If You Want Something Done Right…

One of the first things I learned in English 401 (that was Creative Writing) was if you're trying to write for everyone, you'll fail every time. The folks who read H.P. Lovecraft don't read Danielle Steele. The folks who read Isaac Asimov don't read Judith Krantz. The folks who read Toni Morrison don't read Jackie Collins. There are always exceptions (I, myself have read all the authors above), but if you're trying to get yourself published in the field of fiction, you've got to find a niche and hold on to it for all you're worth.

On that note, I think it's safe to say that trying to write for everyone in the game industry isn't just foolish, it's stupid. The die hard AD&D fans don't play Everway. The die hard Heavy Gear fans aren't interested in the least in 7th Sea. And the folks who swear by Shadowrun really don't give a rat's ass about Nephilim. Like I said before, there are always exceptions (and like before, I own copies of all those games), but in general, a gamer only has enough money for one, two or maybe three game lines at most.

I should also point out that while gamers may buy a lot of games, but they don't necessarily like all the games they buy. I don't think I need to back this statement up with any kind of evidence; on-line reviews speak well enough to that point.

The gaming public is firmly divided. Look at the hate and vitriol that gets thrown at LARPers and White Wolf fans from the more "traditional" RPG public. Hear the prayers that beg for the demise of CCGs and diceless roleplaying. And when the Beast Known Only As "3E" hits the shelves, know that no prayer will save you from the internet flames. Gamers love 7th Sea, gamers hate 7th Sea. Gamers love Unknown Armies, gamers hate Unknown Armies. Gamers love Shadowrun, gamers hate Shadowrun. I feel fairly confident in a wager that you have a game you have sworn you will never play. Am I right? Chances are, I made money on that bet, Faithful Reader, for even if you say "No", there are many more who said "Yes".

As an author (and game designer), I have to consider my audience. I have to consider the fact that my audience is jaded, divided and diverse. Not everyone will enjoy what I write. Some will take offense to it. Some will go on the internet and try to begin a holy crusade. Others will declare me the Antigamer and try to exorcise me from the game industry. And I'm not the only author who gets treated this way.

Everyone loves John Tynes, right? Wrong. The Beloved Tall Man has gotten his own share of Hate thrown his way. Everyone loves Greg Stolze, right? Wrong. Ask Greg sometime about the hate mail he's received. Everyone loves John Wick. We all know better than that. But the point isn't that people hate you, the point is that you can't please everyone all the time. The only people you can reach with your work are the people you can reach with your work. I know it's redundant common sense, but it's also true. Trying to get that Rifts fan to like Nobilis is futile. He'll enjoy it if he wants to enjoy it. No sooner, no later.

And so, when I write, I consider my audience. And my audience is me. I write roleplaying games to satisfy my standards. I don't know what you like or dislike, Faithful Reader. I haven't a clue. And even if I did know the games you liked to buy, that only tells me part of the story. How many D&D players out there are running the game as written? How many are using those "house rules" we're all so familiar with? And so, to say that someone is a D&D fan means next to nothing. All it means is that they enjoy swords & sorcery gaming. And, of course, does that mean they'd be more happy with another set of rules - if they only knew about that other set of rules, that is. My D&D players were ecstatic when I showed them the Stormbringer rules, but they would have never known about them if I hadn't shown them. They'd been playing D&D for nearly eight years before I bumbled along. They'd probably still be using the same rules. But now, they're playing a hybrid of both games, happily gaming along, content with what they have, never wanting more.

And that's the standard gamer. He has a set of rules he likes and he doesn't need anything more. And there's nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all. But it means there's a ton of games out there that Joe Gamer will never see, because like the rest of humanity, once he gets complacent, he ain't movin'.

Now, I'd like to make a point.

The "gaming audience" does not exist any more than the "novel audience" exists. People do not simply read novels, they read what they like, and that usually means they read genre fiction. We do not speak of "novel readership", we speak of "science fiction readership" and "fantasy readership" and "romance readership" and "mystery readership". Very few Orson Scott Card readers go in for the latest Katherine O'Neal novel (entitled My One and Only; one of the best-selling romance novels of the last year) anymore than Rifts players go in for the new Changeling sourcebook. Asking the line developer of Changelling to accommodate the Rifts players (and vice versa) is asking him to alienate his own audience, an act that nobody in their right mind would do.

And with that point firmly in mind, I'd like to ask you to consider the worth of almost every on-line review you've ever read. Especially those that include the phrases: "It sucks", "It's broken" and "I didn't like it".

