JCarson

This media post is going to discuss the role of the GM in assisting first generation players through their first character’s career. With the hopes that as a league we can increase player retention. The first thing I want to note is that I can only add input to this discussion from my perspective, and I must admit that I have had a enjoyable experience. I am currently in my third year and have had three different experiences with GM/AGM for my teams, none of which were negative. So, I will admit that this is not going to be a compete discussion on the topic, but I think of it as a starting point. Point 1 – First generation players know nothing about the league, its’ history, its’ structure, how the systems work. Let me repeat that so it is clear, we know nothing. The GM’s first role needs to be assisting the player in navigating the system and assisting them in getting to a team, not bombarding them with waiver pitches to have them make a choice about something they have no clue about. It might seem like a small thing but when you are sitting in an already confused state, to now be asked to make another decision with zero information does not help any player feel welcomed. Point 2 – VHLM GM need to be hands on to assist first generation players in quickly learning about player development, gaining TPE, claiming first gen bonus, first career tasks, what player store purchases will allow them to best develop, etc. As a side note to this topic, I want to suggest that the league really look at how TPE is earned and allow more options, by admitting that first generation players have enough to navigate that trying to find answers to the trivia questions is ridiculous. (Remember we know nothing) With the various changes that have occurred over the years there is no consistent methodology for finding answers. Point 3 – VHLM GM needs to have a lot of patience and an active AGM can really help. As first-generation players we will ask a lot of questions and potentially not the right ones. Please have patience and walk-through things with us. The normal, at least North American, concept of doing something focusses on achieving perfection the first time (a little unrealistic but the truth). In other words, we may ask you with every TPE we earn where that should be put. Walk the journey with us, provide guidance, provide context and perspective. Be a sounding board. Also make sure to tell us about things we have no clue about, things like career tasks, first generation bonus and player store purchases. Point 4 – VHLM GM needs to help players get connected to the larger VHL community. Your discord servers are a suitable place for team communication but at some point, players need to interact with the outside VHL community. Encourage your players to reach out in the forum, to write articles about their experience, to put themselves out there. Warn them that someone as part of the old guard might get defensive, but that others will understand. Help them understand that most articles do not cause instant change, but many can open conversations. Help them get engaged in what the future might look like and they might be around to help achieve that future. Point 5 – VHLM GM is not an entry point for promotion to other leagues. These people have a specific and incredibly important job. VHLM GM are the ones tasked with helping first generation players with becoming long term members of the VHL. If they do their job correctly then recruitment becomes easier as you will need to recruit less each year. Anyway those are my thoughts.

@AchillesI am a first generation player like yourself. This is now my third season and I like you have found that the inconsistency of the sims to be frustrating. One things that was pointed out to me was that this is a worldwide forum. It is quite possible that the person simming for you may live in a completely different section of the world. Even if you look at this stream so far we have Beketov who is in Eastern Canada, you and I are in Ontario and Rory in Alberta. that is 3 time zones, Lemorse is in Hawaii based on his location tag. That there opens a huge variability in peoples schedules. Someone did mention that the sim time overall doesn't matter as you will play your entire schedule even if a day gets missed, and that is true but no less frustrating. Now all that being said I want to address the veterans here. What nobody has stopped to recognize is that people like myself and Achilles make note of the simulation times and eagerly await for the games to run because we are excited. You have seen these threads numerous times and we can accept that they probably get old after a while. You know there isn't anything you can do and the simmers are doing the best they can. But as was noted it is always some new player, these are your first gen players who are excited, engaged, eager about what their characters may be doing. The answer to these types of threads need to be encouragement, recognition that it does suck that sometimes the sims are delayed or may not even happen for a day, but in the end remembering that this is the player you want to have here. They need to be reminded that the simmers have lives and are doing the best they can, but they also need to be heard and acknowledged. @Achilles welcome to the league, have a little patience, this can be a lot of fun. It won't always be perfect and you may have to look at your sims the next morning (which sucks) but it can be a great experience. Focus on what you can control, build your TPE and enjoy yourself. @Frank@Gustav @Beketov@Lemorse7thanks for the work you all do in the league, but you may all have forgotten what it is like to be a new player waiting with excitement to see how your character does in their games. Seeing your first goal, your first multipoint game, your first fighting major with expulsion only seconds into the first period. I hope one day that you will get annoyed (like you used to, we all know you did) when your sims aren't there at the usual time because you were genuinely excited to see how you did.

