How did YOU got into the CornellVerse?

[FlameSnoopy]

Yeah I know. This might have been asked for a lot of times, but let me ask it again: 'How did YOU get into the CornellVerse?'

As I am having a bit hard time finding something I can keep going. My three longest games may have been with a created promotion just when I bought TEW, not too long after that a SAISHO game and then a RIPW game. So every non-created longer run has been with a development promotion. Oh and I had a pretty long 18 month reign with Hinote Dojo as well. So any tips or stories how you got into CornellVerse?

EDIT: :E a typo in the topic title

[codey]

I used to play Wrestling Spirit 1/2, and it took forever to grow in popularity in that game, so I became real familiar with the small companies and the guys that worked there. When I finally bought TEW 2008, I didn't know anything about the stars of the game, really, but I was comfortable with the little guys, and so that's who I always work with. Plus, it just doesn't seem like fun to book huge shows right off the bat. I'd like to ease into them. I would start cult at the highest.

[Comradebot]

I remember when 05 came out (I honestly can't remember if I played 04... if I did it was only with real world mods I think), and I was tired of playing EWR... I thought "a whole original universe? That sounds interesting."

So I started my own promotion with little to no clue who anyone in the C-Verse was, signed some random crappy folks (Tom Angelus, Leo Davis, Jeremiah Moose I think, Velocidad, Danny Patterson, and lord knows who else) and tried to play with said company. Ultimately the company sucked, but I played that first game for a few years of game time, keeping Tom Angelus in the main event as my star (where he'd "Flex for America", as the segment always brought down the house! Sadly I haven't been able to do much with Angelus in 08.)

I don't think I EVER played a game then with one of the pre-made companies back then. Things changed with 07, and I once again tried to start up "Seattle Pro Wrestling", with mostly the same guys, and I realized I wanted something different. So, inspired by J_Silver, I started a game with USPW and became fully addicted to the C-Verse world as a whole. I really miss that game... make me wish there was a way to transfer 07 Save Games to 08, but that'll probably never happen.

[sebsplex]

Personally, I downloaded the TEW05 demo and used it on my laptop. I didn't have time initially to locate and download a real life mod, so I tried the default data for a few goes. I didn't really get into it at first, but after becoming a bit tired of my games involving a RL mod, I went back to it and spent a good deal of time buffing up my C-Verse knowledge by reading the profiles, articles, etc.

Probably one of my biggest tips for getting into the C-Verse would be to read through some of the better C-Verse diaries on these forums. Find the sort of promotion you're most likely to use and then have a look at a few diaries about that promotion to see how other people are handling it.

[Derek B]

I've been playing Cornellverse since TEW04 came out. Wasn't any chance I'd not play the game just because there wasn't a real world mod. I started with my own UK based promotion using a Cutting Edge style I think.... and with my own personal Olympian leading the charge I had a fun game. I also had big games with USPW and PGHW (changed to Traditional, sue me!) and that gave me a pretty solid grounding on getting to know the Cornellverse. :)

[CQI13]

I used to only play RW. Then, I noticed that stats were usually over/underinflated at the mod maker's discretion. And it was too easy to get great ratings. Plus, you end up being influenced by the reality of situations (i.e. a lot of people running RW games tend to do the same things that happened in real life, or conversely, you may find it difficult to get into a game where Val Venis is a world champion and Triple H is a jobber to the stars...because again, that's not what you're used to seeing).

With the CVerse, you have a rough overview as to who did what and when (given title histories), and you can build up stars at your discretion. You want to give Gargantuan a gargantuan push (and why wouldn't you? ;)), you can. Because the only thing you're given is a starting point.

That's why I prefer the CVerse. I can create my own Triple H, or Rocky Maivia, or Stone Cold Steve Austin. Besides, with the CVerse sharing some qualities (loosely) with real world promotions (in different times) you can adapt real storylines to the CVerse as you see fit.

[eayragt]

In TEW 04 I tried running shows as SWF. For some reason The Lords of War wouldn't go 20 minutes so I went back to WWE.

