Split Angles, Interviews, and Hype Videos into Their Own Things

[TeemuFoundation]

I think the game would be made simpler if interviews (mostly backstage), actual angles, and hype video packages were made into their own things, as opposed to all of them existing as "angles". Of course this is way too late for TEW 2020, but for a possible future game.

 

Here's a look at what I had in mind:

 

Interviews

 

Interviews would mainly mean backstage interviews. Quick, to the point interviews built to hype up an upcoming match in the short term. Either that same night, or in the near future. Interviews would be all about hitting bullet points fast, in an attempt to get people to buy tickets and order the pay per view. If the trend of penalties is to be continued in future TEWs, this would bring more clarity and intuitiveness since, as I said, interviews would be all about getting those money lines in - in the most cost-effective manner possible. So an interview would not receive a penalty for going short, and instead the penalty would be for going too long. An interview would ideally be around 1-3 minutes. I say 1-3 minutes because I actually went back and looked at old classic interviews with a timer, and that's the average I got. Hard Times by Dusty Rhodes was a little over 3 minutes, for example. And that's a relatively long interview.

 

When cutting an interview, a worker with high enough entertainment skills (maybe 90+) would have an RNG chance of delivering a Money Line, a very rare occurrence that would add hype to a match. The player could choose an optional target for the interview the worker is cutting, and the game could store a possible Money Line for 1 month, and if the worker, who cut the interview, faced off with the worker it was directed to, within 28 days, the Money Line could add additional buys to that show, as well as a small bonus to the rating, due to the added hype. A Money Line could only occur as an improvised thing. Interviews could also be scripted, just like angles are now, and they would be relatively safe, but would also be prevented from getting the extremely high ratings.

 

Also, a lot of people every year ask for interviewers to be added to the game, and while I've never been a massive fan of the idea, due to added mod making tedium, this would make the addition of proper backstage interviewers way more plausible since interviews being their own thing would allow coding interviewers in such a way that they are always automatically strictly rated on mic skills, and nothing more. Their popularity, or any other stat, would not play into the segment rating. Maybe looks to some extent? Interviewers would be their own role in the company, similar to road agents and referees, and would automatically rotate like those aforementioned roles do in matches.

 

Hype Packages

 

Personally, I never use hype video packages in TEW since I disagree with the idea that they are "angles". But I know a lot of people really dig using them, so to make this more intuitive, they could also be split into their own things. The quality of a hype video package would not depend on the stats of the workers in question, but instead on the production quality of your video team. The team would not be actual workers in the database, but simply something you could hire with money via a dropdown menu. TEW, in my opinion, still needs more stuff to spend money on, so this would be a nice idea. We already have production values, so I guess this could be tied to that, but I'd like to see an extra added cost for a professional video editing team. Again, an exceptionally well made video package would not only produce a good graded segment, but could also add some extra hype to a match. Not every package can be a winner, of course, so just like with the Money Line example, it would RNG if a video package was something earth shattering. Call it Best Picture, or something lol. The more money you're pouring into your video editing team, the higher the chances of great videos. You would still insert these videos into the show card, and set the length. Also, maybe the experience of your video team should matter, as well. So just hiring a team wouldn't automatically produce the most superb videos right off the bat, but the team would have to work for you, get to know your product, et cetera, before really being able to give the best bonus.

 

And then angles themselves could remain largely as their are, although I have ideas on how to improve them, as well. I just think I'll make that into its separate post. But the main thing here is that, if interviews are taken out of angles, the current 5 minute rule on angle ratings suddenly makes sense because an actual in ring rangle being capped at sub 5 minutes is reasonable. The problem with the 5 minute rule as it is right now is that backstage interviews need to be longer than 5 minutes to get the best rating possible, and that is kind of silly. In ring angles are more about the larger storytelling, and since they're in ring, you have the entrances eating some time, as well, off the overall length of the segment, so a minimum of more than 5 minutes is perfectly acceptable.

 

Also, we would simply have to click through less angles since for interview and video segments we would just choose from a list of "1 person interview, 2 person interview..." and so on, and same for hype videos. It would be a nice simplification of the interface.

[LoNdOn]

I really like this idea.

[Jaded]

Me too, would be a huge improvement!

[tormyb]

Brilliant suggestion!

 

It could really help to differentiate segments, and make them feel like different things (because they are different things).

 

The "Money Line" suggestion could be really fun. I sometimes worry that under the current system, angles can start to feel a bit same-y. Unless their popularity or skills are fluctuating wildly, individual performers will often end up getting very similar outcomes from a wide range of angles. A feature which reflects those small "lighting in a bottle" moments, would be fantastic. This could really make the world feel more interconnected - as something might not just be a good promo, it could be a good promo with a really tangible consequence.