Armchair Warfare Appreciation Thread
 

The general consensus for Armchair Warfare seems to be that it was a lot of fun...however, it was a LOT of work.

Now, that booker in me still gets the urge to produce shows like that, but THIS time, I'd like to just present the whole thing as ONE show. It would no longer be about competition. I'd like to just build a whole writing team, with a few guys each focusing on specific areas of the show. The team could all just brainstorm to come up with ideas/direction/etc. and everybody could split the writing workload. We could post the shows whenever the fuck they're done, as to not add any pressure to anyone.

Would any of you be interested in writing or reading these shows?

I say, half the fun was the competition.

Maybe only have two shows though, with their own writing team. Depends on how many people sign up, I guess. Then the remaining members of the TPWW Universe decides on who wins the War.

That could work, too. Also, with only two shows, there'd be bigger names on both shows. Maybe change the teams after each PPV, but keep the shows and rosters the same, where they continue from where the last team left off? I dunno, just kicking ideas around here.

Another element that I always wanted to implement was random injuries. I never knew how I wanted it to work exactly, but I think it would be cool.

I would be interested in working for one of the teams. Also, when there is the draft of performers, just go to random.com and randomize the list with all the names in it. After that the #1 person will get an injury after week 3 or something.

That's one way of doing it, but I'd kind of like to keep it based on what happens on the shows. If CM Punk comes out one week and cuts a promo without even wrestling, I wouldn't want him to be injured because of it. If he was in a TLC match or something though, then maybe.

12-sided Dice Roll.

I wanna do this! But how will we decide superstars?

If we do two teams, we can do a DRAFT SPECIAL where a representative from each time announces picks for their shows...or something. Or we can just have both teams send in their draft priority list and each show will get their top available pick on their turn.

Personally like the Draft Special idea.

I'd be interested in writing.

On the injury thing:

Each Superstar has X amount of "Warfare" points.

Every match takes away some number of points based on what kind of a match it is, and some sort of dice roll/or randomized number.

If Warfare points reach 0, your dude is INJURED, roll/randomize to see how many weeks/shows he is out of.

Vaguely defined idea that will probably create tons of arguments if implemented. Someone can try to more define it if they wish.

That sounds decent.

As far as voting if we were to do just two shows, I think it would be cool if we did it head-to-head ratings style. Maybe even have it where you have a certain amount of slots for each show and you can do whatever you want in those slots...but you don't know what the other show will be doing in the same slot. The judges could then vote per each slot for either "I'd watch Show A at this slot", "I'd watch Show B at this slot", and maybe even "I'd flip back and forth at this slot".

You start by rolling on the chart chart...

What the fuck are you talking about?

In other words, the Patented Lock Jaw Voting System From Armchair Warfare Season 1

Yes. It was beautiful.

Yes it was. Even if The Usos never beat any show in any segment.

If the talent were spread over only two shows, I doubt you'd even see The Usos.

Pffffftt. Still think I had a better Tag Team angle than most shows, just poor talent to implement it with.

VCW 4 Lyfe

I would potentially be interested in this, although I'm not sure how good I'd be at it.

Then maybe you can just be in charge of one angle for your team or whatever. The way I see it, everybody on the team can be like the "head writer" for certain angles, but the teams could have brainstorming sessions to try and tie everything together or make suggestions to other teammates. As long as there was one team "leader" to piece the show together, the workload wouldn't be terribly high for anyone, and I think it could last a lot longer.

Also, Hard Knocks Wrestling episode 2 was one of the greatest things to happen in the history of the United States.

As long as we get to carry on where VCW left off, I get to book everything and write nothing but have the power to order re-writes...it'll be a cake walk.

I am only joking btw.

I've already expressed "an interest" in this to AbT (and have on more than one occasion considered suggesting the same thing) just gonna see how much interest builds, etc.

Well I guess you can count me in if this goes ahead. I like the idea of having a team of people working together, which was kinda what I was hoping to enjoy about that short-lived Fallen Angel game.

In my head, I see it as, let's say, Iginfest is in charge of the Intercontinental title picture, and he has R-Truth, The Miz, Paul London, and Kazarian to do whatever he wants with. XL is in charge of the main event picture with CM Punk, Alberto Del Rio, Crimson, and Kurt Angle, or whoever the fuck. Teammates could coordinate and use each others guys or whatever, and maybe have one team leader who pieces the whole show together once everyone has written his part.

I'm sorry this sounds so scatterbrained here, but I'm typing it as I think it.

You could also set up social groups for each team to discuss stuff in and maybe set some long term goals you want to achieve.

Like say you want to give Drew McIntyre a long term push to the upper midcard and then to the main event. You could figure out where to integrate him into which storylines. Or if you wanted to gradually build up to the formation of a stable you could figure out ways to intertwine each of the members in storylines so the coming together makes sense.

