The Segment Time Micromanagement in the TEW Series

[TeemuFoundation]

Alright. This is kind of a rant, but I try to have it be constructive. It's not any kind of an attack. Just some thoughts I've had for the longest time playing these games. And ones that have been escalated by the latest installment in the series.

 

I have always disagreed with the arbitrary caps and penalties around segment times in the TEW games. Matches shorter than 15min are capped, angles shorter than 6 minutes, matches longer than this, matches longer than that, this, that, the other thing. All of them.

 

My reason for this is simply that these caps and penalties don't at all take into account context. I don't think there's any rule in wrestling, TV, or entertainment in general about lengths of segments. No hard rule that in this form of entertainment a segment longer than X should be penalized or capped.

 

Simply because what truly matters is context; what actually takes place in the segment, and whether or not it's engaging, is what people care about. This extends to all forms of televised and live entertainment, but let's stick to wrestling.

 

I'm a speedrunner, so of course I have a timer ready to go at all times, so I actually did some timing on attitude era promos by going through RAW episodes in 1998. I mostly watched Austin and McMahon angles that moved forward the main storyline for the month. I put all my findings down, but suffice to say that some angles were 5 minutes, others were 10 minutes, 12 minutes, 15 minutes long, and the crowd was white hot all the way through, hanging on to Austin's every word.

 

I simply failed to pinpoint a time in those promos where a penalty would kick in. The crowd wanted to see Austin and hear what he had to say. This is because Austin was mega over, and he had the skills as an entertainer to make the crowd engaged in a longer promo. He also had the character work and story behind him to make the promos exciting due to the unpredictable nature of his gimmick.

 

I know that the thing people will say now is that it's still possible to score high in a promo even with the penalties, but I have an issue with this, too, since it's not the point. The point is, the penalties seem out of place and arbitrary, actively taking me out of the game, making me feel less like I'm booking a wrestling show, immersed in the process, and moreso that I'm playing a game, gaming the system to manipulate the scores to be the best possible. I don't think penalty dodging is even particularly challenging, so it's not like it's an interesting gameplay challenge. You just learn the penalty times, and book around them. Done. But it's not like it's very fun. At least in my opinion.

 

Also, you gotta look at the whole word penalty. This is what the dictionary says:

 

"A punishment imposed for breaking a law, rule, or contract."

 

Basically, you are failing and doing something wrong. You are being punished for doing something you're not supposed to do. Even though the thing you're doing is exactly what was done in real life, and it was a proven recipe for success. Again, reminding you are simply playing a video game with binary 1s and 0s that you are attempting to game.

 

There is no immersion.

 

Caps and penalties on matches and angles already exist, though: the skills of the characters involved. This is true in the game and in real life. And even though these are also merely the same 1s and 0s you are playing around, they're the same "1s and 0s" that bookers in real life have to combat, so the immersion remains.

 

Austin can cut a 15 minute promo and not lose the crowd due to A) being over, and B) having the necessary skills to pull it off. Not everyone does. This is why an added penalty on top of the already existing skill requirement seems unnecessary.

 

A 20 minute Tiger Ali Singh should bomb because of his lack of skills in that area. Not because the product itself says so. There's no reason.

 

The penalties feel arbitrary because they don't take into account context at all. For both angles and matches. What happens in the segment? Is it Triple H putting himself over for 20 minutes? For the 52nd week in a row? Or is it the culmination of a hot three month program with a shocking reveal at the end? TEW angles don't have context, so we are required to create it with our imagination, and this is where, again, the immersion breaks when the game treats them all equally.

 

The reason we hated those 20 minute Triple H rant-o-ramas wasn't because a single 20 minute Triple H promo is bad necessarily; it's because it happened every single week and got boring and repetitive. Same with the classic opening segment where a babyface and a heel start the TV show with an in ring confrontation, just be interrupted by the heel authority figure that puts obstacles on the babyface's way. It just happened a million times and got tired.

 

Context.

 

Austin's segments also remained interesting because he would always use all these different kinds of props; he would ride a zamboni in the ring, he would drive a beer truck, he would fill Vince's limo with the cement... all these different kinds of things that were different and kept the audience thinking "What in the HELL is he gonna do next?" The Triple H promos were boring because they were always the same. "I've beating Foley, I've beaten The Rock, The Undertaker, this guy, that guy" every single week. Again, context. What happens in the angle is what counts, adding a hard coded cap that determines that an angle is automatically worse because it goes above 5 minutes is just not how real life works. In my opinion.

