Gm rambling

[samx 1,175]

Being a gm in the vhlm was one of my favorite times in this league. Was it a lot of work at times? Yes. But when you had someone who truly wanted to learn the game and was excited to be a part of your team it was some of the most fun times I had. I never really cared about how well my personal player was doing. Gaming, however, brought out the competitive side in me. I wasn't affecting my own player but the decisions I made affected many people's players and something about that made it way more fun to be a part of. It made me want to work harder so as not to let the people I was gm of down.

 

I have always been someone who favors an active, engaging, fun to be in the locker room than team success. Yes, winning games was nice, and having a shot at a cup was nice but the memories I have from locker rooms stick with me way more. When I got a gm position, I knew I wanted to be one of those places where people genuinely enjoyed being in the locker room and enjoyed hanging out. I have said it before and I will say it again: this league isn't fun because of looking at stats. (Well unless you're a stat person) For most people, what keeps them around is the environment they are in. Something I saw very early on was the locker rooms that had active gms and were engaging with players were the ones in the M that were also retaining players.

 

M gaming is kinda a different breed as your goal isn't to win. Your goal isn't to tank but ultimately your goal is to retain players. Yes, that spans throughout the leagues but in M gaming it is so important because you are the first interactions a player has when they join the game. Obviously, winning can help retention but it's not everything. The other thing about retention is that about 75% of it comes down to luck. Do you get the people who sign with an M team and become immersed in the game or do you get the people who sign and then never log on again? It's partly a game of luck. You really can't control who signs with you and sometimes you just get really unlucky and get a bunch of people who think its a be a pro league and quit immediately or who log on and never show their face again.

 

Something someone*cough shindigs cough* told me at one point was “Sam I don't understand why your retention rates are so high when you don't do anything that different”. Damn thanks for the shots. Although he wasn't completely wrong. I didn't reinvent the system when I was gm. I also often wonder why my retention rates were fairly high. The only conclusion I can come to is pure luck. Sometimes you just get lucky and pick up the people who really want to be there.

 

Okay that's enough rambling. Happy theme week. Goodbye

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