You don't need any more TPE job pay I would like to clarify, Jacob would do a great job with this. I don't question that. However I have heard him numerous times note he can't claim TPE as he is getting points from GM and other jobs. So if you have other candidates that will do a good job and currently don't have other positions, you should consider them.

This posting is more of a fantasy than an article. We won last year and are first in our division, we must be the best. Wait somebody is close to us, please stop don't compete cause that is the only way we will win. Oh damn, did I forget there is a whole seconds division that could completely destroy any chances for a repeat championship. Congrats on your S84 championship you fought hard to win. However, this season is far from over and there are plenty of teams in the hunt to be the best of season 85. I wouldn't take your eyes off Moscow but I would suggest that you take off the blinder and look around as there is more than one obstacle out there. As far as articles are concerned we need more fun trash talking like this to build interteam rivalries. It is whimsical, fun, positive (nothing negative said about any other team or player). I give the article a 9/10.

1) Have you ever recruited someone to the VHL, if yes are they still active, if no what would encourage you to do that? 2) Last week we asked if there was a VHL city you would like to visit, this week I want to know the opposite, is there a VHL city you would prefer to avoid and why? 3) Team prediction question: Will the London United end the season with the most goals for, explain you answer 4) If you had to give 3 players on the team nicknames which 3 players would you choose and what would their nicknames be? 5) Personal question: What food does your player detest and why? 6) Get to know you question: How did you find out about the VHL and what encouraged you to try it?

Molly the Cat, as of game 37 in the season you are sitting with 37 points, 17 goals and 20 assists. How are you feeling about the season so far? I am having a much different season than last year; I had set a season goal of 50 points with 20 of them being goals and halfway through the season I am 3 goals and 13 points short of the target. That is surprisingly good. On top of that I am second in rookie points only behind by 1. In addition, I am playing a strong defensive game and that has left me tied for 3rd in +/-. I am really looking forward to what the second half of the season will bring. Molly the Cat, I want to ask you about your teammates. Which of your teammates have you connected with the most? The entire team is a great bunch of people. The banter in the locker room is always upbeat and encouraging. As you know there are always a couple of people you connect more with. For me that is Ivan and Jerome. I feel that I can talk with Ivan about what it is like to be a rookie, pushing to make a first impression, the struggles of a new team and a new situation. He was just there last season so it is fresh in his mind. Jerome on the other hand is a seasoned veteran, to be able to discuss the difficulties of a team, building a career and having someone that can put a bad game into perspective. That type of leadership is invaluable for a rebuilding team like London United. Molly the Cat, I am going to ask you to make a prediction. Does the London United make the season 85 playoffs and do you beat your first-round opponents? I think that the London United has a great chance of making the season 85 playoffs. The First-round of these playoffs is going to be a tough fought affair. There are so many great teams in the VHL that I do not expect that any team believes it to be a guaranteed path to round 2. Any team that makes the playoffs has the chance to win, the is the great thing about the VHL. The competition is tremendous. No matter what happens the fans of the VHL are going to see some great hockey. Molly the Cat, tonight's game is against the Calgary Wranglers and your friend Landon Wolanin. How do you think London will do? I am looking forward to seeing Landon again, I am going to be taking him out for lunch a little later and we will catch up. As for the game we will both be pushing as hard as possible. Both teams are pushing to keep their playoff spot against some fierce competition. I expect it will be a close game and it would be nice if London came up on top for this one. Currently they are leading the season series 2-1 so it would be nice to even that up. I do have to note that it is nice to see that Landon has been picking up his production, he had a slow start but has really picked up the pace in the last few games.