 

Likewise, a 25 minute mat wrestling classic requires a ton of psychology and skill by the workers to keep it interesting for any kind of fan, even for the people who are into that stuff. As opposed to a 25 minute six man ladder match car crash that affords to have a spectacular spot every two minutes to keep the crowd on their toes without requiring that much attention span.

 

Context.

 

Also, something like a cap on "all matches sub 15 minutes" has never made any sense to me because the 5-10 minute match can be the blow-off to the hottest angle in years where the heel has been so vicious, so hated, so despicable in his actions, only to finally, after months of waiting, getting his ass handed to him by the babyface in decisive manner.

 

A lot of people are right now clicking on "reply" to type in to say that the match can still score high, et cetera. But like I alluded to above, this makes me feel that I'm fighting the system, and that I got a high score despite playing the game wrong, even though booking a successful blow-off to a hot feud where the heel gets his in decisive manner is the right way to book wrestling according to everything I've ever learned about wrestling.

 

Not to mention, penalty dodging just leads to these annoying habits (that are self-inflicted, though, to be fair, but still) like I had and have with TEW 2016 where I just book my short angles to be 6 minutes long to ensure no caps. It's not realistic, it's not immersive, but you know, OCD. And that's on me, I know. But I'd venture to guess that OCD is not that uncommon among people who play a text based wrestling sim. Just my hunch. And the 6 minute rule, among other things, has been brought up in the Discord, and I'm definitely not the only one who does this. I don't like it, and I'd like to stop, but it's so hard to willingly take the penalty. So you just add the extra minutes to that backstage assault angle and sort of pretend they're not there.

 

To get the rewarding rating.

 

Now, penalties for stuff like gory deathmatches on a mainstream sports entertainment show make sense, and never bother anyone. These are realistic and no one would debate them. They're also absolute and not arbitrary. Ditto for penalties based simply on poor skills.

 

But TL;DR the ability to hold a crowd's attention comes down to a worker's set of skills, the context of the segment, and the storyline attached to it. TEW doesn't have a lot of context, and it relies on our imagination, so it needs to make do with simply the skill sets and storyline heat.

 

And it's TEW actively going against our imagination that so many of us feel is so grating. Unfortunately, the bombardment of penalties tied to segment times in TEW 2020 is a big reason why I feel like sticking with the 2016 version of the game, even though 2016 also has its share of this - as outlined above - you don't feel quite as completely handcuffed, with the game constantly berating you, and getting in the way of you using your imagination and enjoying the game.

 

Thanks for reading.

[fusionfreak]

Totally agree and feel the same way. The "penalties" are getting annoying and starting to feel very "cheese-ballish" to me. The more I play the game the more it's starting to feel like a choir instead of just being fun and immersive.

[Dross]

I very much agree with this, and, while it won't stop me from buying TEW2020, I surely hope that more realistic booking will (finally) be a priority for the next iteration of the game. I realize that it will be a lot of work to add checks for stuff like "is this angle something new or has this been booked already?", but I'm sure it's feasible if made a priority.

 

I also think that product effects on match and angle lengths could be included without any hard caps. Just make the skill requirements higher or lower. If the product dictates that the promotion is run almost like a telenovela, anyone with decent mic skills can be in a 20min angle; if fans expect a fast paced products with short segments, you'd need to be a very gifted talker to keep their interest (but, like has been said, IF you do, there should be no penalty at all).

[TeemuFoundation]

And to add to that, I feel like a binary computer software like TEW is simply unable make the kind of call that is asked of it in this instance in a super satisfying way - the way it's set up. Like, say, a match gets a penalty above 15 minutes. So, at exactly 15 minutes, it's awesome and a match of the year, the crowd is loving it, it's everything a professional wrestling match could ever be asked to be. But as soon as the timer goes one second above 15 minutes, people go "Oh hell yea, this is awes... wait, nope, no, no, no, we're one second above 15 minutes, that's a strike. What happens in the match during the one minute between 15 and 16? What is the thing that takes place that really drags down the match? A line like that is impossible to draw in real life, let alone designing a computer software around it.