However, then I started reading Infinity's CZCW diary (boy, i really am a mark, aren't I?), and really got into it. I read a few Cornellverse diaries, and when 05 came out, went for a USPW game. It still got a while to get going (I think I lost popularity for the first six months), but eventually I got to know and love my wrestlers (even Giant Redwood and his Lifetime contract). And I kept reading diaries, where new life would be breathed into workers that I knew little about.

[Eisen-verse]

I use to play EWR back in the day and become absolutely intrigued by the game. I found myself playing until 4 or 5 in the morning and never really got sick of it. So, when Adam came out with TEW... I, once again, found myself intrigued to check it out (since I had loved EWR so much).

At first, I tried playing with the Cornellverse but never really found myself getting into the game. It was hard to follow people that I didn't know (and that didn't really exist) so I would always wait for the Real World mods to come out and go through with those primarily. That went on until literally last years game... I started to give the Cornellverse more of a shot (doing it only limited in years past)... Finally reading up on some of the historical information of the game world and starting and ending games with almost every company... I found myself becoming more and more into the Cornellverse vs. the real world (as the Real World traps you creatively... In the cornellverse you can do whatever you want).

Now, I've tried to play a real world mod here and there but always get bored (High ratings, bloated rosters, etc.). I think the more I jumped around from company to company... Reading bio information and seeing how the game was unfolding officially from year to year... I found myself loyal to the Cornellverse.

[Stennick]

I bought 04 and only used RW mods. I didn't buy 05, then 07 came out and I was doing the rw mod thing but only as WWE. Running three shows just to get through a week was annoying as hell so after trying several mods I finally decided to give the C Verse a try.

I started my own company and only hired guys that were working no where else. I had a bad ass main event scene of Dazzling Dave, MadMan Boone, Titan, The Big Problem, Velocidad, Tigre, Ernie Turner, Ben Williams (who I put in a tag team with K Squared as some white rappers and remaned him B Dub)

It wasn't long before I went back to running for my RW game. However when 08 came out I started with USPW and never looked back. I have never made it through a month of a RW game on 08.

[Self]

I'm not sure whether it was because I'd not found a decent RW mod at the time, or whether I was just bored of running WWE/TNA, but I remember first clicking through the C-Verse promotions in TEW07. By chance, I clicked on NOTBPW. Canadian? Main stars are a family? "Hmm" I thought "That sounds like the Harts..." Being a Hart Foundation mark I decide to give them a whirl, and liked it. In particular I dug young Edd Stone. I just 'got' his character right away. I empathized with him.

However, that isn't the whole story. At that point I wasn't completely off the RW stuff. Not until I discovered the old TCW E-Fed. They wanted more 'real' C-Verse characters, so I joined as Edd. I had an awesomely fun run there, exploring and refining the character from a typical ****y heel to what is currently on display in my FCK Diary (returning soon) My knowledge of the C-Verse spirals out of my knowledge and understanding of Edd, and the little bugger has been present in almost all of my C-Verse games to date.

I sometimes wonder what my world would be like if I'd clicked on CGC instead of NOTBPW. I mean, I FAR prefer CGC as a product, but... while Ricky DeColt is pretty good, he doesn't have the layers, the issues, the intellectual deficiencies that makes Edd so friggin' appealing to me.

[FINisher]

I think my first TEW was 04. Or 05, I really can't remember. I was so hooked on playing DAVE, they were the #1 for me during the series. Another promotion that got me hooked was CZCW which I loved to play also. :)

[Nedew]

I started on 04, never looked back. I despise real world mods in honesty, i've never played more than a week of one. Ever.

The C-Verse is realer than reality for me :)

[Apupunchau@optonline]

I have never played a real world mod for TEW. I just can't get into them I feel like the characters are already the characters they are and its really hard to change them. With C-Verse I can make it up as I go along and however I think the characters are are how they are.

