Why WWE Could Benefit By Being Its Own Platform

Chances are that if you're reading this article, you play a lot of video games and you could very well play all different types. But there is a sect of gamer that sticks to the one or two titles that release annually and they're satisfied with that. Nothing wrong with it, it's just the way it is. If the new Madden, the new NBA2K, the new FIFA, or the new Call of Duty are the only games you play every year, who am I do judge?

Some of the customers that I encounter say they used to be big on the Madden  games every year, but they fell off because it felt like the same game every year. They also say that they would like to see EA go to a biennial release schedule with roster updates in the off years. Essentially, they would like to see sports games become their own platforms. Back in the early-to-mid 2000s, I was that kind of gamer, but my preferred annual release was WWE.

While EA may not see the point in changing Madden's annual release schedule, it may behoove 2K to do so with WWE. The main difference between WWE and other sports (and if you have a problem with me calling professional wrestling a sport, see me after class) is that every other sport has a constant flow of new stars each year. A kid that graduated from my high school just got drafted by the Detroit Pistons, and people are already trying to scalp his jerseys and rookie cards. He's already a superstar despite the fact that he hasn't played a single NBA game.

WWE doesn't have that. While some wrestlers come to WWE or their developmental NXT promotion and immediately capture the fans, it's rare for that to happen with anyone that wasn't already well-established in other promotions like New Japan Pro Wrestling or Global Force Wrestling (formerly TNA/Impact Wrestling). A.J. Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Kevin Owens, Finn Balor, these are all guys that fans knew before making their debuts because wrestling is so much easier to follow in this day and age. Everyone already knew how talented those guys are and fans were excited to finally see them on WWE's grand stage.

Those men are the exceptions to the rule. Most wrestlers that get signed to NXT either spend years there only to be released or spend years there and finally get a shot on the main roster. Even then, a lot of characters that were super popular with NXT fans don't mesh with WWE's fans. Despite being under the same umbrella, the fan bases for the two are very different. The Ascension is a great example of a tag team who did great in NXT but floundered when WWE fans didn't take to them (mainly due to poor booking, but I digress). Other sports don't have that problem. While an athlete may eventually lose some of his stardom as he or she ages or injuries make them no longer able to compete with the younger players at a high level, he or she is never going to change their character.

Another issue that I feel hinders WWE is how frequently it changes. By this time next year, someone is WWE 2K18 is going to have a completely different character when next year's game is set to release. Or perhaps an NXT wrestler gets called up shortly after the upcoming game releases. What if a popular star gets released for violating the company's wellness policy?

Case in point: Jeff Hardy. He's one of the most charismatic superstars that professional wrestling has ever seen. Unfortunately, he's also had to battle problems with addiction in his past, and while we certainly hope and pray that he never succumbs to that again, he was, at one, time, released from the company because of it. It's a very real possibility not only for him, but for any wrestler on the WWE roster.

At this point, the WWE games have every type of match you can imagine and can be customized beyond belief. Even though I'm not a fan of this particular model, I really think WWE would benefit from foregoing annual disc releases and providing fans with updates at a reduced rate or perhaps offering new wrestlers for the game at $1.99 a piece or bundling several wrestler together at a lower rate. This may be a problem for customers without access to the internet, but that could easily be rectified by providing an annual update card that could be purchased at any major retailer.

The WWE already has experience in this area with the WWE Network. Fans can forego paying $60 for the next WrestleMania simply by signing up for the WWE Network at $10 a month. They also have the WWE Supercard mobile game, which is doing very well for them.

Maybe the WWE video games could do something similar to the MMO model: get your free one month trial of WWE Online on our website, then it's only $4.99 a month and you receive all updates for free!

Vince McMahon may not know a lot about video games, but if you ask me, he's one of the smartest businessmen the world has ever known and I have no doubt that he could make something like this work. In the long run, I think WWE fans would prefer this model. You wouldn't have to wait until the following October to play as your favorite new star or get new move sets or pay-per-view arenas to wrestle in. If there's one company in one sport that I think could pull it off, it's the WWE.

There are a lot of possibilities for the company by making this switch. A new star that makes an impact could be in the game within days or weeks. The company releases a talent and they could be removed immediately. They could constantly update the game with new legend characters. Maybe once a year they do a major overhaul and include a new story line for the player. It would be like a new World of Warcraft expansion: a new story, new wrestlers, new customization options for the create-a-wrestler, and so on.

The ratings for WWE games (as well as the overall sales numbers) have been in steady decline ever since 2K obtained the rights from THQ. According to VGCharz, WWE 2K17 has sold a total of 2.26 million units, which is respectable, but is a far cry from the 7.28 million that Smackdown vs. Raw 2008 did.

I think a lot of that could be attributed to annual release fatigue. If WWE took a year off, did a major overhaul, and began work on what would become its platform, it could be a major moneymaker for the company in the long run. The WWE Network looked like it was going to be a failure, but now makes them major bank, and if there's one thing we know about Vince McMahon, it's that he loves money...and wrestling incestuous story lines for his employees, for some reason.

An Outsider's View on Parenting in the Age of Mature Games

I do not subscribe to the notion that playing violent video games leads to a violent teenager or violent adult. In fact, I did several essays and presentations in college opposing that idea. I believe that there was a lot more going on with Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris than the fact that they were listening to Rammstein and playing Doom when they walked into Columbine High School that tragic morning. My purpose of writing this piece is not to recount all the terrible actions that children have carried out and men like Jack Thompson and Joseph Lieberman have blamed on violent video games, but as someone who has worked in video game retail for several years, I have come across lots of parents that seemingly don’t care what type of video games their children are playing, and it has always irked me.