As far as I see it, the purpose of a review is not to tell the reader whether or not you liked the book. The purpose of a review is to show the reader whether or not they will like the book. Pointing out the book has many typographical errors is valuable and necessary. Pointing out that a book is poorly organized is valuable and necessary. A review who points out that he didn't like it is nothing short of arrogant, vain and self-centered. Readers don't really care if the reviewer liked the book or not. The reason they're reading the review is to gather enough knowledge to determine if they'll like the book. A reviewer's opinion is completely extraneous and only serves the reviewer's own ego.

In the future, I would like to see reviews based on content rather than opinion. I would like to see reviews that go step-by-step through character creation, so I understand the mind of the game designer. I'd like to understand the world, and not the reviewer's opinion of the world. I'd like to see…

Well, I'd like to see a review that looked something like this.

A Review of Wrestlemania 2000

Wrestlemania 2000 is the newest wrestling video game for the Nintendo 64. It costs anywhere between $59.99 and $69.99, depending on who has it for sale.

The game mechanics utilize every button on the controller (a total of twelve), but offer the largest variety of moves in any wrestling game on the market (I know this because I own them all and I double checked). The control pad moves the wrestler around the wring. The A button performs Grappling moves while the B button performs Striking moves. Depending on the direction of the control pad (up, down, left or right), you can change the Strikes and Grapples of your wrestler. For instance, holding the control pad Up while hitting the B button makes my wrestler perform an uppercut, while holding it Down makes him do a leg sweep. Grappling moves are a little more complicated. The wrestler must first successfully grapple his opponent (hitting the A key), then you may either hit the A or B key (again) to perform different Grapples. For example, after successfully grappling your opponent, hitting Up and B makes your wrestler perform a suplex, while hitting Left and A gets you a DDT. Combinations of directions and the A and B key make for a total of eight moves for a Grapple. But then there are Weak Grapples (simply hitting the Grapple key), Strong Grapples (holding the B key for a bit longer) and Very Strong Grapples) hitting both the A and B key after a successful Grapple). And these are only the Front Grapples; wrestlers can also grab their opponents from behind for Back Grapples, throw their opponents into the ropes for Running Grapples, throw their opponents into the corner for Corner Grapples and perform moves from the top ropes, from the ring apron, and out on the floor. Each wrestler has 28 Striking Moves, 74 Grappling Moves, 18 Flying Moves, and 13 Taunts.

This may make WM2000 sound a bit like a Street Fighter game with all sorts of complicated button pushing and patterns. It isn't. The best thing about the game is how good it makes you look with minimal effort. The button combinations are simple, never exceeding the formula of Direction + A or B. In fact, a beginning player can master the game without even pushing directions on the direction pad. Simply pushing the A button makes your wrestler punch (or kick, depending on the distance to your opponent) and simply pushing the B button sets up for a Grapple, which can be followed up with another push of the A or B button, ignoring the direction pad. For example, The Rock's "Weak Arm Strike" is an Elbow Strike. Simply press B when you're close to the opponent, and The Rock will hit his opponent with a bashing elbow to the jaw. Also, more complicated maneuvers do not require multiple button pushing. "The People's Elbow" (a move that has The Rock standing over a fallen opponent, looking out to the audience, throwing his elbow pad out to a grateful fan, dashing to one side of the ring, leaping over his opponent, bouncing off the ropes, then hesitating for a moment before he drops an elbow down) requires that you only push the B button. All that drama for one button.

The damage each move does is ranked from A to E (high to low), whether they can Knock Out an opponent, if they are Submission moves and if the move can draw Blood (a game option).

Another element of the game is that every wrestler has his own set of Counter Moves. Each move in the game can be countered, and depending on the wrestler you choose to play, each counter is different. Some wrestlers counter a move with a quick kick to the belly (sometimes lower - but hey, that's pro wrestling), some wrestlers twist their opponent into a reverse armbar, and some simply leap over their opponent, getting a good shot at their backside. Each wrestler has a total of five counter punches and kicks and four counter grapples, all used in different circumstances. Counters are made by pressing the L and R keys on top of the controller, but the timing is tricky an can be difficult (if not frustrating) for some players to master.

The game features many different kinds of match ups as well. Single matches, tag matches, three way matches and cage matches are featured. Also, a player can participate in wrestling tournaments (the King of the Ring) and the (very difficult) Royal Rumble, where four wrestlers are allowed in the ring at one time. Every time a wrestler is eliminated, the other three are given ten seconds, upon which time a new wrestler enters. The last one standing is the victor. The matches are customizable, meaning that you can choose the victory conditions. You can set the time limit, whether the match can be won from pinfall, TKO, and/or submission. You can also turn on/off outside interference, rope breaks as well as the aforementioned Blood option.