I got into C-Verse slowly I started with a created fed and played with just a few worekrs untill I got the hang of them. Then I moved on to a slightly bigger fed and played as CZCW for awhile and that was TEW 2004. In TEW 2005 I spread out a bit more and played as NOTBPW and DaVE and as I got into each bigger and bigger fed I would learn abou tthe characters more, or at least how I thought they were.

In TEW 2007 I began to explore Japan with INSPIRE and 5SSW and Mexico becoming a fast fan of OLLIE and MPWF. It wasn't until TEW 2008 that I pushed my boundaries and have been trying to play feds based more on popularity than performance and who require the use of angles.

[G-Prime]

When I first bought TEW05 I just couldn't get into the C-Verse. All these guys I didn't know, how was I supposed to book them?
Then I started reading C-Verse dynasties, Monkeypox's brilliant DaVE diary was the first, and for a long time, only C-Verse dynasty I read. It gave the DaVE guys characters, and brought them to life. I knew who Eddie Peak was, who Nemesis was, and they were AWESOME! Then came Wallbanger's Generations, and JL's adventures opened up the Canadian scene.
TEW2008 rolled around, and there was no real world mod. So I dallied in the C-Verse. We had Australia now. I tried to play there, but just couldn't get into it. I started SWF... Couldn't get into it. My own promotion in the States? Nup. Then I played C-Verse '97 as the promotion that got me into the C-Verse in the first place... DaVE. Booked myself into a hole around the year 2000 and had nowhere to go. DaVE '97 is probably my longest game to date.
So I came back to the real C-Verse and started with TCW, and am at the end of my second year. I guess the place kinda grew on me.

[lazorbeak]

I remember playing the demo for the original TEW and being really confused- it seemed like the c-verse was really lacking in personality, and I had a terrible time remembering who was who when I was booking. Which, to be fair, was my identical experience in EWR, the first time I used a created fed and started using guys I had never heard of, like CM Punk, Low Ki, and AJ Styles (lay off, this was 6 years ago!).

I bought 07 thinking I would stick to real world mods, since I had become a big shot EWR player who had turned getting show ratings in the 90's into a science for promotions like IWA:PR and ROH. But there weren't any RW mods I liked, so I dug into the c-verse. I played a game as AAA, I played one as DAVE, and almost immediately the characters started getting distinct. It helped that I read Monkeypox's great DAVE diary that really gave me a feel for what I was doing with my own game (although I hated Tyler in my own game: the jerk had a bad attitude and terrible chemistry with everyone).

08's even better I think about getting a sense of personality because now there's the equivalent of "risk factors" for workers with bad personalities. Remo is young and has a great star look, but is it really a good idea to feed a ****y 25 year old's ego? On the other hand, a guy like Angry Gilmore or Christian Faith only becomes even more valuable because they're good guys in addition to being solid workers.

The C-Verse for me has gained a lot of personality in the past few years, to the point that I can't play a mod without being thrown off by game balance issues resulting from over-zealous mod-makers overinflating stats, over-inflating drug use, and over-inflating attitude problems.

[The Franchise]

I first used the C-verse in TEW 04, playing the demo over and over again, but I never really got into it. The fact that I only had the default pictures and not the ones that we pretty much take for granted now. Then I played the Wrestling Spirit 1 demo. I created a guy and stuck him in like 3 promotions and when I did the backstage thing (where you'd make friends and enemies), I started to get attached to the various characters. TEW05 was where I started playing c-verse almost exclusively.

[Fleisch]

I played as the C-Verse loosely in the previous games but I could never get into them for whatever reason. I have really started enjoying playing it in TEW08 though. I have read a few diaries, become a little more familiar with some of the smaller promotions and workers. I now play as either CZCW (where I sign Thomas Morgan and try to push him and Marc Speed to the Moon - whether the fans like it or not) or MOSC.

[d_w_w]

I was looking for a wrestling simulator sometime in 07, found this website. Played the demo, was kind "ehh, not sure this is what I want", as I was still in a TNM mindset.

Spent some more time on the website, read some diaries. Had fun reading diaries.

