How to stay invested in a save game?

[ThePepsiPlunge]

Hi I always start a new save and play 1-2 months and stop playing. Does this happen to anyone else? What do you do to stop this?

[Irish Wolf]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="ThePepsiPlunge" data-cite="ThePepsiPlunge" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="44013" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Hi I always start a new save and play 1-2 months and stop playing. Does this happen to anyone else? What do you do to stop this?</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Have ideas for stories. What stories do I want to tell. How can I stretch them out over X period of time.</p><p> </p><p> Play a game with a challenge like the road to glory challenge</p>

[meedraco]

I used to do that a lot. I found that running a small diary and have someone follow it help me stay invested in that game.

[LordofGustav]

<p>I have a problem, particulary with regional promotions, money quickly getting lost, bad influences, or what happens to me most... any inaccuracy in RW mods.</p><p> </p><p>

That keeps me from advancing. I have the ideas, but no the motivation enought sometimes.</p>

[ThePepsiPlunge]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="LordofGustav" data-cite="LordofGustav" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="44013" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I have a problem, particulary with regional promotions, money quickly getting lost, bad influences, or what happens to me most... any inaccuracy in RW mods.<p> </p><p> That keeps me from advancing. I have the ideas, but no the motivation enought sometimes.</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> This is kinda what happens to me, I just get unmotivated</p>

[sabataged]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="ThePepsiPlunge" data-cite="ThePepsiPlunge" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="44013" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>This is kinda what happens to me, I just get unmotivated</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> I dont ever play RW mods because I just dont trust the accuracy of the mods. No offense to the modders because they put in a ton of work. I just dont agree with most so i stick to Cverse</p>

[DatIsraeliGuy]

I have one save that went longer than a month or two basically, it's the WCW Lives mod and I think one of the reasons for it is if you play as WWE, there's no goal, nothing to achieve, no where to go, whereas if you choose a company like WCW in that mod (highly recommended) or WWF in 1994-96, you're in for a challenge.

[Bigpapa42]

<p>There are some good suggestions already. But my thought would be to start on the opposite end. If you typically end saves after 1 to 2 months, why is that? Was is it that made you not want to continue? What made you lose interest? Ask yourself those questions about those saves and you might narrow down what is making you lose interest. </p><p> </p><p>

To be honest, I often do the same thing. Sometimes its because I take over a big company that's just too big and booking a single week takes too long (hello WWE). Sometimes I take over a company that has a couple of elements that interest me, but a bunch that don't. Sometimes I take over a company without much of a plan, do a few things, and want to do it over. Sometimes I just book without planning or thought and it becomes power booking, which gets old fast. Sometimes I start with a very specific plan and something happens to throw that off and I just lose interest.</p><p> </p><p>

Not all of these are avoidable, I find. But I can realize my tendencies heading into a new save and look for situations where those kind of factors are less likely for me to call it quits after a month or two in-game.</p>

[niall2015]

Running a company with one show a month helped me because a lot of time passed by quicker, and I felt like I got more accomplished. It was mentioned above but running a company like WWE can be an absolute killer because of how much you have to book. Also writing a diary helps me because it lets me be more creative and actually try to do more with a save

[BrokenCycle]

<p>A lot of the time when I feel sick of a save it's because my booking has gone into autopilot. I'm pushing people that I "should be" pushing, and I've exhausted all match ups in the midcard and main event. </p><p> </p><p>

Make challenges for yourself. Even if it's 1 or 2 months into a game, go wild. Here's some suggestions...</p><p> </p><p>

Push bad workers. It's interesting trying to get bad workers over, seeing how far you can take them and how you book around their talents. </p><p> </p><p>

Break up your tag teams and create new ones. </p><p> </p><p>

Turn people. A lot. Don't hard turn them, but turning people is the best way of freshening up your roster in all levels. Turn one worker, at least, a month.</p><p> </p><p>

Try to come up with real stories. You can simply write a single sentence in the Storylines section, but doing so will bring some context to booking and make it a little more fun creatively. Watch the Network while you play, and just steal the storylines that you're watching.</p>

[CX1329]

<p>If you're not a particularly creative person when it comes to booking (like myself), just treat the game as a business sim and give yourself the task of taking a promotion from Small to Global. The game doesn't punish you for terrible, unoriginal and nonsensical booking, it just punishes you for bad shows. You can be worse than Vince Russo and still succeed in this game. As long as you consistently put on shows above your popularity rating (which isn't very hard to do), not only can you can go a long way, but you also get to learn the ropes and develop your creativity along the way. </p><p> </p><p>

In my latest save, I started out as a Small promotion, forced myself to power through the first few months despite my lack of ideas, motivated only by my hopes and dreams of taking my humble promotion to the global stage, now almost an in-game year on from the beginning I'm actually starting to get more creative with my matches and storylines. I also need to mention that I'm booking a Japanese puroresu promotion which fans expect 100% matches, so that REALLY pushes my creativity to its limits, since I can only get away with one or two angles at most on each event without upsetting the fans.</p>

[Fleisch]

I don't tend to get to play a lot, but I do get one good game going with a mod (and not usually my own). This time I am playing the WCW Lives mod and I think it depends on how much fun you are having. If you get bored or unmotivated after only 1 or 2 months of booking I'd say find another data set that will keep your attention. Maybe just book a couple of shows a week, or only on a Saturday, leave it the week, then book some more the next Saturday. My WCW Lives mod has me in 2003 currently and still rebuilding the brand and making it my own. I also don't play it everyday (I think it has taken me since the data was released to get to my second year last week). Usually I'll only play it on a Thursday evening or Friday.

