The Problem the VHL has Attracting New Players

[MetalToday 266]

        The VHL is a great place and has great members, but it doesn’t have the growth or attraction to people that it should at this point. Although most forums have small, but dedicated members, (Reddit seems to be different) the VHL gives something else, simulations of a hockey player the member can create. There is not much attachment to new people on this forum, it seems to keep a very small number of members. Why could this be when the forum has more ways to play than one? Well, I think there are many problems that still need to be fixed.

 

        One of the problems I see on this forum is the VHLE. It sounds a bit dumb, but if you look at many of the VHL teams, you will notice a large reduction of players on these teams, and this is not from recruiting issues, well it is, but it is from having a new league taking away from the big league, as well, making the VHLM drafts unmeaningful. The lack of players getting into the big leagues and making it harder to give players a chance at the more meaningful sims is a bit of a turn-off. If you recognize there are 3 leagues to the site, and the NHL equivalent is a real grind, it can be a turn-off for many people. There are people who would do this grind, but the grind needs to have a player base to want to grind there. The current players are doing so, but many new players would say “screw that”. Obviously, some players will come for the grind, and dedicate themselves, but I think it will turn more people off than on. It seems like the VHLM has become more irrelevant, being used as a holder for any inactive players to still play and giving dedicated players useless GM jobs in the minors. Obviously re-creates will be added in this league, but they usually don’t stay past that 1 partial season. I guess new players could dominate this league, but without a larger player base in these leagues, and an increase in inactive players, this forum could be seen more as a joke, or forgotten by new players if there is no one to chat with or communicate with on their VHLM team. (I have had experience with inactive, or less communicative management in the VHLM which applies to this) I see many problems with having the VHLE in this league, although I recognize there are some rebuttals, and some good to come out of this new league, I do not see it welcoming a new player base the way it should. Also, there is a North American division, and a European division in the VHL I don’t really understand the need for this league, even for PR. Instead, it could have had the same divisions as the VHL, and kept the 250 cap, even 300 if absolutely needed.

 

        When new players sign up, most know nothing about the simulation forums, and they need a lot of help. Without a good menu describing how to get TPE, what to look for when applying that TPE, what the forum is about, help sections, and FAQ’s it will cause a lot of confusion and issues for new players. Discord is still and will always be a great way of communicating, and keeping people interested using an external source, don’t lose that. There still needs to be some installations to really help new players, and yes I am sure there are some threads with each thing I brought up in this paragraph, but the fact is this forum is so deep, players who have been here for months or years will often say “there’s a what thread???” Creating threads isn’t terrible, but it seems that the ones that get highlighted are the ones only dedicated members usually view. I think any threads that can be helpful to new players should be on the main browser in the forum and highlighted. This would help the new players understand more about the forum, and honestly, this would help old players learn things they do not know. Now, a common mistake I see on sites is a long tutorial on how to do everything, nobody wants to read that, keep the descriptions, and help short and simple. This tutorial should not just be used on the forum, no, you need to also implement it on the portal as well. This is where most new players will sign up, and once they signup there needs to be a small tutorial of all of this right in their face. Have a portal tutorial tab, again, simple and short. Currently, we have some of these suggestions, but they are so hidden, that no new players want to dig for them, it would be an unrealistic request.

 

        Another problem for newer players would be toxicity. Well, it's not direct toxicity towards new or newer players, but kind of indirect. Remember the help tab I suggested in the last paragraph? Well, I suggested having one in the suggestion thread, that was about 8 months ago, and it was approved. I still believe one of the problems with that thread was it being buried among other threads. Again, nobody is going to look for a help thread, they may post it in random unrelated threads, or, more likely, just avoid posting any help or questions they may have. So yeah, this thread was buried, but it's not in the toxic section for that reason, it's here because of what was posted by some of the well know, long-term, and higher-up members. I won’t repeat some of the things that were said as they were not relevant, I think some of it was inside jokes, and others were funny comments, but for such a thread you need to have some professionalism. New players won’t ask questions/comments if it seems more like a joke thread rather than a help thread. This could be toxic as many new people could see this as the league laughing at members needing help. I wouldn't really care about the toxicity if it wasn't on a help thread looking to help many new players, but I don’t think it should be left on a thread that could stop new members from asking questions. This suggestion was really meant for newer players to have a safe place to ask questions, as we know, you don’t want newer players to ask questions to the wrong crowd… This might have sounded like me complaining that my suggestion wasn’t taken seriously, but that wouldn’t be correct, I have had many suggestions shot down in my life, my problem is the lack of help the league is willing to give to these new players, rather it seems to be a free for all to figure things out for yourself.