Molly the Cat has the goal of being rookie of the year for season 85. Earning the Christian Stolzschweiger Trophy would be an excellent start to Molly the Cat’s VHL career. As noted previously the competition for the award will be fierce as there are numerous talented rookies this season. 37 games into the season Molly the Cat has the following statistics: Season GP G A P +/- SHT PIM HIT SB GW PPG SHG 85 (LDN) 37 17 20 37 17 165 60 79 11 3 6 0 With 37 points Molly the Cat sits second in rookie points total, 1 point behind Phoebe Bridger. It must be noted the Phoebe Bridger started the season strong but has slowed down in recent games. On the other hand Molly the Cat, has been coming on strong as of late including 7 points in their last 3 games. Rookie points is going to be a tight race as currently 4 players have more than 30 points. Points for is a crucial factor in determining Rookie of the Year but a player can have impacts beyond pure scoring. On ice presence as defined by +/- helps determine how the team is impacted by a player being on the ice. At this point Molly the Cat is +17 and is tied for 3rd among all VHL players. A typical interpretation of a +/- would suggest that Molly the Cat is a positive influence on the players around them from both an offensive and defensive perspective. This should have a positive influence on their chances of becoming Rookie of the Year. Being halfway through the season, there is still plenty of time for things to change but if Molly the Cat can continue performing at this level Rookie of the Year should be possible.

This article poses an interesting question. Should we have more options for earning uncapped TPE. Overall I think it could be done in a manner that doesn't upset the overall balance of players. Potentially allowing a 5 TPE task for every season. One thing I disagree with is allowing articles to criticize others. The GM review option above will only degrade into people mocking past GM for what they evaluate using a hindsight approach. it is only going to cause issues. Conceptually I like the idea of this article and what it is advocating for, in practice I think the idea needs a little mre work. I give this article 8/10 for this review.

Molly the Cat, thanks for doing another interview with us, you have just finished the 22nd game of the season. Can you give us an overview of how you have been doing and how the team has come together? I must admit that I am happy with my performance this year so far. 19 points in 22 games is well above the pace I had set for myself. That is a result of the wonderful players I am on the ice with. We are clicking out there, and as a result we are seeing everyone have good seasons, or even career seasons. Jerome Reinhart is on a tear at 32 points, Ivan Retosav and Logain Ablar sitting at 23 points, we are talking players with above point a game result. When you get to play with that talent you are going to look good. Molly the Cat, we talked earlier in the season about your relationship with Landon Wolanin, since then you have played three games against Calgary. How was it playing against your friend? As I noted before we are both extremely competitive players, we hold nothing back when we are on the ice against each other. Right now, Calgary is up one game in the season series, but we feel good going on the ice against them. They are a formidable team, but we feel we can hold our own against them. Landon and I have a tradition, whichever city we are playing in, the home team player pays for dinner. Molly the Cat, I want to touch base on your play this year versus your VHLE and VHLM seasons. I want to ask about your physical play, it has increased significantly. Is this something that you planned? I knew coming into the VHL that I would need to pick up my physical play to compete against these larger, faster players. It was inevitable and so part of my offseason training was focused on increasing my size and toughness. I was not expecting that it would also include the fighting that has happened. That part came as a surprise to everyone. Yet I am not concerned about it, as captain of the team it is partly my responsibility to ensure that the players on London do not get taken advantage of. There have been several cheap plays by members of other teams and so I have felt the need to step in and defend my teammates. The refs do a reasonable job of policing the ice but every now and then something gets missed and the players find ways of sorting it out. Molly the Cat, my last question. At the beginning of the season there was plenty of discussion of London being in a rebuild season, yet 22 games in you are sitting 3rd in your division, squarely in a playoff spot. Has something changed or is London still rebuilding? Honestly, I do not know how to answer that question. Our job as players is to go on the ice and play the best hockey we can. To put everything, we have into each game. That gives the GM the best chance of understanding the needs of the team and allows them to make the best choices going forward. Nobody expected us to be in this position but here we are. We will take it.