[Poputt]

If you can get someone to copilot book with you it becomes way more fun/ridiculous.

[The_Monk]

<p>ive had this issue many times, especially recently ive restarted my 87 game god knows how many times.... but I think is also because ive been learning all the aspects of the game and never really had clear ideas in my head of where I wanted the game to go.</p><p> </p><p>

now I do...... I'm two months in and am loving it</p>

[Bigpapa42]

<p>One thing that I've been toying with that would make for a vastly different save than I've typically.... starting a new company. This can be particularly fun if its a mod (real or fictional) where there is a lot of talent you can sign up. Starting a company in-game at the largest possible size (Cult) means you can have Written contracts and possibly get both TV and PPV deals. </p><p> </p><p>

Another small thing, similar to writing out (whether in game or out of game) some good descriptions of the stories you are running.... updating bios. I've only done this a few times, but it can make a big difference in making the game feel unique and different.</p>

[Andylion]

<p>Plan. Ahead.</p><p> </p><p>

This has saved many games for me, especially my 1997 game that I've got as a diary on here, which is my longest-running game currently. I've wanted to end it multiple times, but I've got plans that I don't want to see get wasted. </p><p> </p><p>

"I can't end it now, I want the Brothers Of Destruction to form."</p><p> </p><p>

"I can't end it now, I want to write an Austin/Kane inferno match" (which never happened)</p><p> </p><p>

"I can't end it now, I want to write The Rock aligning himself with McMahon to form The Corporation."</p><p> </p><p>

"I can't end it now, I want to write Triple H usurping The Rock."</p><p> </p><p>

"I can't end it now, I want to write Kurt Angle winning King Of The Ring" </p><p> </p><p>

So on and so forth. It works to keep me motivated.</p>

[Peter.1986]

<p>I found my early problems with real word mods especially historical ones was....</p><p> </p><p>

I would sign all the workers and wanted and push them until I sort of had them in pop order that I wanted them at.</p><p> </p><p>

Then I'd get bored.</p><p> </p><p>

My advice would be to sign without knowledge. If the dudleys are 20 pop, would WWF have signed them? Concentrate on your Midgard to main event, don't invest in your B shows, save those storylines for when your workers are popular enough for the main show.</p><p> </p><p>

Keep people in current characters as long as you can, using an early 90s mod and turning papa shango into godfathers means you just skipped 8 years of his career. You then get bored of the godfather character, where do you go?</p><p> </p><p>

Use popular wrestlers you don't like, and ones already at the company, because if you only use workers you like, you don't really want any to lose.</p><p> </p><p>

Think about storylines rather than pushes. If you just have your favourite workers winning and winning all the time you will end up with the same people in the same spots. Think about what would happen in real life. Stone cold wouldn't come out on top while Vince was about, if he did would the likes of Vince, rock, hhh, big show, all people who were part convinces team ever become popular as a heel?</p><p> </p><p>

If you change your mindset to play the mod as you are living at the current time and don't have any knowledge to the future it plays much better.</p>

[Defmall]

<p>I try to write compelling storylines and hire guys I like and want to see involved. It motivates me to keep all the stories going and see how they evolve. I like to see how my new hires work out and what comes of my veterans.</p><p> </p><p>

When I don't have interesting storylines on the table, it can get boring...because then you are just churning out matches. So book things that interest you.</p><p> </p><p>

If I feel the game is not being "fair". You know: you are sure you did everything right but you score a 70....you can always go back into the editor and 'undo' the popularity drop. When it happens a lot, that's when I REALLY lose interest.</p><p> </p><p>

So i dont think like I'm playing "against" the game...but if I ever feel that the AI is keeping me down, then I tend to take a month off before starting an all new game.</p><p> </p><p>

Currently, I'm in July of 1997 for my 1994 WWF game. I'm completely invested in it, because I love all the stories, stables and characters I've created. I'm still entertained....</p>

[Jobbertrev]

<p>I usually run Local to Global, but would normally get burnt out by the end of small/somewhere in Regional. </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>

How I learned to combat this (During this time of the game it feels like you go nowhere for a long time) is once a year or so, I will book a special event, let the AI book it to allow title changes. </p><p> </p><p>

I take those results and title changes, and run with it. Somebody won my top belt that I didn't want to win? I find a storyline that can get the belt from him in the span of a few months. Somebody on a big win streak that just lost? I make that work. </p><p> </p><p>

By the time I finish all those storylines up, I can do a group of storylines that I have been planning out since the event. When I finish those....its usually time for another AI Booking Event.</p>

[Zero]

1.) Long term planning (Think about what you want to see, who you want to rise, who you want to fall, etc)

 

2.) Personal Risk (Look at your Main Event Talent, cut the one's you will not use. Let them leave and go somewhere else. You can always resign them down the road)

 

3.) Personal Projects (Pick a superstar who never made it or never won a world title or gained a lot of respect. My example is Art Barr. I love Art Barr and always have him on my roster.

