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| VGCW Retro: a post-mortem; Victim of the server shutdown | |
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| Topic Started: Nov 3 2015, 11:42 PM (2,092 Views) | |
| Mr. Satan Overlay Face | Nov 3 2015, 11:42 PM Post #1 |
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TOUGH BOY
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(Disclaimer: this is representative of my thoughts and views and are not necessarily representative of people mentioned. Posted with permission of BRYN and TOH. Please don't hate me!) There are many inspirations for the creative process. The spark can be an event or a moment in your life where you hit an impasse or a new path. This was nothing so dramatic. In short, it was a silly joke about how VGCW had a history before season 1. A history filled with neon, video artifacts and scoop slams. It was never to be though. The loss of the servers took care of that. This was VGCW: Retro. As you may or may not know, there’s a team of dedicated people that work behind the scenes to do the many things you may take for granted: recording, fan engagement, rankings, CAW making, testing, balancing and so on. Those people know who they are and how appreciated they are for helping the show to become more successful, to be better, to put on the kind of shows that keep us involved, cheering, booing and sometimes making a post on the forum we regret. I know I have. I was lucky enough to be party to that funny idea kicked around by the behind-the-scenes team. BRYN as usual was very integral to the process and his savvy at logos was crucial. And what a hell of a logo he made. ![]() Ho-ly shit. Upon seeing that, I got even more excited. I knew at that moment that I wanted to be more involved. But there was a catch: presenting the idea to Bazza. I don’t want to speak for anyone but I myself found Bazza sometimes intimidating to talk to. I don’t believe it’s unfair for me to say that he was direct and would tell you with no sugar coating what your idea was to him. People didn’t want the idea to be shut down before it was ready. We wanted it to be right. So it was put on the shelf. To be continued. To be revisited at the right time. It was never revisited in a formal way. Not really anyway. It continued to be the subject of jokes, breezy conversations held late at night. Reminders that we had something. Time marched on. Seasons finished. Gief jerked the curtain. I really wanted to do something with it though and felt like I wanted to put together something to show that this could work. With the permission of the senior staff, I started to put together a pitch which included a proof of concept trailer, roster, and a baseline primer for creative which I am happy to share with you now. Original Roster Proposal My idea started with the Video Game Crash of ’83 except in this VGCW universe it was the Video Game Wrestling Crash of ’83. Territories were folding left and right. However, using his savvy business sense and sheer charisma, Bazza McMahon Sr. struck a crucial deal to combine the top talents from the different territories into one organization. It would be a powerhouse of personalities and brawlers. That organization was VGCW. The Nintendo characters that were big stars in the early VGCW seasons would be relative unknowns in this period. Young upstarts. None of the guys in the back knew who this Mario guy was, or cared that he was feuding over Pauline’s affections with DK Senior. Atari guys had staked their place and weren’t moving. It would be a story of how the little guys became the people we began to cheer for in Season 1. BRYN had a strong idea of making the actual show documentary-style, having a modern VGCW wrestler introduce famous matches and storylines for each episodes. My biggest wish was having Dracula tell us the story of those three title reigns we never got to see. Other story ideas included: - Hitler’s memorable run as top heel and why he had to wear a pink gorilla suit - Dracula teaming up with Dio Brando to run ragged over the tag division - Pitfall Harry’s arrogance toward the new blood Mario - Paperboy and The Noid’s pizza delivery gimmick - Little Mac’s rise from jobber to contender - Jackie Chun meets mysterious men from space Here’s the proof of concept trailer as well. You’ll notice some characters that weren’t in the original roster proposal. I had to put it together from what was actually available. The visual style and tone are what I wanted for the show, within reason: Revisiting old, worn VHS tapes of wrestling shows. Bootlegs. The dirty animations of the 80s and electronic esoterica. I think I nailed it. I gave this trailer to the senior staff and many were pleased with it. But there was another big event on the horizon: the show was changing hands from Bazza to TOH. There was a lot of stuff to do. Back on the shelf. I’m sure you know the rest of the story since it all just happened. Goodbye, servers. Goodbye, VGCW Retro. There were other ideas that were part of the primer. Fan engagement strategies, CAW bounties and so on. Boring shit. But it was not to be. Sometimes you have that idea that just can never take shape. But with so many creative and talented people in our community, I can’t feel too bad. VGCW, WVGCW, EDBW and now BWA. They’ll be great. And you’re great too. For supporting something creative, supporting real people having fun and wanting you in on the party. Thanks for being here. Edited by Mr. Satan Overlay Face, Nov 3 2015, 11:46 PM.
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| Captain Rodriguez | Nov 3 2015, 11:50 PM Post #2 |
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I was always fond of the VGCW Retro idea, but some ideas just end up never coming to fruition. Pong Paddles would have been a GOAT tag team, though. |
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| TCook | Nov 3 2015, 11:52 PM Post #3 |
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The only thing that would make this idea any better would be if we somehow got a Pong paddle CAW. Or that old Pac-man CAW from Antraxo's days. That would've been fun. This entire idea sounded fun, like a perfect heady cocktail of 80s synth cheese and blurry pixels and maybe a little cocaine. Shame it won't happen here. Keep it in mind, though. |
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| DesuBlade | Nov 3 2015, 11:56 PM Post #4 |
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深いダー♂ク ・ ファ♂ンタジー♂!
