Of course, we want the GCB to resemble real life boxing in the fact that history is made, history is kept, but the future rolls on. In order to do this, we are using a very simple ageing formula to move boxers through their careers. As you know there is no perfect way to do this. After researching the ageing procedures that others with this game use, we have come up with yet another imperfect, but good for us, way to age our fighters.

We have decided to allow actual age help guide us in the ageing of our fighters. When the fighters were created for this fictional boxing universe they were given Birth Years (day and month not as important to us) that would resemble the birth years of those who would be fighting in the year 1900, which is our Organizational starting date. These birth years were absolutely random. We did not look at skill ratings at all. We just assigned a birth year to each fighter. This means that as the GCB starts up there will be fighters of different ages entering in to the competition. Which would be realistic if a new organization started up.

For the first set of fighters that begin their career in 1900, they were all set to a Prime career stage regardless of their age. They will age and have their career stages change as the years roll by! Before long our ageing formula will have a great effect on them. We'll cover that in a moment.

As the years roll on, New Fighters will be added to the GCB. The actual age of the fighter will help us determine what career stage to set for the fighter. This is because, even though a new fighter that enters the GCB may have an in game Overall Rating of an '8' he is not performing at that skill until he is at his 'Prime' career stage.

This is our imperfect, yet workable Ageing Formula:

First for New fighters coming in as the years unfold..

Once a fighter enters into the "Post-Prime" stage of his career, his boxing career will slowly begin to fade. To work this out in such a way that is fair to all and yet give variety to the different careers, a simple point system will go into effect at this stage. Every fighter begins his Post-Prime stage with 25 points. Every time a fighter has a bout at this stage, points are deducted. Once all of his 25 points are gone, the fighter must retire! There are no exceptions to this rule! This will cause us to pay close attention to those ageing fighters and add extra excitement in lining up possible "last shot" title matches, rematches etc.

As stated, every bout at this stage will cause the fighter to lose points, but the amount of points lost varies depending on the fighter and his abilities. This is how the point system works:

A WIN deducts only 2 points.

A DRAW deducts only 3 points.

A SD/MD LOSS deducts 5 points.

A UD LOSS deducts 7 points.

A KO/TKO LOSS deducts 10 points.

Once the points are gone, so is the fighter! With this system some fighters may hang around for a while and still give the young bucks a run for their money. However, if the fighter is not careful, he might find himself on the shelf pretty quickly!

Once a fighter retires, he is then moved to the "End" career stage. Every so often a well known (for our universe anyway) fighter may want to make that big come back for a special match. If he does, he must fight with his stage still set at "End." If a fighter does "come back", he is given

5 points with the same rules applying as above and same point deductions. In other words, a big comeback won't last long. He still has a chance for a few big fights, but a loss, and it's over!