VHLM GMing Help

[AJW 2,200]

I don’t really know if this is off topic, but just wondering if anyone wants to give ideas on how to make a VHLM experience better. What do first gens want, what do recreates want, let me know. I plan to do a weekly news article about Houston/ The league next season, but besides that what else could I do?

[Gustav 6,469]

Honestly with all the "listen to the new members" talk that floats around the VHLM (and blows up into some weird drama every couple seasons or so), people tend to forget just how much you are the product of your environment here. Anyone new worth having will spend some time trying to gain a sense of how the community works and figuring out how to fit in and be one of the cool ones--and as a VHLM GM, your community is the community and you are one of the cool ones to someone newer. What you put into your team is what you get out of it.

 

So, what do first gens want? First gens don't know what they want. And that's where you come in, because you know what you like about the community and you know how to show that. Find what you love about the community and bring it to your community, and you'll find that you'll be really good at keeping around people who think the same way you do.

 

Some examples of this that I applied in my own time as GM:

• I liked being able to talk about random things in the league server, so I'd talk about random things in my own server. Stupid irrelevant small talk isn't seen as stupid or irrelevant by someone who comes in hoping to make friends. I think people enjoyed me complaining about work and such, because my players would come into my server to do the same.
• I liked a lot of the people I'd connected with at that point, so I invited them to my server. I also wanted my players to like these people, so all my stupid small talk happened in public (I hated, and still hate, team-only channels). Many people ended up very active in my server despite never playing for me.
• I liked my own sense of humor (doesn't everyone like their own sense of humor?) so I chose to speak more confidently, as if I were talking to someone I'd known for longer than a couple hours, rather than toning everything down and being really generic and plain to all the new people. You will determine how they act in your locker room and in the league, not the other way around, so start them off right.
• I liked that I could form my own opinions on what was going on in the league, and didn't like what I'd seen on some other teams at the time where players were encouraged to take sides in stupid forum drama or try to get themselves with certain people or teams after moving up. There were some teams I really disliked at the time, and even one I would have outright refused to play for, and while I'd say that when asked, I'd never specify what I was talking about because I didn't want someone to be drafted somewhere and be disappointed by it.

Players will eventually recognize what there is to look for in the community and be able to find it themselves, but if you don't give them what the community gives you, there's no reason to believe they're going to stay active enough for long enough to find it. And if you do mirror the best parts of the league, someone will find that and think, "oh cool, this is just like what AJ did that one time in the VHLM".

 

As for recreates...it doesn't matter as much. Don't be one of those people who adopts the "all recreates in the VHLM must die" mindset and you'll be fine. I will say, though, that I've been really annoyed in the past when GMs send me obviously copy-pasted lists of questions for their draft scouting, or when someone tries to sign me by asking me to write some stupid hashtag. Recognize that these are people you already know (and, at the very least, these are people who know who you are already), and that a quick and casual "hi, what are your thoughts" is your best possible message.

[Beketov 9,103]

1 hour ago, Gustav said:

So, what do first gens want? First gens don't know what they want.

Alternatively they think they know what they really want and have no idea why that’s not necessarily a good thing or that said thing has failed multiple times already. I don’t say this mockingly first gens, we’ve all been there, it’s just a matter of getting some perspective that perhaps in 15 years we may have learned a thing for two.

 

1 hour ago, Gustav said:

I've been really annoyed in the past when GMs send me obviously copy-pasted lists of questions for their draft scouting

Yeah, please don’t do that. As someone who has been here literally longer than anyone I get really annoyed when draft scouting consists of questions that are clearly not relevant to me at all. Recognize that first gens and recreates, especially between recreates, are very different.

[Shindigs 1,771]

6 hours ago, AJW said:

What do first gens want

Give first gens Brawndo, so they can grow up big and strong!

[jacobcarson877 2,563]

Things I've found that I think have made me a better GM:

- Paying attention to my players earnings. If they have a random up week, talk about how great they've been doing that week! If they have a random down week, shoot them a message (in private of course) asking how they're doing. Often times life things just came up, and it gives you something to talk about later. Congratulate success, and take the moment to care for your real-life people on your team.