In an earlier article I documented my VHL career goals. The first of those goals was to try and become rookie of the year. Now I will again say that the season 84 draft class is very deep, having many strong candidates. Being 22 games into the season I am going to document how I am doing and document the reasons why I am a suitable candidate for Rookie of the Year and some reasons why there may be better options. Rookie Points – I am currently sitting 6th overall with 19 points Plus/Minus - I am currently +12, tied for 9th overall Penalty Minutes – I currently have 56, sitting 6th overall As a rookie, tracking on 3 leadership boards in the VHL is a significant accomplishment. I believe if this continues until the end of the season it would warrant consideration for rookie of the year. By doing it on a team that many players consider an underdog, a rebuilding team makes the accomplishment even more impressive. On the opposite side of the argument, 3 categories of leadership while impressive is not top of the list. Better than average may be an acceptable definition, but it does not define greatness. Rookie of the year needs to go to someone who has achieved greatness, who is top among peers. A ranking of 1st or being top 3 in multiple categories is what a star rookie looks like. The quest continues. The goal moving forward will be to cement my place in the categories I am leading in, pushing for top 3 finishes or even 1st. Until then Rookie of the year may be better given elsewhere.

Week Ending Sep 25, 2022 1) You have been put in charge of picking a team pet, what would you pick and why? 2) Dil recently visited Calgary, which VHL city would you like to visit and why? 3) Team Prediction Question: DO you think we will make the playoffs this season? Explain why you came to this decision. 4) What characteristic of our GM Dil do you admire the most? (keep it positive) 5) Personal Questions: What is your weekly target for TPE earned? Is there anything that Dil or the team captains could do to assist you in reaching that goal? 6) Get to know you question: What is the closest VHL city to where you currently live? Do you go there frequently?

Are we getting a season 85 version of this.

Week Ending Sept 18, 2022 1) If you had to rename your player, what name would you give them? 2) We have now played about 10% of the season, how do you think your player is doing? 3) Team Prediction Question: Who will end the season with the most game winning goals? 4) If you were a scout for the team, what position would you be prioritizing for the next draft? 5) Personal Prediction Question: Will you have more than 25 goals by the end of the season? 6) Get to know you question: What is your favorite Pizza?

As a review of this article, I will admit that I can feel the emotional turmoil of the player. Happy that the team overall is doing exceptionally well but upset over their own personal production. I believe that every player has gone through at least one stint where a thought like this is going through their mind, some do not have the benefit of having their team doing well. From a technical sense this article is fairly short (A Microsoft Word, Word could has it just below 200 words), it contains a few grammatical errors (missing comma's, spelling errors) but for the most part is easy to understand and the errors do not take too much away from what the player is trying to express. I'll give the article an 8 out of 10.

I must admit that I am grateful to @jacobcarson877 for his willingness to answer my questions and to discuss theory regarding how to effectively craft my character. He is always willing to discuss options for TPE achievement and to walk me through parts of the VHL experience I have not experienced. For example, over the offseason we discussed numerous options to help me add TPE over this year. Now I do recognize that part of Jacob’s goal was to get me to 500TPE so that as the person who recruited me, he could get a 10TPE bonus. By adding TPE faster I obviously could grow to be a better player. With my salary I got at the start of the season I would have 5 million player store currency, so he recommended that I approach my GM to see if a bonus might be possible or it was discussed that I could do a Donation and get the 1 million player store currency option, 5TPE and and doubles week. I then in turn take that additional 1 million in player store currency, add it to the 5 million I already had and buy the 6 million Uncapped TPE bundle, giving me the ability to claim 4TPE on Article submissions 5 times, so an additional 20 TPE. So, I did approach my GM, discussions are still underway, but a bonus may not be impossible. I will have to see how that plays out. In the meantime, I made the donation, and followed through with the plan to get the 3 options and buy the Uncapped TPE bundle. All that to get to my point. As I worked through the donation process for the first time, I was extremely glad I had someone to walk me through the process. The instructions that are online are exceptionally good (the screen-by-screen walkthrough of claiming salary was fantastic) for the portions they address but for other areas are completely absent. For example, I saw nothing about putting the transaction number in the comment on the VHL Donation Index thread. Honestly, I saw nothing about posting to the VHL Donation Index thread. It is possible that it was all part of the donation payment process but if it was it was not on the screen long. In conclusion, to all the people who answer the long series of questions, who create the walk throughs, who spend time talking with and mentoring newer players, especially first gen players, I want to say thank you. Keep up the good work.