[Schwemm]

<p>I think it would be better to scrape the time-penalties until a better way is found. </p><p>

What i always missed was a "repetitive booking" for angles too. Maybe there should be no "not rated" on angles and have to find a promo partner or good interviewer even for your topstars. Even Austin couldn`t hold the crowd just cutting a promo about himself 4 weeks in a row. But thats what you would do for success in TEW. The best way to get high ratings in an Attitude product would be booking 3x5minutes Austin promos each show. 100,100,100</p>

[TeemuFoundation]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Schwemm" data-cite="Schwemm" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="49006" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I think it would be better to scrape the time-penalties until a better way is found. <p> What i always missed was a "repetitive booking" for angles too. Maybe there should be no "not rated" on angles and have to find a promo partner or good interviewer even for your topstars. Even Austin couldn`t hold the crowd just cutting a promo about himself 4 weeks in a row. But thats what you would do for success in TEW. The best way to get high ratings in an Attitude product would be booking 3x5minutes Austin promos each show. 100,100,100</p></div></blockquote><p> And I feel this cheese is exactly what 2020 tried to address, and I applaud that. It just didn't necessarily do so in the best way. But this kind of stuff is hard to balance, not claiming anything different. Some kind of a repetitive angle penalty has crossed my mind, too, though. Also, there is now more randomness in angle ratings, which is a really good thing.</p>

[Taker4455]

I don't think a single person can disagree with you. This is the best summary of why the penalty caps are ridiculous. Excellent post.

[Self]

<p>Colour the 'penalties' related to caps in white, instead of red. Maybe then people will take them less seriously. The player's eye would be drawn to the segment rating, where it belongs, instead of the red text that makes them think the segment flopped. </p><p> </p><p>

I like the limitations. Suggested as they are. They give the different products different flavours. I definitely watch a lot of wrestling where I think "This is really good... but I would have liked it better if it ended 5 minutes ago." and "That was an awesome 6 minute match... I wish they were given the same amount of time as the main event guys.". And it depends on the show I'm watching as to when those feelings kick in. </p><p> </p><p>

I do think there should be some (or more) products with no time restraints. For options.</p>

[TeemuFoundation]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Self" data-cite="Self" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="49006" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Colour the 'penalties' related to caps in white, instead of red. Maybe then people will take them less seriously. The player's eye would be drawn to the segment rating, where it belongs, instead of the red text that makes them think the segment flopped. <p> </p><p> I like the limitations. Suggested as they are. They give the different products different flavours. I definitely watch a lot of wrestling where I think "This is really good... but I would have liked it better if it ended 5 minutes ago." and "That was an awesome 6 minute match... I wish they were given the same amount of time as the main event guys.". And it depends on the show I'm watching as to when those feelings kick in. </p><p> </p><p> I do think there should be some (or more) products with no time restraints. For options.</p></div></blockquote><p> I feel you. And you are probably factually correct. And the penalties are good gameplay mechanic. For the reasons you stated. But the keyword there is gameplay. So it becomes gamey where we just find out that the optimal angle/match time is 7 minutes, and just proceed to book everything to go 7 minutes. And don't get me wrong, there's an audience for that, and their gamestyle is absolutely valid. And I don't think that should be taken away from them, instead of just giving the other half to the players an alternative. But "gamey" works against the immersive experience a good chunk of the player base is looking for.</p><p> </p><p> So I think we're in agreement there.</p><p> </p><p> But my problem with a hard penalty like this in a game of this nature is, those penalties are always so subjective; there are as many caps as there are consumers. One guy says the match should have ended 5 minutes ago, the other feels 3 minutes ago. While the third dude feels it was just right, and the fourth bro says it was just getting good. And a computer software can only draw one absolute line at a specific minute and say "This is the limit here".</p><p> </p><p> The hardest thing is probably addressing short matches, to be honest. A one minute match obviously has a very hard time to be exceptionally good, most people would agree. Same for a two minute match. Three minutes? Maybe four? But a five minute match has a pretty realistic shot. Again, though: drawing the exact line is hard, if not impossible. I don't claim to have a good answer. If the five minute match can pull it off, then it begs the question of why not the four minute match. Et cetera, and so on.</p><p> </p><p> So, yeah, this stuff is hard lol. But if there is to be a cap, I'd put it on short matches since short matches demand less of the workers in the match, whereas to have a long match requires more skill. So it's balanced. Something like 15 minutes is still way too high, though, in my opinion. Just my opinion as a wrestling fan.</p>

