Could we get more players out of our affiliate leagues?

[scoop 3,432]

I know recruitment has been a hot button issue lately, and looking at the upcoming drafts, it's understandable why. We are lacking for new players, and while it's possible that the career lengths being extended by a season has a bit to do with that, I don't think the answer is going to be to shorten careers back to where they were. I'm not someone who is good with recruitment ideas, but I can speak on a recent experience for myself.

 

 

Earlier this year, I created a player in the SBA. My original intent was to make a player in the SBA and in the EFL just so I could earn 2 TPE each month in the VHL from the Affiliate Check. Because I don't actually care enough to write things for the SBA (and I never created in the EFL), I haven't actually utilized that to earn more than I think 1 TPE in the VHL since I created my SBA player in May. Even though I haven't followed through with my original intent of utilizing the SBA to earn a tiny bit more TPE in the VHL, I have continued to update my player. Sure, I don't care about the SBA nearly as much as the VHL. I pop into my team's Discord channel from time to time, and I check out the sims to see how things are going. But for the most part, I'm just a body for a team, because it takes next to no effort. I am doing the tasks anyway, so why not just apply them to a player in another league. I'm not trying to be a star over there, so I don't care about the extra effort.

 

 

 

I suppose what I'm trying to get at here is, could we do more to get members from affiliate leagues to create and update players in a similar way to how I handle my SBA player? I genuinely have no idea. Maybe we have a ton of affiliate players, and that's how we are surviving with 16 teams at all. Do we allow enough things to be claimed from affiliate leagues to make it worth it? In the SBA, I can reach my weekly cap just by doing a VHL point task and VHL.com article. Do we need to look at what affiliate tasks we allow people from other leagues to claim over here? Or are we trying to avoid having too many players who are almost capping out while providing no content to the VHL? Also why are we not affiliated with the PBE?

 

I don't know, just some thoughts. If the affiliate program isn't being looked at, maybe it could be. Get some data on how many affiliate members we have, how many members are active in other leagues that don't have a player over here. Obviously not all of them will care to create a player over here, but if they are in another sim league, obviously there is something about sim leagues that they enjoy. We should still try to find ways to bring new people into the sim league community, but is there more we can also gain by working more with other existing leagues?

[Spartan 4,405]

7 minutes ago, scoop said:

I suppose what I'm trying to get at here is, could we do more to get members from affiliate leagues to create and update players in a similar way to how I handle my SBA player? I genuinely have no idea. Maybe we have a ton of affiliate players, and that's how we are surviving with 16 teams at all. Do we allow enough things to be claimed from affiliate leagues to make it worth it? In the SBA, I can reach my weekly cap just by doing a VHL point task and VHL.com article. Do we need to look at what affiliate tasks we allow people from other leagues to claim over here? Or are we trying to avoid having too many players who are almost capping out while providing no content to the VHL? Also why are we not affiliated with the PBE?

I'll start with your last sentence and go backwards - we are affiliated with the PBE for a vhl.com replacement with their PT.

 

The EFL is actually a really good example of what happens when a league is predominantly made up of affiliate users. There's no core userbase and therefore limited members willing to step up and fill roles when needed. We're just starting to feel a bit of that impact here in the VHL with limited job applicants who don't already have multiple roles already. If someone can cap out easily by claiming half their tasks from the SBA, why would they ever get involved as a GM here? Why would most of the league ever really interact in LRs if its not their main league. That's why affiliate users are nice to fill up leagues, but I find that relying on them to make up the majority of the league just causes operational problems.

[Gustav 6,428]

It’s also important to consider the negatives of the affiliate experience. I’m auto-12 in the SBA and created a player there a while ago that I just have no interest in. I’ve got no problem with the SBA and I like a lot of its members—and I do sort of wish I cared a bit more. Even though I have to do literally zero work, my player is inactive because I just don’t ever think about doing the stuff and don’t have any enthusiasm for it if I do. 
 

I spent about a year actually invested in the EFL and had lots of fun there, so I’m very pro-affiliate in general. But I think there should be some questioning how we can get people to actually care that they’re in an affiliate league. Unfortunately, I’ve been on both ends of that and don’t know. I think my EFL time lined up nicely with all the time I had to skip virtual classes and hate myself over COVID and I just don’t have that time now that there are actual responsibilities in my life. But that can’t be all of it because I know there are lots of people who make affiliate leagues work well for them on limited time. I think we should look into the ways that the affiliate system works for those who use it and whether anyone who’s involved has ideas about how it could be more interesting.