Has a diary ever made you want to start a game?

[Lucky707]

Has there ever been a diary or some aspect of a diary that has made you specifically want to start a save file? How did that go?

[SanX]

Self's FCK was the first one I think which talked about intricacies of Canadian C-verse and the Pseudo Hart Foundation Vs Von Erich rivarly in game. (Stones Vs DeColts), I had participated in a forum draft and brought all of them together in Canada and had a lot of fun with the save with them having a war first with both academies and the rivals of families involved. (Trent Shafer, Elite for DeColts and Westybrook, Hayes Cavanagh for Stones) . before they could come to final blow, unifying the families against the common enemy of Cornell, Rich Money and Eisen. Those three had formed a coalition and wanted to kill Canadian wrestling once and for all by buying up all the canadian promotions and wanted to buy this one as it would mean taking away promoter license from both Decolts and Stones as both were working for the same company.

 

Angeladytte's and Jsilver's USPW diaries really made me love the old school wrestling presented in the modern world aka USPW and made me start a USPW game.

 

USPW was my go-to company for a while, but with new game's menace nerf it's not worth it to have green 7-foot giants smashing each other.

 

Nevermore's ECW diary made me start a NWA save with a sole target of slowly taking over the wrestling world from WCW and WWE. I started in 1996 which lasted 8-9 years? As I took on both WCW and WWE and had rivalries in my roster which went on for years.

 

Sean O'Haire with his devil's advocate gimmick, Cornette fighting fire with fire and bringing in Raven and his nest to take down O'haire reign of terror, Punk and Hardy's rivalry from best friends to their 2008 real life feud with them unifying again against O'haire as he had planted drugs in Hardy's bag, Daniel Bryan's quest to prove himself as the best technical wrestler of all time and then defeating Regal, Finlay, Rey, Flair, Benoit, Owen, Bret, Eddie, Kurt Angle, Curt Henning, in submission matches at my version of top 4 PPV's similar to UT's streak. Cena becoming a face painted Protégé of Sting etc. that save had memorable storylines.

 

I liked NJPW, but I had no knowledge about puro, Tigerkinney's BHOWTG diaries are great to start learning about how to book Japan's touring and understand booking philosophies. I did UPJ(t-verse) save using his diaries and real life NJPW and had wonderful 2-3 years, building up Oda Yamawaki(T-verse Okada) as new ace and had a lot of fun with Young Lion setup and Stable wars.

 

NoNeck had a pseudo Lucha Underground diary, booking T-verse Luchadores as a pseudo LU promotion with killings, aliens, myths and demons. Had a similar save in 2016 c-verse with undercarders in SOTBPW and other Indy guys. One of the best saves I ever had with batshit crazy stories, with references to wider c-verse. I had a trios tournament, and it had guys from CGC, NOTBPW, WLW guys, BHOTWG juniors, Joshi's, AAA girls etc. It was a fan's dream. In canon, Everyone wanted something from Temple, and it gave me reason to bring in others on short-term deals.

 

I had brought in guys from America as I was finally cult in second year. Alicia Strong had a strong arc and midcard guys like Mainstream Hernandez or Bumfholes had a role.

There were cameos from SOTBPW top stars. Lover came in to help in his protégé, El Heroe Mexicano, and then he had one of the best Heel turns ever as he was revealed as mastermind for the whole LU(he was pulling strings behind Grand avatar, manipulated El Heroe, and he was the one who started the temple and brought 7 tribes together to use their medallions and unlock the secret chamber under the temple. He then burned down the temple to retrieve the mythical Holy grail/Elixir of Immortality/ Philosopher's stone, Alien equipment/Kavach Kundala which everyone was searching for in the temple).

 

7 tribes then came together(El Heroe Mexicano - Human, El Serpiente- Snake, Death - Guerrero Muerto, Jaguar - Silver Jaguar, insect - Amazing Firefly, Bird tribe - Hurracan Jr, Rabbit - Joanna Rodriguez) and defeated El Forza, Lover, Grand Avatar, El Jefe Militar and Raven Robinson (Lady Muerte).

 

Grand Avatar was then revealed as the time travelling wrestling god, who was present during all the c-verse events and vanished into a portal. 7 tribes then sealed the rest of the three in the chamber using 7 medallions.

 

There was a Mark Cuban diary, where he took over DAVE, C-verse's ECW. It was a fun diary and had a lot of great characters and made me start a DAVE save, but it didn't last long as the 2005 version had just a one-hour show and money management wasn't that fun.

 

I love Eisen-verse style and his SWF diaries but IMO 2013/16 c-verse version of SWF was 'our roster is stale, steal from USPW/TCW and indies to have a fun time' and it didn't last long for that reason.

 

James Casey's MAW was similar. It made me a start a MAW save with a goal of revolving door of wrestlers and slowly going regional but developing wrestlers may seem like fun, but it's a boring and tedious task considering money management and tactics like touring which devolve into gaming the system.

 

Phantom Stranger had a nice TCW diary, it was a nice reference before starting a save. While Syndicate is fun, TCW again devolved into bringing Indy guys like Parkers, Helikaon's and Keith twins and bloating the roster due to the work rate nature of the company and I lost interest.