Had a crappy day. Read JSilver's USPW diary. Made it a better day.

Decided that I'd buy the game and try out the Cverse.

[SJ_1992]

Discovered EWR in early 2006 and played my own promotion with that for months. By 2007 I was really bored of it and I really wanted something with more options. It took me a while to get myself to buy TEW 07. After another decent WWE game, I decided to give the C-Verse a try. I had no idea where to start, until I read someone's ROF diary (cannot remember who did it, even though it was a fantastic diary with a good newsletter layout). That got me into the C-Verse as they were easy to play as (although I can never get past Cult).
I've had two ROF games go over 5 years. I would try another promotion, but I think I have grown some sort of loyalty to ROF now.

[FlameSnoopy]

Well SJ92. I actually had a same kind of story.

I had been waiting TEW for some time, I was a regular visitor in the development diary -thread. Then when the demo came out.. It was like WrestleMania, where the main event is like HHH vs. Orton this WM. I didn't like it at all (tried RW.) Then I read Marcel's (Fromage) ROF diary, so wanted to test the CV instead. So I started with RoF and fell in love with TEW.

[Mr T Jobs To Me]

I got into the C-Verse before anybody even had pictures on TEW '04- entirely fictional databases are my thing.

[Thomnipotent]

I got into the C-Verse before anybody even had pictures on TEW '04- entirely fictional databases are my thing.

Support.

Although I started with GCG, which made things very, very difficult for me.
The whole name recognition thing and the such.

I have to say, I really started getting into the game once workers had pictures.

[Nedew]

Support.

Although I started with GCG, which made things very, very difficult for me.
The whole name recognition thing and the such.

I have to say, I really started getting into the game once workers had pictures.

That's the reason i've never been able to play Japan, and my heart yearns for GCG - I even remember loving Hyobanshi when he didn't have a picture! Ah, those were the days...

[praguepride]

Ahh, many stories, many memories. Here's my advice:

1) Pick a region you're interested in. If you're a Uk fan or a Japan fan or at home in North America...whatever, just pick a region you want to know more about.

Then start at the top. Look at the info on the "big three" if there's more then three. We'll use US as an example.

Start with SWF. Read the bio. Look at who holds titles and then read those profiles.

Then go to the next promotion, read it's history and look at who it's stars are. That should give you a good feel for the style of promotion. Again, find something you like. If you like Sports Entertainment, SWF and TCW are great places as in their own ways they're similar to WWF and WCW at various points. If you're interested in fast paced light-weight action, there's CZCW and 4C up in canada. If you're looking for old old school style fights there's USPW and NYCW.

Anyway, find a promotion you like, or at least one that you might possibly be interested and play with it for a little bit. You don't have to try too hard, just mess around with it. Create a feud, run a stock storyline, but just play with it for a couple months. Maybe you bomb. Maybe you succeed beyond your wildest expectations. Get a feel for what your workers can do, read their bios.

Then start looking at the rest of the world. My way of doing this was to search the world for the A* ratings. Who was A* popularity? Who was A* Star Quality. Who was A* at this or that. Once you see who the best is (and who controls the "best" then you're already halfway there. By this time you've seen and read about close to a hundred workers profiles and that should give you solid footing. Once you look at the profiles out there you'll see why everyone treats Steve Flash like a god or why half the 4C diaries fire Hardcore Killah right from the start.

After that, you're already in pretty deep and you can take it from there :D

[Nedew]

why half the 4C diaries fire Hardcore Killah right from the start.

They do!? I practically worship the guy! Long like Aaron Mustafa!

[Thomnipotent]

That's the reason i've never been able to play Japan, and my heart yearns for GCG - I even remember loving Hyobanshi when he didn't have a picture! Ah, those were the days...

Back in the days of infinite dark match time... I used Hyobanshi to train Mark Staddon (now Beast Bantom) up to what'd be around a B- in Rumble in game terms now. Good psych and basics, too... oh, those WERE the days.