My first VHL season has begun, we are 8 games (well most teams are) in and I have to say that I am a little surprised by some of my statistics. I am going to give a summary of where I am 8 games in, how that is lining up with my goals for the year and what changes I may make to react to my current situation. As a reminder my goals for this year are to end the season with 700TPE, at least 20 goals and 50 points. After 8 games, here is where I am at. TPE 510 Goals 3 Assists 3 Total Points 6 In relation to my TPE goal, I expect that I will continue to get 13 each week for tasks (media spot 6, Press conference 2, VHL article 2, training camp 1, Trivia 2) In addition I just did a donation, claiming the 5 uncapped TPE and $1 mil in player store cash. The addition of the player store cash brought me to 6million, and I bought the 5x4TPE Uncapped TPE bundle. That will add an additional 25 TPE beyond the normal progress of 13/week. With the additional TPE through Fantasy Zone and VHFL I believe I will be on track to start next season with 700TPE. In relation to my goals goal, we are 8 of 72 games in, projecting out my goals to a full 72 game season I expect to have 27 goals if I keep my current pace. That will meet my goal however I am still looking at continuing to grow. My TPE placement will focus on building Defense and Skating with the express purpose of building my ability to manage the puck and retrieve pucks from the other team. This may adjust as I see how the results turn out. In relation to total points goal, we are 8 of 72 games in, projecting out my points to a full 72 game season I expect to have 54 points if I keep my current pace. That will just meet my goal; however, I do believe that my TPE growth focus on defense and skating will allow me to improve on my current pace and potentially allow me to push farther beyond my current expected target. I am happy with the current expectation but also do understand that there may be portions of the year where getting points may be reduced Now that I have made notes on my season and the progress towards my goals, I am going to discuss my other more surprising statistics. I am going to discuss my hits and penalty minutes. I currently have 21 hits, not the highest in the league by far but for a player who had 90 total hits in their VHLE season and 107 hits in their VHLM season, to be projecting to be at about 189 hit means that I am almost double my prior 2 seasons. This was beyond my expectations but has already allowed me to contribute to goals by other members of the team. I currently have 27 penalty minutes, again not the highest in the league but for a player who had 32 penalty minutes in the VHLE and 36 minutes in the VHLM, to be projecting at about 288 penalty minutes that is a huge change from the prior 2 seasons. I am hoping to be able to reduce the amount of penalty minutes without sacrificing my strong physical playing style.

Molly the Cat chooses: 5TPE Uncapped $1M player Store Cash Doubles Week 1676-5091-8135-7634

@JardyB10since @DoktorFunkand @Seabasshave been 13 hours since they were notified of their pick I am going to keep this moving. I choose The Board Game Clue on Skates - F Which now leaves @JardyB10with last pick. @DoktorFunk @Seabassget your picks in as you can.

@JardyB10As DoktorFunk is picking a forward and Seabass only needs a Goalie can we free them to proceed.

@DoktorFunkyour pick, I saw that Novanod didn't flag you.

Bo Johansson -D @Seabass

Jonathan Ori - C @JardyB10 your picks

I picked Saku Kotkakoivu as my first round pick

@JardyB10should the chance to pick move to next person to keep things moving.

1, 20 goals, 50 points 2) let Gustav do it 3) I'm fine being the only Cat 4) Which is the biggest that I can eat 5) No yoga, I'll have a nap 6) One of the royal guards