 

Edit : I am missing a lot of people and wonderful diaries here. I usually start my fictional saves after getting inspiration/stories/lore from diaries.

[Zero]

Not a diary, but I use a lot of ideas from the threads "What is going on in my game" and "current champions". I will steal a lot of ideas to use in my own game.

[Dalton]

Yeah, both diaries and posts in current champions and "what's going on in your game" threads.

 

For diaries, there's been a few.

 

Historian's absurdly long-lasting and incredible No Ordinary Men caused me to overhaul the COTT in my default data, adding a ton of companies and adding titles to it as well. I've played a few games as a territorial company because of that.

 

Two TCW diaries, one by DevilB0y and one by falling_star, made me start a TCW game that has been of my favorites of TEW2020. I've stolen tons of ideas from them.

 

CGN91's White Canvas Grappling has led to me starting a number of custom puroresu companies as well. Lots of fun stuff in there.

[demondragonking]

I'll echo Historian's games as he inspired me to try out playing my own insignificant company and working my way up as well as me working on my mod (cheap plug).

[siah463]

Nevermore's ECW diary made me start a NWA save with a sole target of slowly taking over the wrestling world from WCW and WWE. I started in 1996 which lasted 8-9 years? As I took on both WCW and WWE and had rivalries in my roster which went on for years.

I actually want to hear more about this, I kinda want to steal from this for my own save.

[DarK_RaideR]

I got into writing diaries in the first place because of Voeltzwagon's two GSW diaries. It's led me to 3 different diaries as GSW in TEW16 and my current one using TEW20, all of which have been popular enough to occasionally win Diary of the Month (thanks to all readers)

 

Mothers of the Revolution was a short lived 4 player diary by Dr_Avalanche, Uncrewed, MrWolf101 and southside_hitmen running real world all female promotions. It led me to discover Pro Wrestling EVE (still one of my favorite companies) and start a short lived diary as them also.

 

Finally, Historian's No Ordinary Men also gave me the idea to start as a minor local promotion and power through. As a result, I did a Road to Glory game in TEW16 that ran for 16 in-game years and became a diary on another forum. Combine this influence with King Bison's TITAN Factory and it spawned two diaries (TEW16/20) as Piledriver Wrestling, the idea being that this dojo has given us several major stars but only exists as a minor non-canon company in the CVerse97 mod that would usually fold.

[KyleCamelot]

10 Simple Rules by James Casey made me think of MAW as more than a place for incredibly boring, incredibly skilled workers to come from, and I've played a few MAW games since then because of that.

[SanX]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="siah463" data-cite="siah463" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="53313" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I actually want to hear more about this, I kinda want to steal from this for my own save.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> If you haven't read it,<em><strong> Nevermore's ECW</strong></em> was one of the most highly rated diaries on this forum. Diary talked about how ECW became rivals to WWE and WCW on the backs of ECW originals(RVD, Sabu, Shane Douglas, Raven, Sandman and Tommy Dreamer) and then carried on as the biggest promotion including their hardcore tendencies. While some Extreme parts may not have aged well, I can still recall the Whole f'n show storyline as well as Raven's multiple year long stories.It lasted 4 in game years and had multiple original stars (Paul Burchill, some Italian family brothers, a deathmatch guy called Nate Hatred, Chris Hero) alongside real life stars like Shawn, RVD, Taker, Rock etc. His roster was stacked and routinely got A/A* rating due to it being played on the older version of the game.</p><p> </p><p> To replicate it in 2016, I decided on NWA theme product with bit of modern, so that guys like DB, Punk, Rey can have some fun with matches. (WCW product without daredevil or risqué/hardcore).</p><p> </p><p> At the end, I had a nice little roster with ruthless aggression stars slowly rising as UMC and ME and had few real life top guys like Eddie involved in stories.</p><p> </p><p> I cheated a bit though, as the 2016 game had a tendency to give long contracts and I felt it's funny that top stars(B pop minimum) would sign 7-10 year deals when you had a 3-way war at the top. I edited the contracts so that when top guys(including mine) would renew, they will have 750- 1000 day contracts. (around 2/3 years randomly)</p><p> </p><p> DB's technical wrestling streak was fun, and he was unbeaten in submission matches. Sean O'Haire became the real deal for me, as I have mentioned in the previous comment. During O'Haire's reign, my authority figure, Cornette got tired of O'Haire and begrudgingly brought Raven in to dismantle his stable. Raven did dismantle the stable but couldn't win the title back. Hardy Vs Punk storyline, with Punk helping Hardy with addiction and then turning on him when Hardy was suspended for wellness policy, drugs planted by O'Haire to break up their team and not challenge his guys for the title. </p><p> </p><p> Sting took Cena as his protégé in game, so I ran the storyline with them becoming face painted tag team (surfer sting came back). Sting backstabbed Cena later when Cena won a title shot at O'haire's title, courtesy of O'Haire manipulating Sting and reminding how Luger and WCW did him dirty during the old days. Cena was over due to this storyline and won the title and became my figurehead shortly after. </p><p> </p><p> Most of these stories were happening simultaneously, so it was fun booking them.</p><p> </p><p> Similarly, RVD had a title reign where he would put the title on the line every night until he lost it. Cornette didn't like the open challenge idea and wanted RVD to take it seriously and act like a champ. He had a few big names from Mexico and Japan come and challenge his reign due to his connections abroad. RVD was one of the constant Main Eventers and reliable workers for me. </p><p> </p><p> I had lost Edge to WCW during the early days of the promotion and brought him back and gave him a big fish in the small pond gimmick where he tried to big league everyone saying he was a 'big boy' now and even heels didn't like him. Kevin Steen had a rookie storyline where shortly after his debut, he won the Openweight belt and somehow kept retaining. </p><p> </p><p> As far as I recall, I had plans for a women's division, considering WWF never started one in this timeline, but other than 2-3 rest just weren't good enough yet.</p>