[Self]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="TeemuFoundation" data-cite="TeemuFoundation" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="49006" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>But my problem with a hard penalty like this in a game of this nature is, those penalties are always so subjective; there are as many caps as there are consumers. One guy says the match should have ended 5 minutes ago, the other feels 3 minutes ago. While the third dude feels it was just right, and the fourth bro says it was just getting good. And a computer software can only draw one absolute line at a specific minute and say "This is the limit here".</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> I think of ratings and stats as not just <em>"how good was that?"</em> but also<em> "how many people thought that was good?"</em>. So the longer you go the more people there will be who get bored, zone out, wander off, etc. Less people enjoy it. Lower rating. In a product aimed at children, a percentage of the core audience's attention span won't last 20 minutes. In a PWG crowd, conditioned for every match to include every move the wrestler knows, a certain percentage will be unsatisfied with a 5 minute match, no matter how well executed. </p><p> </p><p> This is how I reconciled the subjective nature of Sex Appeal. Instead of <em>"how attractive?</em>", it's "<em>how many people find them attractive?"</em>.</p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="49006" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>The hardest thing is probably addressing short matches, to be honest. A one minute match obviously has a very hard time to be exceptionally good, most people would agree. Same for a two minute match. Three minutes? Maybe four? But a five minute match has a pretty realistic shot. Again, though: drawing the exact line is hard, if not impossible. I don't claim to have a good answer. If the five minute match can pull it off, then it begs the question of why not the four minute match. Et cetera, and so on.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> It depends on the product, which isn't just the style in the ring but the fans you're attracting. Is it kids? Casual hipster fans? Blood-thirsty blokes? Technical wrestling aficionados? Two workers could craft a perfect 5 minute match.... but if the audience has learned to only be satisfied, or to think things matter, above 10 minutes... there's a ceiling. Which is precisely what the cap is. </p><p> </p><p> The fact I have to do mental gymnastics to justify this in my mind does show there is an issue here, at the very least regarding presentation. I'm not arguing that there isn't something to be done. Just trying to present it how it makes sense to me... at least in the 3-4 products I've tried thus far. I do run matches from 5 minutes to 25 minutes in every game I've played thus far, and the penalties don't feel good to see.</p>

[TeemuFoundation]

<p>When it comes to angles, I feel like a good way to go would be to have the entertainment skills work sort of like "angle stamina"; the higher the ratings, the longer a worker could go in a promo potentially. There would always be a risk of losing a crowd. The chance would start at (for example's sake) 1% at 1 minute. The worker's entertainment skills would then work as a modifier; if the skills are particularly low, the chance goes up. The chance would also go up at every added minute. At the 20 minute mark or so, the base % of boredom would be at like 50%. Then possible low skill modifiers would be added. To the point where, unless the worker is particularly skilled at cutting promos, the % would effectively be 100%.</p><p> </p><p>

Added modifiers would be stuff like are there other workers involved, how much actually goes on in the angle, is there a hot storyline attached, is there a shocking turn/reveal, etc. involved.</p><p> </p><p>

Stuff like that. Just a rough idea.</p>

[KevinStorm]

Bravo. Great post. Linking time penalties to stats instead of arbitrary caps makes so much sense I'm surprised it's not how the game works. Products could even be used to modify how stats affect penalties. So in a product where fans want the action to keep moving, maybe the percentage chance of losing the crowd is higher at say 8 minutes than it would be in a product where fans don't mind long promos. I dig it.

[pat666]

Maybe he could add a box in preference, to use or not those penalities.

[edenborn]

It's not realistic, it's not immersive, but you know, OCD. And that's on me, I know. But I'd venture to guess that OCD is not that uncommon among people who play a text based wrestling sim. Just my hunch.

You're not alone there. TEW games help bring it out in me.

And the 6 minute rule, among other things, has been brought up in the Discord, and I'm definitely not the only one who does this. I don't like it, and I'd like to stop, but it's so hard to willingly take the penalty. So you just add the extra minutes to that backstage assault angle and sort of pretend they're not there.

Yes, I wave it away by pretending some of that time is where the commercials are falling. Or the commentators are showing multiple replays. Not ideal.

 

As others have said, good rant, TeemuFoundation. It's clearly a challenge to make the game understand the sort of context you're talking about but for immersion's sake it's well worth exploring.