- Condensing channels in the Discord down, and encouraging most conversations to happen in a public space. Having 85 channels seems great until nobody uses any of them and mute your entire server because of the ungodly amount of notifications they'll get. And secondly, take advantage of the dylan's and the lemorse's of the VHL, who will come by and join conversations as they happen.

- Send a pretty generic "Hey everyone, how are we all doing today?" message every day, maybe even upwards of a couple times a day. Someone is bound to have something going on at that moment, and if not, I bet you do. Anything to get people in the chat, engaging with their teammates.

 

- Following all of my players on the forum, and engaging with their content. I try to at least drop a like on everyone's stuff, and maybe even try to give them a nice comment too. It becomes easier and easier to post content if people are engaging with it.

[JardyB10 4,869]

3 hours ago, jacobcarson877 said:

I try to at least drop a like on everyone's stuff, and maybe even try to give them a nice comment too.

This was a good post, young Jacob!

[nurx 914]

19 hours ago, Beketov said:

Yeah, please don’t do that. As someone who has been here literally longer than anyone I get really annoyed when draft scouting consists of questions that are clearly not relevant to me at all. Recognize that first gens and recreates, especially between recreates, are very different.

while I completely understand this it is important to understand that I have already begun the process of draft scouting. I take draft scouting incredibly seriously and I have begun messaging every single member in the VHLM draft. I highly recommend it because you get members like @Tacocatand @Jim Benningwho appeared to have disappeared from the league, but came back to become valued members of the league. While I try to make them have at least one question that is personalized there are players that unfortunately wont have any trace other than their created player.

[Berocka 2,263]

3 hours ago, nurx said:

while I completely understand this it is important to understand that I have already begun the process of draft scouting. I take draft scouting incredibly seriously and I have begun messaging every single member in the VHLM draft. I highly recommend it because you get members like @Tacocatand @Jim Benningwho appeared to have disappeared from the league, but came back to become valued members of the league. While I try to make them have at least one question that is personalized there are players that unfortunately wont have any trace other than their created player.

Bek is saying don't send the same questions to recreates as you would first gens. Asking me for example what my activity will be like after the draft and if I have any questions about the VHL is a waste of everyone's time. 

 

Recreates essentially you write

1) will you want to play for me

2) will you go to FA?

 

Thats pretty much it. If you're asking someone like bek if they think their earnings will drop it probably doesn't look great.

[Gustav 6,469]

15 hours ago, jacobcarson877 said:

Condensing channels in the Discord down, and encouraging most conversations to happen in a public space.

 

THANK YOU.

 

There's a server that was once really close to my heart (those who know me well will know exactly which one I mean) that, over time and by no one's fault in particular, went from condensed and public to "there's a team channel where everyone on the team talks almost exclusively and there are a ton of channels that no one needs or cares about--also, they're all named really vague and confusing things so you have no idea what's supposed to go where."

 

Guess when that server was my favorite and guess what killed it. It's been a while since I had any affiliation with it, but I still miss the way it was. Cheers to you for having the right idea, because the VHLM is where we need that the most.

[Gustav 6,469]

51 minutes ago, Berocka said:

Bek is saying don't send the same questions to recreates as you would first gens. Asking me for example what my activity will be like after the draft and if I have any questions about the VHL is a waste of everyone's time. 

 

Recreates essentially you write

1) will you want to play for me

2) will you go to FA?

 

Thats pretty much it. If you're asking someone like bek if they think their earnings will drop it probably doesn't look great.

 

Love it when people ask if I'm on Discord.

 

I'VE TALKED TO YOU ON DISCORD!

[Triller 1,688]

15 hours ago, jacobcarson877 said:

- Following all of my players on the forum, and engaging with their content. I try to at least drop a like on everyone's stuff, and maybe even try to give them a nice comment too. It becomes easier and easier to post content if people are engaging with it.

