VHL New Year’s Resolutions - 2024

[Beketov 9,103]

New Year, New you right? Or rather new year new us? I don’t really know where I’m going with that. What I am doing is writing what that pesky OBC never does right: Asking what the community wants.

 

Okay that’s enough sarcasm I reckon. So here’s the deal, the VHL has needed to constantly evolve since it was created 16+ years ago. It was an evolution of the sim league model at the time and it has continued to re-invent itself over the years in order to stay relevant and at the forefront; I have no intention of stalling that evolution and I know none of the others on the RGB teams or the @BOG does either. That doesn’t mean, however, that we think we exclusively have all the ideas.

 

So, here we are with me going rogue and posting this without chatting with anyone else. I wanna know what your New Year’s Resolutions for the league would be. What do you want to see improved in 2024? Try to be constructive about it and come up with solutions instead of just vague issues as best you can, any kind of just meaningless complaining will likely be hidden and I don’t really feel like doing that.

 

We’re going to be damn near S100 when we finish 2024 (S97 finishing up by my right estimate) and I for one want that kind of insane milestone to be something really worth celebrating so let’s make the league a better place together shall we?

 

Signed,

@Commissioner, @VHLM Commissioner , @VHLE Commissioner

(even though I never mentioned this to any of them)

[Dom 1,445]

This is the perfect thread for everyone who wants to be vocal about anything in the league that they think could be improved or fixed. Take it like a public BOG and GMs share it in your locker room please.

[Beketov 9,103]

I’ll even start.

 

I would like to see our YouTube ads branch out. I’ve long wondered if we haven’t over-saturated a small market of NHL YouTubers and basically, despite using multiple different ones, reached the same target audience each time. What I mean is that every ad we’ve run basically, regardless of who it’s been with, has provided diminishing returns. I would wager that the people who see one of the YouTubers in that category probably see’s many of them so having the ad on 4 different channels but reaching the same audience is no different than having it on 1 channel, does that make sense?

 

What I have in mind is, oddly, ignoring the hockey aspect. Yes the VHL is a hockey sim league but it’s also a game in a sense and gamers come in all varieties. I didn’t join sim leagues because of a specific sport I joined them for the game aspect and found different sports within the “game” that was sim leagues. So why don’t we try some non-hockey related channels? Try breaking into a different market audience than what has already seen our ads. There are tons of different gaming channels of varying sizes on YouTube that we could approach.

 

Would it work? Not sure. But I would definitely like to give it a try.

[Phil 5,129]

Selfishly, I'd like to see another Player Store option for a depreciation fighter for those brave souls that want to play 9 seasons in the VHL. We have one for 7 and 8 (along with Jagr) so I think we should also have one for the ninth season.

[badcolethetitan 938]

Personally, I would like GMs to reach out to players more and create that personal bond.

 

I’m not necessarily talking about myself, but I’ve heard stories where players get tossed around, (specifically clickers), that have been active and they just get launched from one team to another. I have two friends in the VHL that are clickers who literally look at every single game they’re in and post their scores, with stats to me every simulation. Their GMs barely have any communication with them at all and it really takes away from the experience. Just reach out to your players, even if it’s a simple “Hello.” Keep in touch with your players, especially if they are forum only and don’t have discord. Send them a message! It’s going to go a long way and I think GMs should actually be held accountable for doing their job. I know we are around the holidays and people are busy, but it shouldn’t take that much time to do so.

 

At the end of the day, this is about the experience. We all have made up players that don’t exist, but behind every player is a real person. This isn’t some AI that doesn’t have emotions that you can ignore, or use as trade pieces. We should be getting to know the person behind the screen and ensure that they have a great experience, which then would help with retention overall.

 

I am not saying that every GM doesn’t already do this, because some do. I’d just like a collective effort that should already be the standard.

 

The community is what makes the VHL great, we should continue to welcome people into our community!

Edited January 3 by badcolethetitan

[Beketov 9,103]

6 minutes ago, Phil said:

Selfishly, I'd like to see another Player Store option for a depreciation fighter for those brave souls that want to play 9 seasons in the VHL. We have one for 7 and 8 (along with Jagr) so I think we should also have one for the ninth season.

The intention was to make it difficult but maybe it’s too hard. What kind of fighter would you have in mind?

[Dom 1,445]

1 minute ago, Beketov said:

The intention was to make it difficult but maybe it’s too hard. What kind of fighter would you have in mind?

Every top earner players end their career with extra money. Maybe make it crazy expensive so that they still have a reason to save up and if they do manage to do it, it will be well earned?

[Steve 1,951]

I like the depreciation fighter dialog. One thing I thought should have been addressed is the ratios. Since the depreciation was raised and is brutal for no reason, I think using the old ratios for the fighters doesn't make sense. So I am asking for an increase of protection. Maybe lower the cost too. I really don't see why the league is so harsh with a players career if they earn a lot. Seems like high end player retention isn't even a thing. Maybe it's easier to control low earners, not sure of the reason but retention of high earners should be considered as well as new players.