[SirMichaelJordan]

Speaking of OCD, that is precisely why I prefer grades over numbers. I see what the game is trying to do and I’m not against it and I feel like people wouldn’t care as much if so much of the information wasn’t in your face. Penalties like this should have probably been in the dirt sheet, because a lot of these penalties does not bomb the segment.

 

The presentation is just so in your face with wording and colors. From a psychological perspective, I can see why some may be bothered by it.

 

Less aggressive wording and colors and just hiding some of the stuff would have worked better IMO.

 

As for the gamey aspect, I feel like this has been apart of TEW for a while. People wouldn’t book under 5-6 min angles because that is how much was need to gain skills. I always were against arbitrary numbers like that.

 

I think crowd management should be a bigger aspect in the game because that really should determine how long something should go on for. Crowd burn out should be something you should be actively trying to avoid, not necessarily avoiding a 20 minute promo.

 

Different crowds should have different tolerance.

[TeemuFoundation]

Speaking of OCD, that is precisely why I prefer grades over numbers. I see what the game is trying to do and I’m not against it. and I feel like people wouldn’t care as much if some much of the information wasn’t in your face. Penalties like this should have probably be in the dirt sheet. Because of a lot of these penalties does not bomb the segment.

 

The presentation is just so in your face with wording and colors. From a psychological perspective, I can see why some may be bothered by it.

 

Less aggressive wording and colors and just hiding some of the stuff would have worked better IMO.

 

As for the gamey aspect, I feel like this has been apart of TEW for a while. People wouldn’t book under 5-6 min angles because that is how much was need to gain skills.

Yea, I agree with all of this. I wish I didn't know anything about the TEW mechanics, honestly. All it does is ruin the experience and take away the fun. But it's my own fault. No one forced me to read the forums. And also yea, I know the gamey aspects have been a part of the series from the start pretty much. And of course, it IS a game, so let's stay fair here. I think it'd be asking a bit too much to ask for it to be programmed to, you know, not be a game. But I guess the true nature of the software should be hidden a little bit more. Kinda like wrestling; kayfabe is dead, but we still want to get lost in the lie as best we can.

[The Rock]

There are products in the game, that allow you to run longer angles.

Well, atleast there is one. Coincidentally, it´s the default product of the company I always run in the CV, that´s why I know it.

Actually, if you have a worker who is over and has decent enough skills, you will score higher with 10 or 15 minutes, than with 5 minutes (rated on Entertainment or Microphone).

 

So, this seems to be more of a product thing.

 

With that being said, I actually think, it´s "realistic", that longer angles are penalized.

At what time the penalty should occur, 5 minutes or 7 or 10 or ... that is another question.

But even during the Attitude Era, most angles wouldn´t run longer than 10 minutes. There were just a few exceptions and they would feature Austin or The Rock, to keep the crowd invested.

 

And I said this in another thread, I wish the game would be better in recognizing these exceptions to the rule, where a worker, who is over enough and has the skills to pull it off, should be able, to avoid these penalties occasionaly.

And if there´s a hot storyline behind the angle. But I mean a really hot storyline, not what TEW considers as "hot" (Heat > 50).

[TeemuFoundation]

Yes, I know there are products that penalize different segment lengths differently.

That's not really the issue. Penalties are fine. I want the products to give me boundaries and a framework. I don't even hate the pre-set products like a lot of people do. Boundaries force creativity. I just feel like segment lengths, by themselves, are way too arbitrary of a target for penalties, which leads to a lot of issues with my personal immersion. I emphasize that this is from my personal point of view. And the game is also not made for me, specifically, and I respect that. I simply stated my view on the issue. Maybe it will be taken into account in a future game, maybe not.

[SirMichaelJordan]

There are products in the game, that allow you to run longer angles.

Well, atleast there is one. Coincidentally, it´s the default product of the company I always run in the CV, that´s why I know it.

Actually, if you have a worker who is over and has decent enough skills, you will score higher with 10 or 15 minutes, than with 5 minutes (rated on Entertainment or Microphone).

 

So, this seems to be more of a product thing.

 

With that being said, I actually think, it´s "realistic", that longer angles are penalized.

At what time the penalty should occur, 5 minutes or 7 or 10 or ... that is another question.

But even during the Attitude Era, most angles wouldn´t run longer than 10 minutes. There were just a few exceptions and they would feature Austin or The Rock, to keep the crowd invested.