This 100%!  I joined the league hoping to make a bit of a splash with my graphics and for most of my posts I see a couple reactions and that is it.  It felt very odd since the league and it's created players live off things like this yet the engagement on most media posts and graphics are non-existent.  Nothing gets highlighted to show what this community can create and the highest traffic posts are inside jokes amoung the longer standing members or topics about banned users.  The latter should be buried so it doesn't steal attention from users who are trying to be positive members in the community.

[Berocka 2,263]

28 minutes ago, Triller said:

This 100%!  I joined the league hoping to make a bit of a splash with my graphics and for most of my posts I see a couple reactions and that is it.  It felt very odd since the league and it's created players live off things like this yet the engagement on most media posts and graphics are non-existent.  Nothing gets highlighted to show what this community can create and the highest traffic posts are inside jokes amoung the longer standing members or topics about banned users.  The latter should be buried so it doesn't steal attention from users who are trying to be positive members in the community.

The league is a bit segmented in point tasks. I for one won't look at graphics as I don't really know much about them and think they all look alike. So my input into that genre is not really worth it. I feel like the podcasting community is pretty good with people talking about each other's work.

[Dom 1,445]

On 10/27/2022 at 2:32 AM, Beketov said:

Alternatively they think they know what they really want and have no idea why that’s not necessarily a good thing or that said thing has failed multiple times already.

I totally made a media spot trying to convince the league to expand to add a Montreal team in my first week or so.

[Pifferfish 597]

5 hours ago, Berocka said:

The league is a bit segmented in point tasks. I for one won't look at graphics as I don't really know much about them and think they all look alike. So my input into that genre is not really worth it. I feel like the podcasting community is pretty good with people talking about each other's work.

I think more so the point is like... for example myself... I'm totally unable to critique any graphic... but if i like it... i can at least drop a fire reaction... you as a human that i admittedly am assuming has eyes and can see... can formulate an opinion on graphics and engage with them. If you dont know how to intricately analyze a piece of media just dont do that... react how you feel is appropriate if you see it. It looks the same as other stuff you have seen but its still cool... give it a thumbs up... idk.. kind of rambling bc im tired and this isnt meant to be like an attack. i just feel like the mind set you have is like a form of self gate keeping that i feel is unfair and is taking yourself out of parts of this community that could have the member's youd like to interact with the most. 

TLDR dont avoid engaging with content bc you feel unqualified. simply seeing my media spots or .com's get any reactions is a huge dopamine boost. 

 

[Berocka 2,263]

30 minutes ago, Pifferfish said:

I think more so the point is like... for example myself... I'm totally unable to critique any graphic... but if i like it... i can at least drop a fire reaction... you as a human that i admittedly am assuming has eyes and can see... can formulate an opinion on graphics and engage with them. If you dont know how to intricately analyze a piece of media just dont do that... react how you feel is appropriate if you see it. It looks the same as other stuff you have seen but its still cool... give it a thumbs up... idk.. kind of rambling bc im tired and this isnt meant to be like an attack. i just feel like the mind set you have is like a form of self gate keeping that i feel is unfair and is taking yourself out of parts of this community that could have the member's youd like to interact with the most. 

TLDR dont avoid engaging with content bc you feel unqualified. simply seeing my media spots or .com's get any reactions is a huge dopamine boost. 

 

It's not self gatekeeping it's using my limited time on the site to better effect. I usually only have a small amount of time to look at things and I choose to look at the things I know and can appreciate 

[Pifferfish 597]

9 minutes ago, Berocka said:

It's not self gatekeeping it's using my limited time on the site to better effect. I usually only have a small amount of time to look at things and I choose to look at the things I know and can appreciate 

This is fair. I've found myself wanting to personally gravitate to the graphic side just because i can look at an image and come to a conclusion much quicker than lets say reading a media spot for example... so i feel the timing aspect of things... I am also a notoriously slow reader..... like probaly half as fast as 90% of the VHL community