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I was always on board with VGCW Retro and it always felt to me like a concept that doesn't need to be weekly. A short burst would have been more than enough. May you rest in peace, you glorious concept. And thank you for reminding me of this, Satan. You're a true friend. |
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| BRYN | Nov 4 2015, 12:06 AM Post #5 |
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WVGCW
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It really was an idea that spun out of that logo alone. I just made it up for fun, used Video Game Character Wrestling as the name since that was the actual name of VGCW at first, and ideas spun-off from there. It was a shame it always got shelved, but that's just how it was. Cheers, 2K. |
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| Mr. Satan Overlay Face | Nov 4 2015, 12:07 AM Post #6 |
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TOUGH BOY
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BRYN and TOH were of like mind that it would have been a fill-in show, a thing to air when people skipped a week or had to miss a show for whatever reason. It would have had an end date though conversations never really reached specifics. And of course you're my buddy! You basically created the launchpad for all this backstage craziness. I'm forever thankful for that. |
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| DoctorStrangelove | Nov 4 2015, 12:09 AM Post #7 |
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I'm sad that we never got to see that Dio/Dracula tag team. |
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| Mr. Satan Overlay Face | Nov 4 2015, 12:14 AM Post #8 |
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TOUGH BOY
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I should note that the Dracula that would have been used in Retro would have been based on his original NES sprite. Purple skin and all. |
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| BringBack1996 | Nov 4 2015, 12:21 AM Post #9 |
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This...This sounds really cool. I can see a couple of problems with it though: 1) As a historical show, you'd have to assume that these things happened in the past, and you can't exactly change the past. The RNG of the game however does not care. Like, take the story idea of 'Dracula and Dio Brando running ragged over the tag division'. Pretty good story idea, lets us get a familiar VGCW character into this new show, sounds good. The problem is if the game decides 'Hm, I think Dio and Dracula are gonna job out hard to every team they go up against.' The only way to get around that would be match rigging, be it through buffing the characters to ludicrous extremes or running the match until you get the result you want, and considering one of VGCW's major appeals is the unscripted natures of matches, that could be a problem. 2) The old, worn out VHS look the intro has. Now, for an intro, it works great and really gets you in the mood for some old school shit, and I imagine these 'superstars looking back interview' things wouldn't get this treatment. But what about the old matches and plot themselves? Maybe it's something that would turn out a lot better on paper than in my mind, but my mind is screaming at me that that kind of filter would wear on my eyes after a while and not be very appealing. Otherwise though, a really cool concept for a show that got swallowed up by 2K bumbling about with things like servers and story creators. Here's hoping 2K17 can make this show a viable possibility again when it comes out. |
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| Captain Rodriguez | Nov 4 2015, 12:25 AM Post #10 |
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One of the main concepts of VGCW Retro was that a few episodes would be created in advance to be aired whenever a showrunner couldn't fill a certain timeslot. So, yes, it would be pre-recorded. Take that as you will. |
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| Mr. Satan Overlay Face | Nov 4 2015, 12:29 AM Post #11 |
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TOUGH BOY
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The proof of concept meant that things would be ironed out from that rough draft and discussed before it was ever put into primetime. To respond to the things you mentioned: the documentary-style of the show would require it to to be recorded in advance, and the effects would have been toned down for an actual hour long show. Some VHS artifacting but not the bootleg video style that's reflected in the proof of concept trailer. Edited by Mr. Satan Overlay Face, Nov 4 2015, 12:30 AM.
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| GirthIgnorer | Nov 6 2015, 10:57 AM Post #12 |
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Ahh, man. It's too bad you couldn't do this as a once or twice off special. I feel like the idea of a VGCW prequel with retro characters is great, especially if you present it as Gary just shamelessly shoving it out to make some more money off the VGCW Network. |
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| BRomega2900 | Nov 6 2015, 11:19 AM Post #13 |
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That other mWo guy
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This idea is fantastic. I just wish it happened before 2K decided to cut the cord on the servers. |
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| Wyvernil | Nov 6 2015, 02:20 PM Post #14 |
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This seems like an interesting concept (What characters would be in VGCW if we were in the NES era?), it's too bad the servers going down scuttled the idea. Though some of the suggested CAWs seem a bit anachronistic. As cool as the idea of a Dracula/Dio Brando tag team is, I get the feeling Dio would get the "literally who" treatment back in the 80s, when anime/manga was a very niche thing (Or everyone would think that he was the other Black Sabbath guy). Most of the anime available to the casual viewer back then was the heavily-edited stuff like Voltron or Robotech. |
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| Mr. Satan Overlay Face | Nov 6 2015, 07:41 PM Post #15 |
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TOUGH BOY
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I didn't really consider "real world visibility" when making the roster. There was no hard or fast rule other than being characters that existed around that period. Kinnikuman may not have been well-known with a "casual viewer" but was a perfect fit for the ideas I had and the same applied to DIO. Trying to apply hard logic about what the casual viewer would or wouldn't have been able to see back in the 80s needlessly eliminates fun roster additions and one of the main tenets of VGCW has always been about having fun. Edited by Mr. Satan Overlay Face, Nov 6 2015, 07:41 PM.
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