Another way to do it would be to get together, thrash out ideas for all the guys on your roster/assign guys on the roster to the angles/ideas you have and then assign the segments/matches for that week to members of the team.

I found that I had to "cross pollinate" a lot of angles and guys from other "divisions" to deliver fresh matches week in, week out.

I want to book. Sign me up.

Can I be on the same team as CSL?

We could run The Hipster Division where nobody wants the belt because it's popular and therefore not very good.

Yeah, you're getting it. I was thinking about social groups too.

I was also thinking that we could give the ratings judges the option of a return the following week. If they don't want to judge again, we can find someone else to judge for that week.

How many people should be on each team? Five? Seems like a nice number. Ten judges again?

You think we can get 20 people interested in this on a reasonably long term basis!?

Yes. If the bookers have their workload cut in 1/5 and the judges can cycle in and out as they please.

Would love to see it, but I just do not have the time to contribute.

I'm in. Didn't have enough time to do the original, and I still don't have time to write a full show, but I could do a segment/story per week if I was a member of a team.

Maybe just have the normal audience be the judges this time if we can't get 10 people to judge?

Also do we have 10 people interested currently? If so maybe now pick teams?

I know there is a question about workload and how many commited people could be drummed up, but personally, I would LOVE to see this as 3 shows. The Armchair Warfare threads were the best in this forum in a long time, really cool. I just think people got bored reading 5 different shows or whatever.

I think 3 shows would be perfect as we would get to see lesser used stars elevated with new gimmicks (rather than current stars dominating as could happen with 2 shows) and we would also get lots of variation on favorites etc...harking back to the days of WWE, WCW, ECW.

You could even start the 3 shows as similar to those 3 brands and work from there. Would give the whole thing a competitive edge and allow a lot of variation in writing, approach and talent used.

Right. People like you are the ones I was hoping would prefer this structure. The mind behind Lou P. Daight in the Armchair Universe? Sounds awesome to me.

Could you possibly judge, like, once every other week or so?

So who's going to write and who's going to judge?

Well I certainly want to write it.

I like the idea of the audience being the judges. Honestly, the audience can just read WHATEVER parts of either show that they want, and just vote/tell us about what they watched and what they didn't. It may not seem "fair", but it'd be a more accurate depiction of "ratings". That way, judges wouldn't have to feel bad if they wanted to skip parts of a show. Just vote on what you saw...

...I dunno, that sounds convoluted the more I think about it, but it could work. The reason I liked having designated judges was because the public polls were getting literally ZERO votes towards the end of the last season. I'd hate to have no feedback whatsoever.

I like where your head's at, but I think two is good for now since we're just kicking the tires on this thing to see if it'll drive or not. If all goes well, maybe a third team could be added next "season", or however we'd do it this time.

I think we all need to slow down a little.

Let's get some structure to it first off. Decide how many shows, how many people per team, etc before we start breaking off into teams.

BizarroKing definitely deserves a spot. He's been a supporter since day one. I wish I could find that Paul Heyman guy and Flash Funk as well.

Also, to combat having 2 "Super Shows" full of guys that are already Main Eventing howabaout...

We break the list of available wrestlers into Main Eventers, Upper Midcarders, Midcarders, Jobbers etc.

Then each show gets to pick 5 guys from each category.

:y:

That's a pretty good idea.

It should hopefully "force" teams to try to elevate talent.

With 2 teams and "Main Event" calibre stars from WWE and TNA available you could easily find both shows with up to 10 "Main Event" guys.

Yeah. It would seem kinda weird though if we put a cap on it and somebody like Del Rio went undrafted and Zack Ryder is tearing through the Hipster division.

Or maybe slightly more in the lower categories, since most promotions have a bigger midcard than main event scene. Something like:

4 main eventers
8 upper-midcarders
12 midcarders
6 lower midcard/"enhancement" workers

30 guys for a 5-man team. Obviously, those numbers were just sort of arbitrarily determined, but something along those lines might work.

Maybe 25 for each team? Throw in some diva picks just as a bonus if by some off chance someone wants to use them.

I do like the idea of a roster bigger than 20 for just two teams.

I actually like 30 better than 20. I remember when I had 20 on my roster for Hard Knocks, there only seemed to be two guys that I could use to do continual jobs. Sorry about that, Paul Burchill and Kofi Kingston. More guys will leave you room to bury guys, which actually is a bigger benefit than some may realize.

Those numbers sound about right. You really wouldn't need more than 4 main eventers in a two hour show, right? A good amount of upper mids that can break through at any moment, and a whole universe to construct on your own in the midcard. :y:

This is a fantastic point. And exemplifies why there needs to be further discussion on structure before we jump to picking teams.

Would it follow any sort of similar calendar structure to WWE? i.e. ppv's such as the rumble and elimination chamber where the teams would have to build towards having those sorts of matches. Or would it be something new entirely?