Still have love for GCG, though; and yeah, it's hard not to feed everyone to 'Banshi. Probably one of my favourite non-technical workers in the CV.

[Phantom Stranger]

It was just... what the game came with, so I started playing it. Ring of Fire, TEW07 (I'm a relative newcomer).

I figured I'd play ROF for a while while I got the hang of it and move on. And then Don Henderson had excellent chemistry with Merle O'Curle and their rivalry (can't call it a feud) dominated much of the first year, before Don went on to introduce the title that phased out the #1 Contenders trophy, and then Merle and UK Dragon left us entirely as they were too big, and in a certain degree of irritation I put the belt on British Samurai, and Petey Barnes shot up the ranks to take it from him, and...

...and I realised I was marking out for some of these collections of bits. So that game didn't really end, it kept going. And over several years' play you see a lot of Random Profiles, and you sign a lot of people, and you investigate the rosters of the companies near you and see who your guys are also working for, and who's doing well there, and...

I never really left. I play WOTI, I've got the BWA which is technically in the RW, and occasionally I want to install the 2002 RW mod, or pick up an up-to-date RW and try booking Territory-era stories with TNA's roster and see how that works, but I've got the SWF game to play (and Steve Flash is nearly in position to main-event before he retires) and the diary game to flick through for stories, and Ring of Fire just acquired Tommy Cornell after TCW's shocking demise and I have a series of Dream Matches to book, and the Comic Wrestling League is coming up to Crisis on Infinite Christmases and Ernest Luthor-Hume's team still have the Brave and the Bold titles, and...

Yeah.

[FlameSnoopy]

It was just... what the game came with, so I started playing it. Ring of Fire, TEW07 (I'm a relative newcomer).

I figured I'd play ROF for a while while I got the hang of it and move on. And then Don Henderson had excellent chemistry with Merle O'Curle and their rivalry (can't call it a feud) dominated much of the first year, before Don went on to introduce the title that phased out the #1 Contenders trophy, and then Merle and UK Dragon left us entirely as they were too big, and in a certain degree of irritation I put the belt on British Samurai, and Petey Barnes shot up the ranks to take it from him, and...

So, I must ask. How did Billy Robinson do in your game?

[Mr T Jobs To Me]

Support.

Although I started with GCG, which made things very, very difficult for me.
The whole name recognition thing and the such.

I have to say, I really started getting into the game once workers had pictures.

I started with SWF and my first TV main event was a 5-on-5 tag match that brought everyone's popularity to 79% or below. HGC put the boots to me from there, and I ended up running round robin deathmatch tournaments in Australasia to render the talent they stole from me useless. My only semi-breath of life was about 1 year in when Sam Strong retired to take over CWL, the Mexican Training Camp. I signed him (might have cheated to do that, don't remember) and he broke his neck in his first match. Good memories. :D

[James Casey]

I decided to give the C-Verse a try. I had no idea where to start, until I read someone's ROF diary (cannot remember who did it, even though it was a fantastic diary with a good newsletter layout).

Marcel Fromage, at a guess.

*

How did I start with the CVerse...

I don't remember. I know I played random CV games with SWF and a couple of other feds when I was waiting for RaveX to be released. I know I trialled the '04 demo when it was still around, and got into '05 when it was released because - if I'm honest - I was at a job with a liberal IT policy and not much work to do, so I could spend the day playing games.

I know it was shipshirt's '07 MAW diary that got me into the company, but thinking back, it was brifidelity's NYCW diary that was probably the thing that converted me to the C-verse. It's a forgotten classic, and well worth checking out if you have the time.

I don't think I really spent much time on 05 playing CV games, but since getting '07, I've not spent more than a month playing any RW mod other than the 1993 one I did a short WWF diary with.