 

        This next comment I want to bring up is the “clickers”, but this is related to the VHLE part. For those that don’t know clickers are the term members use for other members who look to only collect the easy welfare and practice tpe. These players might lose a lot of dedication because instead of 250 tpe they need 400 tpe to get to the big league. This isn’t the ideal situation for players who don’t have much time on their hands but still want to be a part of this community, and some may not even know how these leagues work. Although having clickers are not ideal for the VHL GMs and maybe not even the commissioners, it can be ideal for mouth-to-mouth recruitment. The more "clickers" you have, means you get more people, which means it is more likely you get people mentioning the “real life be a pro” and this could even get the site with higher volume, putting it higher on search engines. I think there should be something else to encourage “clickers” to stay, with some other ‘minigame’ to give easy and free uncapped tpe. Obviously, it would be collected by everyone, not just clickers, but it gives them something to do, and something to stay on the site longer, and maybe they would be induced to explore more.

 

        I think having minigames could be fun and attract more people to the site, but understandably, it is not an easy way to attract people, nor is it ideal for people to only come for minigames, that isn’t what was built, but I think it would definitely be a great attraction. That’s just a small suggestion though, the main suggestion in this article is to gain the love of the new players, and considering the menus and suggestions still haven’t been implemented after 9 years, shocks me. You shouldn’t expect the system I wrote here to work all the time because people will avoid tutorials, they will be shy to ask questions, they won’t read everything, but you need to give these new members a fighting chance in this league. Most will probably continue to wonder how some people can get over 1500 tpe, in fact, I’m wondering that myself, some will leave thinking it’s a pay to win, as I thought when I started. I think the league needs to better themselves with the new player base, the recruitment is a different issue, but no one will continue to come back to the site if there is no help for anything.

 

        Now I wanted to give the reason I wrote about this topic today, when I started in this league, I had no idea how this site worked. I ended up coming back every week only collecting welfare and practice because I didn’t know what else to do. Later I was invited to a team discord and there I got a little bit more information and I continued to do more, but I still was missing out compared to the other players around the league. Slowly understood more every week, but I still had so many questions and frustrations that I didn’t know where to go. I could have gone to the team and asked, but I was shy and decided not to, I liked watching and seeing what other questions and mentions were said before doing anything. I ended up getting drafted and the VHL team and they didn’t have a discord link, so there really wasn’t a locker room for this team other than on the site. I ended up coming back a couple more times, but there were really no locker room conversations, and all the mentions I got on discord that often helped me learn more about this league were gone. I unintentionally forgot about the VHL as it was not on discord, an app that opens automatically once I turn on my computer and @'s that often reminded me to collect tpe. Later I remembered this site and came back, so many changes were made, I forgot how to collect tpe. I continued the way I did before until someone gave me through discord a link on how to collect TPE, and that changed everything. I don’t believe I have missed a week of collecting TPE since that, and I plan to continue. I wanted to show how long it took me to understand this league more and more, and still, I am learning, but I think a lot of dedicated people to this league have either been a part of it since the start or have been on forums like this for a long period of time. Take me for example, I am not new to this league, but I am somewhat dedicated, and I still have navigation troubles, let alone the start was hellish for me. When I collected welfare and practice at the beginning there was a forum that you had to write +4 or +2 for the desired tpe, but I didn’t know this, I put it in the comment section when collecting the tpe, because I didn’t even know the forum existed. Later someone messaged me saying I had to write it there and I was like, “Ohhhh ok”. The site needs these tutorials, and suggestions like I included here. If I had a place for “help” I would look through it for the question I wanted to be answered. Again, I was shy, so I didn’t want to be the one asking questions, but I know someone had probably asked it too, so I would check, and I wouldn’t be alone for that. Shy people don’t want to ask questions, but they can become more involved over time which would allow them to speak out and ask more.

 

        Hopefully, this was somewhat helpful, I have thought about this for quite some time, and I thought I was ready to say something about it. I hope this can help the league to implement new systems to help the new players and understand the problems new players can run into daily. I think the systems will do their jobs over time, and don’t forget the FAQ’s so people don’t need to always wait for answers. Short and sweet is always the best way to engage new players to understand the site more.

