestling show I watch is NXT because that's the kind of wrestling I like: Simple, effective story-telling with the focus on the in-ring action and wrestling as a competition where everyone's ultimate goal is to win the title. Having said that, I used to be a big wrestling fan as a kid, especially during the Attitude Era. So, I feel like I've seen enough wrestling to know how to book TEW. I can't imagine how someone who has zero interest in wrestling and has never seen a wrestling show could get into such a complex game as TEW. I can see it. I own Football Mogul, but don't watch football. I do like the Jets and maybe actually followed them for one season about a decade ago, but it really doesn't interest me. I'm more into the management aspect of it, and the challenge of creating a successful franchise. I used to get Madden games each year just to simulate seasons. Granted, TEW is much deeper than both of those games... but the idea isn't foreign to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scampers Posted May 20, 2016 Author Share Posted May 20, 2016 Well, because of my wrestling fan friends, I was introduced to games like WCW/NWO for the N64, and played some iteration of those up until the Playstation 2 era. I loved the career modes, creating wrestlers and working my way up. I don't remember exactly how I found out about EWR, but it was probably searching for some PC version of those games and finding that instead. So I had a base knowledge from my friends, console games, and the more simplistic EWR. Then as things got more complicated over the years, I'd just figure it out as I went along and/or use forums and the like to pick up pointers. Still, none of this ever translated into me wanting to watch real world wrestling for whatever reason. I tried getting into Football Manager, cause I thought it'd be a similar experience, but I've never watched one second of Football/Soccer so I had no idea what *anything* meant. Way too steep a learning curve for me, but I still think of going back and giving it a try again from time to time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koholos Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 I'm definitely one of those people. I discovered this game when Phantom Stranger started a thread on Rpg.net about the game and how to play it. But, aside from having friends back in high school who were big wrestling fans, I had very little knowledge of wrestling- outside of the big names who had managed to become mainstream. In my case, this game actually made me more interested in wrestling. I'm a big anime fan, and playing TEW and then watching some matches (recommended by PS and some of his counterparts) really made me understand why people love wrestling and what it means to them (the entrances for the first Taker vs HBK WM match is the moment that finally made me truly get it). After nearly 30 years of being one of those 'Why would people want to watch fake sports' jerks... I finally realized that wrestling has more in common with anime or sentai or comic books, and have actually found several people to mark out over. For me, the biggest problem with not being a wrestling fan and playing this game is that I never really feel like I'm booking storylines and title matches "realistically". And I fall back on the same 5 angles constantly, because I have no idea what else to do with characters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redhilleagle Posted May 21, 2016 Share Posted May 21, 2016 I watched wrestling a lot from 1992 to mid to late '94, and revisited it when Hogan faced the Rock at Wrestlemania. I take a passing interest but rarely watch it and even when I do, I've not seen a show from start to finish since those early '90's days. But I've always taken an interest in the business and I've always enjoyed games like these. Been playing now since TEW '10, and dabbled in the old EWR games. I always attempt to run a save as WWF in the late '80s / Early '90s, but can never get round the huge roster. I tend to go back to the UK and run a save there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Narcizo Posted May 21, 2016 Share Posted May 21, 2016 I remember playing as USPW in TEW2005 (I think) and wondering what the note "Match suffered for lack of selling" meant and why it kept cropping up so much. Particularly in all Bruce the Giant matches. At first I thought it meant that we hadn't promoted the match enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BHK1978 Posted May 21, 2016 Share Posted May 21, 2016 I do not really fall into the category of not watching it at all but my interest has waned since WCW died and Vice became the true power broker in the industry. I try to keep up on what is going on in ROH and WWE (TNA has quickly become a lost cause to me) but I am nowhere near the fan I was when I was a kid or in the mid to late 90's. I do get the concept of playing a game based on something you have no real life interest in. I have played and love games based on Golf and Tennis and I would never watch either in real life. I am not a huge Hockey fan but I love Hockey video games. Same goes for Boxing as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VBigB Posted May 21, 2016 Share Posted May 21, 2016 <p>You can put me in the category of a non-wrestling fan. I watched it a little when I was a kid in the mid-80's, but haven't really watched anything since. Still I did end up playing quite a few wrestling video games over the years.</p><p> </p><p> I discovered this series just after TEW 2005 was released. I was actually looking for any kind of complex tycoon game and I randomly came across a review. Since then I've purchased every version.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.