Post-Release Support for WWE 2K lags way behind other sports games

[SmashMan]

Quote: Originally Posted by PVarck31

I agree with everything said so far. The one thing I wanted to bring up though, is that 2K and even THQ for that matter have stated numerous times that it apparently takes months to make a single character in the game. I'm not saying they are lying, but it is kinda weird considering how fast and easy it is to make CAWS. And a high number of them look downright amazing. So I don't know. It just seems a little far fetched to me that they can't add guys for this reason.

One of my points in a post that I lost due to browser timeout was on this. I think it was WWE 13 promotion where they said it could take 100 days to create a character from scratch (character modeling, animations, etc). I couldn't find a followup story to confirm, but I remember quite a few articles for 2K15's first details saying the scanning they do was supposed to speed up that process. I don't know if the games have proven that to be true though.

I don't know what the biggest challenge would be that puts WWE2K as far behind other games as they are in terms of characters. Do we think it's actual modeling? I wouldn't think so, not to this extent. Specific movesets? The game actually has a large amount of moves, so it's probably possible to build 95% of someone's arsenal off of what they already have captured. I'm torn between motion-capturing entrances and any commentary lines as being the biggest hurdle for them.

But that's just the outdated roster. Still having trouble thinking of a compelling mode or feature that would extend the life of the game. Maybe a twist on Supercard and MLB 16's Conquest where you field a lineup of 5 and have to conquer different areas of a map/giant wrestling ring? But something like that would be dependent on having new wrestlers and alternate versions of existing characters, which goes back to the other point about how long it apparently takes them to put someone together. And what would the rewards even be?

I don't want to get too far into wishlist territory here though, just brainstorming an idea.

[CM Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by PVarck31

And another thing this series suffers from is terrible social media presence. They do tweet a lot, but its mostly fluff and about real WWE programming. Don't see much about the game itself. And its no secret that their last 2 or 3 community managers were absolutely horrible at their jobs. I hate to put people down, but its true.

Yep, and this doesn't help the very insular feel of this series and its development. I don't know how fans of the game communicate what they want to the people who need to know, to communicate the audience wishes - in this case a game which post-release support practices respects its users and is competitive with its contemporaries - to the people who actually make decisions about the game.

You're right also that the community managers when they actually had names and faces were also hit-and-miss. Certainly hasn't helped matters. And today without those I don't even know who'd to direct feedback to. I doubt anyone remotely connected to the WWE 2K team is going to read this at all, which makes this exercise a little pointless, but whatever I'm glad at least people agree with me.

[SmashMan]

There's no way to really interact with the development team. At best, it looks like the community manager pops up on the 2K forums every once in a while but disappears once the last DLC is released. They do open separate topics on their forums for game feedback, but there's no back-and-forth so everyone just kinda throws their ideas out and you wait until release to see if anything received enough feedback to have an effect.

I actually had some hope of community interaction here when Marcus Stephenson was their community manager, because I remember him being around when he was with EA and Live. But that didn't happen and I don't think anyone else is going to wonder this way. It's a shame since most if not all of the other games you mentioned have some presence at OS. I think they have designated community reps at their usual fan forums (CAWs, Smacktalks, etc.) but not sure what that actually entails. There are a lot of layers.

[Nature_Boy]

Great topic and I also agree with what everyone else has already said. You can tell by my username I'm a huge pro wrestling fan. We (the fans) have been getting the short end of the stick on WWE games for years now, not just when 2K took over.

It's May 11th, and you can pretty much guarantee there's superstars that won't be included on the roster when the game is released in the late fall. That's always been one of my biggest gripes of this series. Plus, like most of you have already said, post release support for the game is just about non existent.

I bet I haven't played WWE 2K16 five times since release day. It's pretty much the same ole same ole. I will be passing on this year's game unless 2K hits 17 out of the park.

[spidertour02]

This series seems oddly restrictive about giving players already-existing content in general, let alone adding new stuff post-release.

Take Evolution, for example. WWE 2K15 included the music, entrance videos for both the 2003-2005 and 2014 versions of the group, a group entrance animation, and retro builds of Batista and Randy Orton (which include their own entrance animations, videos, etc.). WWE 2K16, on the other hand, doesn't include the music or entrance videos, and for no apparent reason, they didn't include the retro versions of Batista or Orton either despite the fact that the "current" versions of both guys are in the game (and thus, it wouldn't cost an extra dime to license them). They included all the entrance animations and the various components to make the retro attires, but that's kind of worse because (a) it comes across as a tease without the music or videos, and (b) retro Batista and retro Orton had different hair and tattoos, neither of which the game allows us to edit, so we can't make accurate retro attires for the current versions without hacks.

I guess my point is, if they're not willing to give us content that already exists, the chances of getting fresh post-release content is nil. (Don't even get me started about all the great arena content from 2K15 that isn't in 2K16, either. Yes, some of them can be decently remade using Create-An-Arena, but that doesn't include the custom graphics and matchup screens.)

Then again, considering the whole Cody Rhodes/Stardust restriction imposed by the WWE themselves, I'm curious how much of this is out of the developers' hands.

[awffltony77]

What I wouldn't give for a rock solid, unlicensed wrestling title that was based off of community created content.

Every other sports title can upload entire rosters......just imagine. I'd be willing to sacrifice so much in graphics. And with indepth sliders for promotions, shows, storylines, ect.......

As an undying wrestling fan, its weird for me to look into my duffle bag every day and see my copy of '16 sitting in there. I stopped playing months ago, and there is another what, 5 months to go? I've always been able to adjust things to the point where I end up enjoying my broken WWE game considerably. But this, I just can't......

[jcmreds]

I agree if UFC can add fighters in updates there's no reason we can't get Styles, Sasha, Nakamura etc in updates throughout the year.

[oneamongthefence]

Quote: Originally Posted by jcmreds

I agree if UFC can add fighters in updates there's no reason we can't get Styles, Sasha, Nakamura etc in updates throughout the year.

Maybe the motion capture elements are expensive and time consuming. Getting character scans might be pretty easy but I would assume a lot more work has to be donebtobcreate entrances and adding new moves where applicable.

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