Completely Original Recruitment Thoughts

[Rin 138]

Hello! I'm Mr. Recruitment Opinion Man #473, and I'm here to claim some TPE for a thought I've already posted elsewhere on the forums.

 

Joking aside, I do want to just openly think about something I mentioned in one of those threads that blew up. When it comes to bringing in new members, it feels like we tend to gravitate toward hockey-centered communities first- EA NHL advertisements being a pretty big one on that front. Of course, it makes sense to advertise our hockey sim league to hockey enjoyers- it's one of the most important connections we can make with incoming members. I like hockey, they like hockey, we like hockey, so let's do that hockey.

 

But aside from that...all of our activities center around things that an incoming hockey fan likely won't find appealing at first. Writing essays, photoshopping graphics, checking the daily text-based sims, and arguing over how our processes should be changed are all internet nerd activities. Better yet, they're all roleplaying activities more than anything. We sit square in the middle of a Venn diagram of roleplayers and hockey fans, and we honestly skew closer to the roleplaying side of things.

 

I'm an internet anime nerd, I have no shame in admitting I've been fairly active in RP circles. Not so much these days, but I used to be huge on FFXIV where the roleplaying community has always been prominent. Everything we do here reminds me of similar stuff that RP communities typically do- we create our own characters (players), write about them, design or represent their appearance in some way, and then work together with others to expand out some kind of world for them to inhabit. While a lot of our writing and discussion can skew more towards meta discussion than outright worldbuilding, I'd argue that changing rules and designing gameplay systems is still worldbuilding in its own way.

 

So just some food for thought, I don't really claim to have answers about what to do or what not to do when it comes to advertising and retaining new members. I can offer up the thought that we're a lot nerdier than we're willing to admit sometimes, and maybe we should let that factor in to how we approach our outreach. Some 13 year old playing EASHL on XBox isn't likely to enjoy writing Media Spots or answering presser questions, but a D&D player with passing familiarity or interest in hockey might be willing to explore a new interest by combining it with something they partake in and enjoy.

 

Reddit was an effective recruiting tool, after all.

Edited November 18, 2023 by Rin