I think if it were something new, it would maybe still be a good idea to decide between the teams on dates for special PPV's similar to those I mentioned. It would probably help build a bit of excitement for the readers knowing that a royal rumble type show is coming up and for them to see who's going to win "the big one".

We COULD do just the WWE roster...but I kinda like having TNA involved. If we did just WWE, the main eventers would all be drafted, and we'd basically have our own Raw and Smackdown. We could really even name the shows as such.

Although writing a rumble would be pretty difficult between the two teams I would imagine.

I'd say that would be up to the teams to structure their events, but I agree that it would be a good idea to have shows like that. They're a gamble though, because if they don't resonate and you've already committed to a concept, you have to stick it all the way out.

I may not be in any position to give advice, but I'd think that the best way to go about something like that is to book the ending to your gimmick match FIRST, and if it feels awesome, go ahead and write the road to it backwards.

Ah, my mind's wandering again. I really want this to stick this time.

The game is far more dynamic/interesting with TNA involved. Angles with former WWE guys "coming back" and "dream matches", etc.

We throwing ROH in this too? or Just WWE and <strike>TNA</strike> ImpactWrestling?

I'd say both shows do four 2 hour TV shows leading to a 3 hour PPV, rinse and repeat. What you do as far as concept for PPVs is up to the team.

Maybe just a certain number of "outside talent" permitted per team? And the teams could decide how to bring them onto the shows? Hype promos, randomly showing up etc

I think that the 'average' judge may not be familiar with the abilities of a lot of ROH guys, so it might be harder for them to imagine how things would be going down as they're written. It'd be a disadvantage to the writers, I think. If enough people really wanted ROH though, it might be OK. What does anybody else think?

Well, I'm actually fine if we skip them I'm just asking if we wanted to include them.

My sentiments echo yours on this matter.

How would we pick teams?

Two captains who select members? Randomly drawn?

I don't think it should be random. Either a draft with captains choosing, cause let's face it, drafts are pretty fun. Or just have each team comprise a list of who would be their top 4 picks for main event wrestlers, top 8 for mid card etc and work it out from there?

That randomizer was my best friend the first time around.

I think he was talking about booking teams.

Oh, right yeah. That makes sense. My b.

Yeah. I meant for selecting teams.

Just re-reading my UCE stuff.

Darren Young and his confused identity is the greatest thing in the history of our sport!

I think I'll spend a bit of tomorrow reading through some of the last Armchair Warfare stuff to get a feel of things.

I hear the VCW shows are a "must read" ;)

Man, I had to put up a fight to get Darren Young. I was so worried when I didn't get him in my draft. Epic PM trade negotiations:

LOL

I did like Darren Young.

My favorite story to advance was the Evan Bourne/Miz/Christy Hemme Saved by the Bell-esque love triangle.

Ah yes I remember that :) The Darren Young trade discussion that is

Accidentally making ("The Real") Jay Lethal a bonefide superstar was the trickiest thing I had to get around.

As far as incoporating injuries into it, how about if the wrestlers real life conterpart picks up an injury then so does the armchair warfare wrestler. It would make the injuries as frequent as they are in real life. I dunno, just a small idea I had.

I'd be interested in writing

Flash Funk is here and reporting for duty ABT sir! Will write or judge

I'd be up for judging I suppose, since I'm more than likely gonna be reading them anyway...

<font color=goldenrod>Matt Hardy making creepy videos of him stalking his opponents before matches was probably my best character in Season 1. Somewhat foreshadowing the future as well.

Definitely fucked myself on my PPV though. Ran the show as though the fed were going to continue past the 1 month I was booking. In that respect my main event ending in a no contest with the Straight Edge Army killing everything made sense...but in terms of voting everybody felt cheated. Ah well.</font>

I still think mine did fairly well if given more time, maybe had Daniels and Taker do more mind games with each other or what not.

Any updates on this yet?

How would scoring work? I think it would be cool to have the individual matches and segments scored separately on a scale of 1-5 instead of grading the show as a whole. Might give the individual writers some extra incentive.

Only thing I see as a potential problem would be you might have to have an allotted number of matches and segments to keep the available number of points even.

I'm down to judge btw.

We were sort of kicking around the idea of head-to-head segment ratings, a la Lock Jaw's system of judging.

It's always about Lock Jaw isn't it? Lock Jaw Lock Jaw Lock Jaw.

He's just so pretty.

And ruggedly handsome and modest.

He's a maaaaaaaaaaaaaaan.

Such a maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan.

He's a reeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal.

Real man's maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan.

I'd be very interested in writing for this. Followed Armchair Warfare religiously last year.

Could alwayd divide the total score by the number of segments. That way a show with 12 segments doesn't have an advantage over a show with 7.