 

[MetalToday 266]

Claim Weeks:

 

04/24

05/01

05/08

05/15

[Spartan 4,006]

18 minutes ago, MetalToday said:

Remember the help tab I suggested in the last paragraph? Well, I suggested having one in the suggestion thread, that was about 8 months ago, and it was approved. I still believe one of the problems with that thread was it being buried among other threads. Again, nobody is going to look for a help thread, they may post it in random unrelated threads, or, more likely, just avoid posting any help or questions they may have. So yeah, this thread was buried, but it's not in the toxic section for that reason, it's here because of what was posted by some of the well know, long-term, and higher-up members. I won’t repeat some of the things that were said as they were not relevant, I think some of it was inside jokes, and others were funny comments, but for such a thread you need to have some professionalism. New players won’t ask questions/comments if it seems more like a joke thread rather than a help thread.

I'd like to respond to your overall piece with more substance because I think there are plenty of interesting points, but since I'm on my phone I just wanted to address this small portion.

 

Quickly looking at the Suggestions and Complaints subforum, I found the following thread by you:

 

Obviously as a league we want to help new users, and I don't recall instances where new users have been shamed for asking questions as you've mentioned. The thread I found doesn't seem to include the comments you mentioned, but rather has one reply linking a thread in the Create A Player section.

 

My own gripe with that subforum as a whole is that there's really no "resolving" suggestions or complaints or even a process to inform a member that an item is being discussed. That's something else though. I just wanted to see where the toxic activity you mentioned was coming from, since I don't see it in that thread.

 

[MetalToday 266]

 

8 minutes ago, Spartan said:

 

Obviously as a league we want to help new users, and I don't recall instances where new users have been shamed for asking questions as you've mentioned. The thread I found doesn't seem to include the comments you mentioned, but rather has one reply linking a thread in the Create A Player section.

 

 

This is the thread that was made after that post in the suggestions:

I really don't think anyone was knowingly toxic, but what I will say is that the members that are so well versed and higher in the VHL coordination's, its not gonna come off well to new players, they will not look to add questions when it seems like its not a serious form. That's where I was going with that. Considering you only found my post in suggestions, is also part of my problem, but that's solvable with the other suggestions I explained in the text in my opinion.

 

I don't think the VHL actually laughs at new players and their questions, but mentally it can be thought of that way when such a form isn't taken as seriously.

 

[MubbleFubbles 1,203]

Great article, always nice to hear someone's opinions on how they think the league can improve and especially in regards to helping newer members. 

 

I agree with you that getting more help out there is important for keeping players around and interested. I made a graphic/podcast recently talking about how I think we should get more help onto the portal (along with clearer links to important pages like updating your player) since I feel like that's where more people consider to be the "game" side of the VHL when they first join, so I definitely agree with you on that point on getting more help on the portal. 

 

Quote

 It seems like the VHLM has become more irrelevant, being used as a holder for any inactive players to still play and giving dedicated players useless GM jobs in the minors.

 

I was confused by this quote above though (unless you meant the VHLE which would make more sense, but going off the phrasing of the sentence and what was around it, I don't think it was). It's actually not possible for VHLM teams to keep players who are inactive (VHLM GM's are required to release players the moment they're officially considered inactive) and one of the VHLM GM's jobs is reaching out to and guiding new members on their team, maybe I'm misunderstanding what you mean in the context by "useless", but they are one of the most important jobs in the VHL right now. It's unfortunate that you had the VHLM experience that you did where you mentioned lack of comms between management in the VHLM, but I'd be surprised if that was the norm. 

 

Edited April 24, 2022 by MubbleFubbles

[MetalToday 266]

14 hours ago, MubbleFubbles said:

I was confused by this quote above though (unless you meant the VHLE which would make more sense, but going off the phrasing of the sentence and what was around it, I don't think it was). It's actually not possible for VHLM teams to keep players who are inactive (VHLM GM's are required to release players the moment they're officially considered inactive) and one of the VHLM GM's jobs is reaching out to and guiding new members on their team, maybe I'm misunderstanding what you mean in the context by "useless", but they are one of the most important jobs in the VHL right now. It's unfortunate that you had the VHLM experience that you did where you mentioned lack of comms between management in the VHLM, but I'd be surprised if that was the norm. 

 

 

Honestly, it could be just that, I may have been on a couple teams that didn't communicate much, that is a problem, but if there is lots of coms in other teams that could work. I think the VHLM drafts usually of new players, and not all of these teams will sign re-creates, so the communication will often be between management and the new players, but like I've said, management isn't always there. This can be a real problem trying keeping people attracted to the site, and since most new players are more shy, there is a good possibility that some chats are silent, you really need outgoing players, usually found from long term members, and a good set of management.

 

I don't think these issues were really a thing before the VHLE came into this league, but I guess that's my opinion, I never actually played in the VHLM with the VHLE around, I was in the VHLE the year it was introduced, so I could have some wrong information, I'll admit that.