 

4.) Rewrite History (In a lot of games I often never create KANE. I leave Glen Jacobs as a brawler who is just nasty in the ring. It works)

 

5. Tournaments (I love having tournaments. I often have three or four tournaments a year. I have the following in all my WWF games--- Lightweight Tournament--- Afa and Sika Invitational (Tag Team Tournament)---- Memorial Cup (Every wrestler in my company in a single elimination tournament.) I've also had a Hardcore Tournament and Six-Man tournament in the past. A fun way to break up the year and always plan something. I also do not pick the winner of the tournament. I only pick the winners of the first round. After that I do a coin flip or let the computer pick to make it more interesting.

 

6. Switch Companies (I personally never really do this. I like playing as the WWF in every game but in my current WWF 87 Game, I might take control of WCW when it opens and see what I can do

[Gungner]

I'm currently playing the Art of War mod, taking place in June 1998. When I got to around November, I got a bit bored of the save, which I had promised myself not to do, as it always happens! So... I started booking ahead, and one week into November, I basically had WrestleMania booked, so now I'm working towards that. And it works. I'm now three weeks into February 1999 and I'm hooked on the game. So far

 

It cannot be denied that I may try a different save after 'Mania is in the books.

[Captain2]

<p>Well it's good to have long term goals. For example. My goals have been for my 2001 to 2004 WWE game have been as follows</p><p> </p><p>

-Make Jericho into a big deal</p><p>

- Create the WWE Network and use it to get talent over in development</p><p>

-Build an ECW brand that is essentially ROH on steroids</p><p>

- Build the women's division up to be on par with the men's. Including dream matches like Trish Vs Sasha Banks or Laycool Vs Charlotte and Becky.</p><p>

- Build up The Miz into a legitimate top star</p><p>

- High profile Styles vs HBK match at WrestleMania</p><p>

-Make Cody Rhodes a star on smackdown</p><p>

-Give Shinsuke Nakamura a long run with the IC title. Maybe beat Honky-tonk man's record.</p><p> </p><p>

In terms of how far I am in my list I'm in the middle of number three and touching on four. But it'll take years to accomplish my goals.</p>

[Remianen]

<p>I almost never run into this problem. When I do, it's usually because of the mod I'm using (typically selling the women short. Asuka with 48 basics? REALLY?).</p><p> </p><p>

I play to develop talent. That's it. And that "job" is never done and it's never particularly easy. Every save, I pick a handful of workers I want 'on top' (it's usually in depth chart form, especially if I'm playing below Cult/written contracts) and then I work using old school methods to bring that to fruition. When that happens, I go to the next set of workers. By the 10 year mark, I've got a midcard that can main event PPVs with almost no loss of quality or rating. </p><p> </p><p>

My current save has me running a Cult level QAW and my primary competition (as far as show ratings are concerned).....is WTW, my development promotion. They made J.Ro their figurehead (after I signed her as a development trainer) and she and Zoe Ammis have been doing the Flair-Steamboat thing off and on for 8 months.</p><p> </p><p>

As previously suggested, having longer term goals would help a lot. Maybe taking your Small company to International. I find that setting worker-based goals keeps me engaged for longer periods because of the randomness that occurs with each save. If I intend to make Teresa Perez my figurehead, it's not going to work if her popularity tops out in the 70s (and if her star quality remains static). So that forces me to pivot and find someone else to occupy that spot.</p>

[BrokenCycle]

<p>I'm not sure how the suggestions such as taking a Small company to International would really help this guy. While most people get tired of games in 1 or 2 years, he's losing interest in 1 or 2 months. </p><p> </p><p>

It's like telling a guy that's trying to lose weight to focus on losing 100 pounds. </p><p> </p><p>

Focus on the 2 pounds for now.</p>

[HarryFandango86]

<p>I still get a kick out of getting great match ratings. I've done undertaker vs Kane feud in my save, which for all the tew I've ever played, and that's a lot, I've never done this feud, but i don't really think it had any business being a top quality feud/match. but this is one of my hottest feuds and the match got 98. Niiiice. Ok ok, it wasn't even the best match of the night, that went to my main event triple threat (stone cold vs Owen hart vs Jericho) for the WWF title, which got a 99. But all those guys are much more over than taker and Kane. I got a kick out of this undertaker vs Kane match getting such a good rating. I really expected a low 90 at best. </p><p>

Yeah this game is all about bringing out the inner child and letting your imagination run wild.</p>