Shit, I Did This Last Week

[Rin 138]

So when I decided to drop ~450 words on a .com article last week about recruitment, I should have stopped myself and kept that writing off to the side in anticipation for theme week. I was entirely convinced that this was coming, and didn't heed my own foresight whatsoever. Now, I face the consequences of my own actions.

 

So while my primary thoughts on recruitment are summarized here, I'll use this media spot to dive into some thoughts on the back half of recruitment- that is, player retention. I've been vocal in saying "oh, the 13-14 year old EA sports crowd doesn't wanna write essays, so they leave" but that doesn't mean we can't do our best to keep them here anyway.

 

I want to harken back to the before times, where I was a hyper active member that was chosen a few times to be the general manager of the Houston Bulls. I was put in a unique position to set the tone for an expansion franchise right out of the gate, though I'm sure the management and handling of the Bulls has changed drastically as ownership has passed between hands. Knowing that the #1 goal of the VHLM was to retain players, I set out to set the Bulls apart and really try and focus on the roleplay/immersion aspect of the league.

 

At the time, I was of the opinion that this sort of an approach was really lacking throughout locker rooms. I know most everyone at this point votes on captains and reserves jersey numbers, but I wanted to take it a step beyond. I had team members submit and vote on various options for goal songs, then edited the winner into a video to "hang up" in the locker room. I'd link it here if I still had it, but I think it's lost to time. Early on, I mocked up a "jersey reveal" featuring some of the inaugural members of the roster, and was quick to get people some graphics and sigs featuring their chosen player and number in a jersey swapped Houston uniform.

 

Making some pretty graphics and putting together a goal horn were just the initial, smaller parts of my retention plan, though. I really set out to engage my players and encourage them to do whatever it is they wished to do creatively. When a few players started to really buy in, writing over-the-top articles back and forth about their players and interactions within the fictional world of the VHL, I made sure to start including stories within the articles in weekly pressers. It got to a point where the team was collaboratively writing narratives that would last a few weeks, with users responding to each other through their articles and then having to face the media about them when it came time for the weekly press conference. A lot of it was over-the-top goofy, like the time a player's smell caused the entire arena to be shut down for an emergency cleaning, but everyone was having a great time without even checking the results of the sims. That's the kind of focus I really wanted to push with my LR, and I'm happy to say that we definitely got there (especially when the on-ice product wasn't all that much to write home about).

 

Looking back on the tenure as a whole, there are a good number of names that went on to hit the big leagues and find success in their own ways. Eventual cup champs, hall of fame players, taking up league jobs and being positive, active contributors to the community as a whole. I'd like to think that a big part of that was a good first impression from their early days as a VHLM signee/draftee. First impressions are everything, after all.

 

So before I get too rambly, I'll go ahead and wrap things up by re-stressing the need for good team-based engagement in the VHL, especially when it comes to lower leagues. There's a lot more to the VHL than just upping stats and checking sims, and I wish more squads openly embraced that the way some of our rosters were able to to in Houston. I've especially thought back to those days while reflecting on my current VHLE situation- a completely dead LR which is written off with a dismissive "nobody really joins their E locker rooms, anyway." It's a shame, because that kind of an attitude is what would honestly drive me to give up and stop participating in the VHL. If I wasn't on my 3rd player already, familiar with the league and how it runs, I would feel a lot more discouraged and ready to quit.

[Gustav 6,155]

I think there are things that work with a wider audience and things that don't. Everyone experiences the league in different ways, and you've always been more into the roleplay aspect of the league than most members. I do think it's fair that that sort of approach isn't going to resonate with everyone that walks into the door, but what was important about Houston was that you applied your personality to giving the people on your team a better experience.

 

The VHLM (and the VHL in general) isn't meant to be a business. We're people, and players are best viewed as people. I don't think I ever cared about team branding or image or player storylines to as great an extent as you did, but I ran my teams in ways that fit my personality and so did you. I think if we tried to switch styles, neither one would be as successful. So I don't think it's necessarily the things that you do as a GM, but it's the things that you do as a GM that matter. If you're running a team so you can have fun pushing buttons and look cool in front of other people, you're doing it wrong.

 

And honestly I feel like the league is lacking in that regard now. We've got a lot of teams that I sort of just see as...existing...and that I don't really associate with any one thing or another. We've got to do better in making our teams communities within the community, not just stops along the way to the next place.

[Rin 138]

53 minutes ago, Gustav said:

I ran my teams in ways that fit my personality and so did you. I think if we tried to switch styles, neither one would be as successful. So I don't think it's necessarily the things that you do as a GM, but it's the things that you do as a GM that matter.

 

Absolutely-- this is a good spot to mention that I don't necessarily think that everyone needs to be doing things the way I did. Everything about how I approached Houston was both different and contained within that team; it gave us an identity and a reason to play for Houston as opposed to anywhere else. If that wasn't a good match, then incoming players had the option to accept a different offer or request a trade elsewhere- both completely fine options if the vibes weren't there. The goal with Houston was to specialize in engaging a specific type of person (and to create the environment I would have wanted as a new player), and in that case I think we succeeded. 

 

57 minutes ago, Gustav said:

And honestly I feel like the league is lacking in that regard now. We've got a lot of teams that I sort of just see as...existing...and that I don't really associate with any one thing or another. We've got to do better in making our teams communities within the community, not just stops along the way to the next place.

 

This is definitely the greater takeaway from my anecdotal rambling. I feel like it's way too easy, as a player, to feel more like a pawn in the chess game of GMs rather than an individual helping to create a whole.