[Peria]

<p>Not really. Not to sound like a cool kid or a contrarian. What usually does get me to start a new save or something is when a real life wrestling match or storyline is done so well, that it makes me want to book that character, or wrestling company.</p><p> </p><p>

Otherwise, I default to TCW in C-Verse or NJPW in real world.</p>

[mjmiller2010]

No diary necessarily inspired me into starting a game, I've gotten storyline ideas from them for sure. But what has inspired me into games has been listening to podcasts and hearing the original plans for certain wrestlers and/or stories. Another inspiration has been watching "How Adam Would Book...." on youtube

[Joshdb]

It's no surprise my favorite companies to play with are all the ones listed below. Can't believe how long ago I was reading these! All written so well and inspiring.

 

 

Dragonmack's NYCW

 

Phantom Stranger's TCW

 

Yuu Onuki's 5SSW

 

Tristram's WCW Prequel

 

TigerKinney's FCW

 

BigPapa's WCW

 

Marcel Fromage's XWA

 

Monkeypox's DAVE

 

NoNeck's SWF

 

Self's CGC Squeakquel

[Historian]

I appreciate the folks that mentioned me.

 

For me, DarK_RaideR's BCG efforts have inspired me to play runs as BCG, but I also find myself doing exactly what he does in them.

 

James Casey's MAW 10 Simple Rules were very influential on me (even though I always played MAW anyway).

 

Dalton almost got me to play an AEW game because of his AEW diaries.

[DarK_RaideR]

If you haven't read it, Nevermore's ECW was one of the most highly rated diaries on this forum. Diary talked about how ECW became rivals to WWE and WCW on the backs of ECW originals(RVD, Sabu, Shane Douglas, Raven, Sandman and Tommy Dreamer) and then carried on as the biggest promotion including their hardcore tendencies.

Is this one that's been converted into .pdf format? Somewhere in the Diary of the Year/Month boards, iirc. I distinctly remember reading something similar to what you're describing.

 

For me, DarK_RaideR's BCG efforts have inspired me to play runs as BCG, but I also find myself doing exactly what he does in them.

I am honoured to hear both these things. The itch to do another BCG diary is certainly there after the save for my last one got messed up, but I'm trying to focus on my ongoing GSW diary and not spread myself too thin. Rest assured though, another BCG diary will happen!

[SanX]

Is this one that's been converted into .pdf format? Somewhere in the Diary of the Year/Month boards, iirc. I distinctly remember reading something similar to what you're describing.

 

Yes. I think we lost his thread when forums were purged during TEW 2020 introduction. I don't think PDFs of dynasties exist today, as links are dead.

[TCP1]

Not only have some diaries made me want to play games, some are so good they've stopped me from ever playing as that company because I didn't think I could top it.

 

New York City Wrestling: Tradition Begins Anew by BriFidelity

After spending years making real world mods and playing those, this was the diary I read that properly introduced me to the Cornellverse. It also gave me my love for NYCW as 'my promotion.'

 

Welcome... to the Coastal Zone by infinitywpi

This was the diary I read after Bri's NYCW and it was so funny, entertaining and comprehensive that I have never played as CZCW in the games. As far as I'm concerned CZCW belongs to infinity.

 

SWF: Sins of the Father by Eisen-verse

I believe this one speaks for itself. Only SWF-related content I consume (f**k Richard Eisen) and a lock and key over one of the big 3 for me in terms of playing the game. Eisen-verse is a legend.

 

No Ordinary Men by Historian

Historian's character-work and style was so good, I tried (and failed) to recreate it. It's consistency and length belie a wonderful long-form story with time given to workers, booker and company. Probably the best active writer in the diary section and an inspiration.

[Clarity]

This will show my age on this forum, but Scapino's SWF: This Means War diary was one that got me interested in potentially interested in a company that i'd never really considered. The diary ran until 2032 via his MWA spinoff which is even more impressive considering it started in 2005.

 

Guys written at least a half dozen novels available on Amazon these days

[21maxwell]

There's certainly been a few diary's that have inspired small runs with certain mods, I always like reading diary's close to what I'm booking to see it from a different perspective.

 

It's not a diary but I feel Zero's updates in the title thread are quite motivational to start a long term save and re-write history.