The campaign game - The Road to Wrestlemania - allows you to play a long-term game while also unlocking hidden characters in the game. Characters such as Dude Love, Cactus Jack, Jerry "the King" Lawler, and even "Good ol' JR" Jim Ross are made available as you go through the year.

The ability to custom build your own wrestler is also available. You can choose your wrestler's height and weight, entry music and video. Unfortunately, there are only two custom music choices and no custom video choices, which means you have to use the music and videos of existing WWF superstars.

You can also choose the body size (seven options) of your wrestler, varying form cruiserweight all the way up to super heavyweight. There are eighty-four different trunks, fifty-seven different shirts, twenty-six tattoos, and thirty "entrance accessories". There are also four different head sizes, fifty faces, sixty-five hair options, beards, masks and scars galore. With over fifty different knee pads, elbow pads, wrist bands and boots, a player is very capable of making his own unique wrestler. There are even options for picking your worst enemies and best allies, which means you choose who runs in to interfere in your matches and who walks out with you to ringside.

Game play is smooth with a great deal of movement with little button pushing. As I said above, this game makes you look great with just a couple of thumb thrusts. (Another example: my cruiserweight "Shosuro" can jump up on to someone's shoulders, spin around his neck and come down behind his opponent while pulling him down backward into a pin with the touch of a single button.) The excitement is doubled by the fact that all the moves are designed to look like they're successful… right up to the countermove. If you watch the wrestler's carefully, you can always tell when to hit the counter button, because it's just as they pause to look at the crowd. Ah, the cost of hubris. With all the counters and counter-counters and flashy moves, it looks as if a real game pro were playing the game. My wife commented that a friend of ours (who had never played the game before) looked like he knew he was doing. "Not really," he said. "But my wrestler does."

And that's how it feels playing the game: you feel like the guy on the other side of the screen is doing all the work. That fact alone makes the game a load of fun to play.

When the match begins, each wrestler's "Attitude Meter" is at green. As your wrestler performs more successful moves, his Attitude Meter changes color. First, it moves to yellow, then to dark amber, then finally to red. When your Attitude reaches a flashing red color, your wrestler can perform his Finishing Move (the only Grapples in the game with an A damage rating). These moves are usually enough to stun your opponent long enough to pin him for the three count.

(Another quick aside: a very fun design element in the game is the addition of "stolen moves". When you're ready to do your Finisher, you can instead do your opponent's Finisher by pressing both A and B simultaneously. It's little design considerations like this - and there's a ton of them - that make the game a lot of fun.)

Another way to increase your Attitude is by Taunting your opponent (called "cheap heat" in the wrestling business). Every Taunt increases your Attitude by just a little bit.

(And another quick aside: you can also steal your opponent's Taunts. Watching Stone Cold Steve Austin do the Road Dogg's "funky chicken" dance is one of the funniest things I've ever seen in video game. Again, you can feel these guys had a lot of fun designing the game, and it comes off in the game play.)

The graphics of the game are not as sharp as some games, and during graphically complicated matches (such as the Royal Rumble and Cage Matches), the game slows down a little. Also, as you turn up the Difficulty, the game has a tendancy to cheat. That is, every move requires a certain amount of time to perform and a certain amount of time to recover (it's a fighting game, which means it's all about timing). As the Difficulty increases, your computer opponents' perform and recovery time seems to slip away. Also, their ability to counter your moves increases drastically. During playtest, I watched a computer opponent block and/or counter every move the human player through it at. Also, the computer's Attitude Meter skyrocketed toward red while the human player's Attitude sunk to blue (very, very bad sign) faster than you can say "Austin 3:16". However, we discovered that this design aspect was like a virus: it came and went from match to match. We also discovered a method to get by it: drop kicks off the top ropes. We'd taunt the computer in the corner and it'd get mad and charge us. Then, we jumped up to the top rope and drop kicked the computer opponent. While this technique didn't work every time (5 out of 6 on average), it was enough to get by the "cheaters" and enjoy the game.

(Hey! If the computer's gonna cheat, then so are we. And this is pro wrestling, after all. Cheating's a part of the rules!)

If you're a fan of wrestling or fighting games, I think you'll enjoy Wrestlemania 2000. It has the same kind of movement and style as Tekken and Soulblade (both games made you look like a pro with simple joystick movement and button combos), but at the same time, requires a whole lot less skill to play. This doesn't make the game less challenging, it just makes it easier to learn, which makes it a whole lot more fun for beginners and a lot more challenging for old pros.

Style: 5

Substance: 5