[Bigpapa42]

Not quite a year ago, I ended up buying WMMA after trying the demo. That game brought me to GD, but I honestly never really got into it. It was cool, but it felt limited in creativity. The idea of a fictional universe really intrigued me, though. I never expected to really enjoy it, but I gave TEW 07 a try. It hooked me. To the point where I bought the full game, even though TEW 2008 was coming out in about 4-6 weeks. I didn't have any great games during that span, but really played around and explored. I also found the CornellVerse website, which really helped pull me in as well - the backstory and detail there still amazes me (just wish it was updated). I did play around a wee bit with DOTT but as much as I find the history of pro wrestling interesting, that didn't catch my interest nearly as much as the C-V did.

When TEW 08 came out, I realized one of the things I relished most was seeing what had changed in the CornellVerse. The changes - the fall of DaVE, the start of The Syndicate, etc - I thought were pretty awesome. It was TCW that really held my interest off the start - the backstory, Cornell, the product, The Syndicate, all of it. It felt somewhat like early 90s WCW, yet it was its own deal at the same time. I tried playing as other promotions off the start with TEW 08, but it was TCW I enjoyed the most. Then I tried SWF and loved the freedom of that.

[Phantom Stranger]

So, I must ask. How did Billy Robinson do in your game?

Not bad at all. At an International level, he's a reliable midcard champion in singles and tag competition, having taken Wade Orson under his wing and retaken the Parasite mask - the Parasites are a very solid up-and-coming tag team, and while they don't often hold gold they're never far away, and sometimes main-event six-man-tags alongside Don. He never got the amount of work Don did and his caps were lower, but he's reliable enough and puts out good results.

[Phantom Stranger]

Also? Diaries. Some characterisations just 'take'. I know Self's Edd Stone is the one I'll always think of when I book him, just as Jack Giedroyc IS the Wrath of God, and I know that one of my goals with the Philly Pro Tom Gilmore is to create the impression that Edd might have stolen some of his schtick from Gilmore and refined it.

[hrdcoresidebrns]

The thing that got me into the Cornellverse was the actual C-Verse website. I played EWR religiously for most of my high school life, and I remember somehow hearing about TEW04. I downloaded it and played it for about a week and went back to EWR.

Then when TEW05 came out, I gave it another go, and initially just got drawn in to certain wrestlers based solely on their pictures (mostly PGHW, as PRIDE Koiso just looked like a bad***), but I wasn't really very into the CVerse outside of PGHW until I found the link to the CVerse website and started reading all the articles on there. Just learning the history of all the promotions and the different wrestlers really drew me in, as it just helped to flesh out the world a bit more.

[SWF2K9]

Because I don't think the WWE is great at the moment I did try to rewrite it... but I found I could not, I couldn't sign Christopher Daniels, because Vince hadn't done it... my RW games only lasted just over 2 weeks. So I gave up on real world, same thing happened to me with the 1996 mod. then the 2004 mod, now inbetween these I was playing an SWF game, it wasn't much fun... Eventually I tried ROF... and now I am hooked!

[Sons of Kohral]

I used to hate the Cornellverse, but I got bored with the current day mod I was playing and started a game in the Cverse. I saw that there was a company that was in my hometown of NYC (NYCW) and played that like 20 times in a row. After that, a branched out to SWF, USPW then went to Japan with GCG. I still haven't gotten too into Mexico, but I really want to try.

[UFC-KING]

Personally I could just never get into Real World mods because It just got boring to use the real people, but with the C-Verse, you are constantly learning about new people

[cwh008]

I imported the WWE with about 10 superstars and then filled out the roster with lower level Cornell players. Then I eventually got more and more into it. I just got 08 and I'll probably do the same thing.

[Ping von Erich]

For me, it was during the demo release of '07.

That magical period where you have no other recourse but to use C-verse since there's nothing else out at that point.

I can't remember what fed it was but I remember really getting into it and playing it to death. I had a love for the C-verse from then on. It just takes some playing, familiarity is definitely key. That whole name recognition thing that was talked about earlier.

[Thriller]

For me, it was during the demo release of '07.

My memory sucks but I'm fairly certain this applies to me losing my C-Verse virginity too. And the new '75 mod has made me play TEW for the first time in over four months - I haven't even booked a show yet, just been reading profiles.