 

And I said this in another thread, I wish the game would be better in recognizing these exceptions to the rule, where a worker, who is over enough and has the skills to pull it off, should be able, to avoid these penalties occasionaly.

And if there´s a hot storyline behind the angle. But I mean a really hot storyline, not what TEW considers as "hot" (Heat > 50).

 

Yea, Aside from arbitrary numbers. It would be more realistic if it was based on crowd.

 

A product that mentions the crowd prefer short angles should be a tolerance level. Meaning a angle that’s too long that involves someone who is not as over would lose the crowd faster than someone who the crowd sees as a star. Different products would have different tolerance levels and you’ll have to watch out for crowd burnout.

 

Same goes for matches. Attitude entertainment maybe have a low tolerance for hardcore matches compared to ECW but you may get away with a long hardcore match with two top stars compared to two guys marked as unimportant.

 

Now this concept is currently in the current game. It just tied to a certain amount of minutes instead of being based on crowd management.

[MainOffender]

Alright. This is kind of a rant, but I try to have it be constructive. It's not any kind of an attack. Just some thoughts I've had for the longest time playing these games. And ones that have been escalated by the latest installment in the series.

 

I have always disagreed with the arbitrary caps and penalties around segment times in the TEW games. Matches shorter than 15min are capped, angles shorter than 6 minutes, matches longer than this, matches longer than that, this, that, the other thing. All of them.

 

My reason for this is simply that these caps and penalties don't at all take into account context. I don't think there's any rule in wrestling, TV, or entertainment in general about lengths of segments. No hard rule that in this form of entertainment a segment longer than X should be penalized or capped.

 

Simply because what truly matters is context; what actually takes place in the segment, and whether or not it's engaging, is what people care about. This extends to all forms of televised and live entertainment, but let's stick to wrestling.

 

I agree with the broader points here that there should be more flexibility in TEW's penalties, but this highlighted sentence in particular is really inaccurate. There are absolutely time restrictions/conventions on segment/scene length in all forms of entertainment. They exist because - right or wrong - the formulas have proven successful. Now, breaking with convention can yield a positive response from the audience (something I don't think TEW simulates very well), but it can also prove alienating (something TEW simulates a little too well).

[TeemuFoundation]

I agree with the broader points here that there should be more flexibility in TEW's penalties, but this highlighted sentence in particular is really inaccurate. There are absolutely time restrictions/conventions on segment/scene length in all forms of entertainment. They exist because - right or wrong - the formulas have proven successful. Now, breaking with convention can yield a positive response from the audience (something I don't think TEW simulates very well), but it can also prove alienating (something TEW simulates a little too well).

Yeah, that's fair. You're right. And I would like to add that, for instance, the penalty for "nothing exciting going on" angles is absolutely a good penalty, and super intuitive and makes sense. I'd like to see more stuff like that where it's contextual. If you catch my drift.

[MainOffender]

Yeah, that's fair. You're right. And I would like to add that, for instance, the penalty for "nothing exciting going on" angles is absolutely a good penalty, and super intuitive and makes sense. I'd like to see more stuff like that where it's contextual. If you catch my drift.

 

100% Me too! Context is everything. Generally, I think the more popular/talented the performer, the more leeway they should have to break the rules. I do think the game tries to emulate this with bonuses, although I'm not sure how effective they are. Regardless, seeing those penalties can still be really frustrating.

[SirMichaelJordan]

Yea if penalties are going to stare you in the face in blood red, then the game need to also show you money green bonuses for things like the match/angle having high storyline heat, bonuses for a high prestige title being associated. Some of those bonuses should offset minor penalties like a match or angle going on too long.

 

I would also like to see match prestige having some effect like a high prestige belt. Maybe even have it fluctuate just like the prestige of a belt. At the end of the day, both are gimmicks to make things interesting.

[BuddyGarner]

Yeah I don't want to go back to the sandbox mode of TEW2016 but I think you're right there should be context. Maybe higher stars could have more minutes in matches and angles.

 

I think partially it's about game balance between the different products and making them like "classes". Limiting angle length is a disadvantage to certain products.

 

I'm a gameplay fan but I don't want Adam to alienate sandbox guys too much so he gets sales so we can keep getting more gameplay features.

[TeemuFoundation]

I'm a sandbox guy myself, but I still have my share of the gameplay features turned on, and do enjoy having a framework to book around. And I also don't want to alienate gameplay guys. I think the beauty of TEW is we can have both.