If you're reading this right now, you're probably like me; you grew up watching professional wrestling in your youth, and whether or not you still watch wrestling today (I do not), you're likely familiar with the WWE 2K series. 2K16 has been a solid performer this year, having been a top-five seller during the month of its October release, and it is a game I purchased and have been quite happy with this year.

But this article is not a review, and it's not trying to convince you to go out and buy WWE 2K16. Instead, it will discuss a concept 2K should consider in order to tap into an audience the studio may have lost touch with over the years.
 

I was able to put some downloadable stuff together to make a pseudo-WWF Universe, but the process was far too tedious and lacks a true authenticity to the way it all feels.

When I play WWE 2K16, I find myself trying to check out some of the modes the game is most geared towards, such as Universe and MyCareer. These mode are cool enough (and remember, not a review here!), but I have found it hard to get into them because I no longer watch wrestling. But here I am with a game that I'm hoping will help me relive some of my youth. So what can I do if I don't care too much for the current stable of wrestlers?

WWE 2K16 does a nice job allowing gamers to create and share custom wrestlers, visuals, set pieces and so on to enhance the experience, but what I would like to see is for 2K to take this a step further with WWE 2K17.
 

With 2K Shared Universes, all of these characters (using hashtag WWF) could be included in one download.

2K should allow gamers to import not just the individual pieces of a universe like we're able to now, but entire customizable and shared universes.

While it's safe to assume 2K could not have these universes 100 percent accurate and ready to go at launch (Hello, Hulk Hogan?), 2K could have one that includes all of the historical add-ons and is load-and-play ready. Furthermore, this could be a mode in which folks use 2K Share to upload their own universes, having made them from the game template(s) already available, or by creating their own entirely from scratch.
 

WWE 2K17 should add a 'Generate Fictional Universe' button here.

In a similar fashion, WWE 2K17 should include an option to generate a fictional universe. Gamers should be able to select a time period for this auto-generated universe, so that one generated in the 1950s would have guys coming out looking like Dick "The Bruiser" with single-colored trunks and very traditional nicknames -- another template that could be customizable.

Of course, gamers could create a fictional universe from other decades, including one full of 1980s color face paint, flamboyant spandex and bad rock ballads.

A modern fictional universe could also be an option, or even an option to mix them all together.
 

WWE 2K16 is a really fun game, and I don't even watch wrestling. I bought the game based on some nostalgia, knowing I could download old wrestlers and dabble in reliving some fun times I had watching wrestling as a kid. I still don't understand why wrestling grabs us and finds ways to entertain us, but for some reason it just does. In other words, other people who don't watch anymore (like me) are also probably looking for a reason to buy a wrestling game again.

I could see customizable 2K Share Universes not only being rather easy to implement (2K, you know the community will make these!), but also opening up the game to an untapped market.

A 'Share Universe' option is the next step for WWE 2K17 to enhance the game sharing/community experience.

Customizable universes and databases are not necessarily new ideas (baseball simulator games, for instance), but they're ideas that lend themselves very well to an industry that is outgrown perhaps faster than any other sport-genre entity. It's a concept that would be simple to implement, and the cost-to-effort ratio is one that makes these unique universes seem well worth including. The potential exists to bring in at least a few demographic groups the game may not have appealed to previously -- customizable universes for guys like me who used to watch wrestling, and fictional ones that would have the potential to tap into the more traditional RPG gaming crowd.


So what are your thoughts? Would something like this work well in WWE 2K17? Would you be more likely to purchase the game if you were given easier access to these unique universes, or would it not have an impact on your decision to buy next year?