Let me start off by giving you my history with violent video games. I was seven years old when I first saw the original Mortal Kombat arcade cabinet at our local Putt-Putt Mini Golf location (R.I.P.). I always tried out any new game that came in, but this one I couldn’t get to because it was always in use. Despite not being able to play it, my brother and I kept hearing about it from friends and seeing images of it in the pages of GamePro and Electronic Gaming Monthly. When the news hit that the game was making its way to our Sega Genesis, we begged our parents to get it for us that Christmas, which they did.

Luckily for us, ignorance was bliss in this case, as my parents had no idea what Mortal Kombat was or that it was very controversial. All they knew was that it was a game that their sons wanted and they could play it together. In some ways, my parents were much like the ones that I see at work, but in other ways, they’re the direct opposite. The original Mortal Kombat, as most of us know, was one of the biggest reasons the ESRB was created. But at the time, my parents — who stopped playing video games after Super Mario Bros. 3 — had no idea that games could be this violent.

Despite a new copy of Mortal Kombat being under the tree that Christmas, my parents were always very aware of the television I was watching. We weren’t allowed to watch Beavis and Butt-Head (though we still found a way), in fact, MTV was blocked on our televisions so we couldn’t watch any of those “rap videos with the naked women.” I wasn’t even allowed to watch The Simpsonsuntil I was in junior high, which eventually backfired on my mom when The Simpsons became a little bit of an obsession of mine. No scary movies unless they watched with me, and if there was any nudity, you cover those eyes young man, and you better not be peeking!

So, my parents were very cautious of the type of television I was consuming, but the medium of video games and the direction it was going was uncharted territory for them. The following Christmas they were kind enough to buy us Mortal Kombat II.

So if my parents weren’t aware of the violence in video games, is it fair for me to be critical of parents that allow their young children to play mature rated games today? Personally, I think it is. It’s been over twenty-five years since Mortal Kombat first hit the scene, and we’ve come to understand a lot more about video games than we did back then. As with every medium, video games have evolved as technology has improved, allowing for more realistic graphics and more engaging characters and stories. Things that were controversial back then seem very tame by today’s standards. A television network never would have given The Walking Dead the green light back in 1993. Any Grand Theft Auto game would have been given an AO rating back then. You would have had to go to the video game black market to obtain a copy.

With that evolution, parents have become much more lenient with mature content. Most parents that come in to my store and allow their children to purchase Call of Duty are probably going to be playing the game themselves or playing the game with their children. Video games have been popular for long enough that they’re no longer a thing for kids. In cases like that, I still have concerns, but at least supervision is present.

But when I have to ask a parent if it’s okay for their children to purchase a mature-rated game, and their responses are things like “It’s nothing worse than they see on TV,” “They already play it at their friend’s house,” and “If it’ll make them shut up,” how do you not expect me to be critical of that? The responses I want to reply with are “Why are you letting them watch that kind of stuff on television?” “Why aren’t you making your kid get new friends?” and “You’re a bad parent!” But I can’t say that, because that might offend someone, and we just can’t allow that.

My church operates a day care, and one day I was there helping out with some work. The young boys at the day care knew that I was into video games, so they struck up a conversation with me. When I told them they were too young to be playing Grand Theft Auto V and they should be playing something more age appropriate, one of the kids responds with (and I’m not kidding) “We play killing games.”

I was legitimately shocked when those words came out of that child’s mouth.

My wife and I are currently trying to have a baby, and I have a feeling that when he or she gets to this age that there will be lots of “But my friends are playing it” arguments. But if you’re a parent and reading this, let me assure you of something. It is completely alright to tell your kid no. You don’t have to explain yourself to them, you just have to say no. I know we live in an age where everyone has to be included in everything, but it is alright to not allow your kid to do or play or watch or listen to something that you don’t want them to. You’re the parent, they’re the child. You’re the authority, they’re not.

Recently, I had a man come in with his grandson, and when I read off the laundry list of reasons why Grand Theft Auto V was mature rated (it’s just coincidence that it’s always GTA V), he told his grandson to pick a different game. This grandfather had restored my hope, and that hope lasted for all of five minutes. After some whining and pouting, that child had a brand new copy of Grand Theft Auto V, and I let out an audible sigh as I stared out into the evening sun and wept.

Perhaps it is not fair for me to be critical of any parent when I myself am not one. It’s kind of like that guy who doesn’t workout telling you how to get more fit when you’ve been exercising for the past ten years. I know that parenting is not easy, and I know that I’m going to mess a lot of things up when I do become one.

As I said in the very first sentence of this article, I do not believe that mature games lead to violent or immoral adults. I believe I’ve turned out pretty well, and I grew up with them. I’m not condemning games like Grand Theft Auto, I play every GTA game and I really enjoy them. But I do believe that mature content can and does leave an impression on any developing brain. If you’re a parent, I genuinely hope that you’ve read this and take something away from it. Don’t take this as a condemnation, take this as an encouragement to be more aware of what your children are consuming and understand that it can affect them.

Video games are an amazing hobby, and I have a lot of great memories and met a lot of friends because of them. They can help you live out the power fantasy of being the Dragonborn, or let you throw the winning touchdown in the Super Bowl, or drift around corners at 100 mph. You can be a knight wielding a shovel, a handsome adventurer, and the Batman all in one afternoon. They allow creativity to spring forth. They allow you to create the Mario level you doodled on your math book in fifth grade. Video games allow you to be something you’re not and do things you can’t do. They’re an escape when you’ve had a bad day, and they’re a great social experience when you have friends over.

But the one thing that video games can’t be is a child’s babysitter.