We're More Than Just Sim Leaguers.

[jacobcarson877 2,527]

So we’ve been having a lot of interesting conversations in London these days, as we theorycraft why the team sucked to start off, and now that things are stabilizing and everyone is back and rejuvenated, conversation has moved to other things.

We talked today about recruitment, and the struggle behind it. We know that Reddit and COVID inflated league numbers, and Youtube has pretty much been the only member-driving option since, and even then, the options are thin and far more expensive than a simple Reddit post and some upvotes.

We also talked about league demographics and how a lot of our team culture has been built around being a couple of grown adults chilling and enjoying our non-working moments. When bringing people into the fold, obviously the player and TPE are a consideration, but also the fit of the real human person in our team dynamic. Obviously this might be different for each team, some aiming for youthful exuberance, or perhaps people who share in similar hobbies.

 

The idea is though that we often find ourselves gravitating towards people like ourselves. We are people well beyond the extent of hockey or sim leagues. We so often look down those exact 2 recruitment channels to find our members. Not all hockey fans would want to be sim leaguers, and not all sim leaguers want to be hockey fans. Of course that works for any group of people, but if we look internally there are many reasons we enjoy the VHL.

I for one, love data analysis, roleplaying games, and reading/writing fiction. I liked all of these completely outside of the context of hockey or sim leagues, but each can have an understandable connection with the VHL. Embodying a character and building out their stats, engaging in written forum content and learning about the optimization and scientific elements of the league have been some of my favourite parts, and as such it makes total sense that I’m here as a prominent VHL member.

So the moral of the story is, maybe we have to find people who would enjoy the VHL for what we DO, rather than what it is.

In the words of Matt Colville who has somehow taught me more about life through explaining RPG concepts than I ever would have imagined:

The behaviour a game rewards, is the behaviour a game encourages.

We reward our members with TPE for writing, podcasting and making graphics. If we find users who want to write, podcast and make graphics, we can bring in great users who can always learn to sim league, or hockey. In all honesty we don’t DO much in relation to hockey. Most of us aren’t GMs, nor do we sim the games. Pretty much everyone outside of maybe 3 dozen of us could not know hockey at all, and just write, podcast and make graphics and happen to apply points in spots and come out happy.

 

So lets find out where the writers, artists and podcasters hide! Lets infiltrate their ranks and find the eventual overlap with hockey! Hockey fans are everywhere if you know where to look!

Edited September 8, 2023 by jacobcarson877

[v.2 1,406]

Always coming with the great introspective content.  Kudos Jacob!

[Lemorse7 1,013]

clickbait title 

[rory 1,915]

let's advertise in garrys mod

[Subject056 1,198]

Enjoyed reading this article! It's been shared on the VHL Instagram on our Media Spot Highlights

 

https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE4MDM1Nzk4MzU2NTUzNTc0?story_media_id=3187825360603126066_9643099826&igshid=NmQ4MjZlMjE5YQ==

Edited September 9, 2023 by Subject056

[Aimee 1,119]

I cam as a hockey fan who didn't understand Sim leagues. So definitely others are out there. 

[Garsh 1,189]

We are more than just sim leaguers....
 

 

 

[JCarson 723]

Postings that look at things from a different perspective are always enjoyable to read.  Having by chance been in the locker room during the conversation that this refers to it is more interesting to see how the thought patterns expressed led to this article and yet were completely different at the same time.  It is true we are all here for different reasons, have different backgrounds and different connections.  Working in an industry for which referrals make up a large part of my new business I may suggest that our biggest recruitment possibility lies outside social media and more in the hands of our members telling people they already know about this fun thing they found in the VHL.

 

I give this article a 9/10 for creativity.