[Phil 5,129]

Just now, Beketov said:

The intention was to make it difficult but maybe it’s too hard. What kind of fighter would you have in mind?

I figured that. With the hybrid attribute system, depreciation is already at least 2-fold harder than it was in the before-times. I would still make the upgrade expensive - possibly the most expensive purchase that could be made so potentially players may need to forego one of the other years of depreciation fighters.

 

OBNF is $12,000,000, and depreciates you from 12% to 10% iirc. So having that option again is one suggestion. Or even do one like "Crosby's Cranium" for $12-14M. It would work like Jagr (and in addition to it), and allow for one  additional stat to not depreciate at all.  That's still way more than you could possibly bank in one or two seasons so overall your player's performance will still be going down - you just won't feel too useless, after putting in over a year's worth of work into a player. 

 

 

[Spartan 4,531]

17 minutes ago, Steve said:

ratios. Since the depreciation was raised and is brutal for no reason, I think using the old ratios for the fighters doesn't make sense. So I am asking for an increase of protection

The portal still needs to be updated to show the correct depreciation numbers. TPA tool is outdated with old numbers, and the player store descriptions are also outdated and wrong, causing this sort of confusion. % fighters drop you down a full depreciation tier, it's not a 5->4% drop like it was before.

 

That'd probably be my contribution to this thread for now, that we get depreciation numbers fixed on the portal since it's been wrong for a long time.

[Dom 1,445]

7 minutes ago, Steve said:

I like the depreciation fighter dialog. One thing I thought should have been addressed is the ratios. Since the depreciation was raised and is brutal for no reason, I think using the old ratios for the fighters doesn't make sense. So I am asking for an increase of protection. Maybe lower the cost too. I really don't see why the league is so harsh with a players career if they earn a lot. Seems like high end player retention isn't even a thing. Maybe it's easier to control low earners, not sure of the reason but retention of high earners should be considered as well as new players.

I think the purpose of depreciation is to simulate the aging of your player. While it can be annoying on the user side, it also avoid most players to be at their peak when they retire. We do need that downhill at some point on a players carreer. Yet, most max earners still retire at their top build.

 

though, I believe the main reason why we didn’t extend careers in the past was for records purpose, yet we have crossed that bridge in S83 by bringing a ninth season. Would it be that bad to make it possible to play as much seasons as you can afford or earn and make it even harder at each extra seasons? 

[frescoelmo 1,282]

Limiting jobs to one per member

[Beketov 9,103]

8 minutes ago, Dom said:

Would it be that bad to make it possible to play as much seasons as you can afford or earn and make it even harder at each extra seasons? 

@Quik was long a proponent of purchasing additional seasons with no set limit. The issue with having it be possible to endlessly go is mostly trying to balance how depreciation would work for them but it also removes a lot of the cyclical nature of the draft classes so you could get seasons with basically no marquee recreates because they are still just running past careers.

 

Its an idea that has been brought up before though, could certainly be revived.

[Steve 1,951]

3 minutes ago, Dom said:

I think the purpose of depreciation is to simulate the aging of your player. While it can be annoying on the user side, it also avoid most players to be at their peak when they retire. We do need that downhill at some point on a players carreer. Yet, most max earners still retire at their top build.

 

though, I believe the main reason why we didn’t extend careers in the past was for records purpose, yet we have crossed that bridge in S83 by bringing a ninth season. Would it be that bad to make it possible to play as much seasons as you can afford or earn and make it even harder at each extra seasons? 

I really don't think it's all that realistic to have your downhill slide start after 5 seasons. I see the point about some decline but %40 of a career is a bit harsh and makes me rethink how I am getting screwed. My last 3 players were broke and didn't retire with a load of money, so not everyone is the same. It is what it is. I am just speaking for myself and how it makes me think about the league in a negative way.

[Ricer13 2,824]

I’d like to see light restrictions applied to general areas or channels on the forum and discord. 
 

For example, people have been in general chats (discord) talking badly about the league. This is a bad look for new members when they join the league. I do respect peoples opinions and don’t want to take that away but would rather redirect it into its own channel. The same goes on the forum.

[der meister 3,248]

@Beketov I'd be willing to have some of my YT videos sponsored. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

@badcolethetitan I fully agree. The experience with Saka showed me just how different the experience on different teams can be from a player perspective.

[eaglesfan036 4,605]

Install @Victoras supreme chancellor

[JCarson 747]

A slightly different topic:  I would like to see us build out some additional ways to get TPE, I am not suggesting that we increase the TPE each week but if we could add some additional methods.  Some people find doing multiple smaller tasks easier than having to do a larger media spot.  Along with this I want to suggest that the trivia option is sometimes really horrible, for a person who joined the league later and is mainly discord based trying to find anything on the forum, in the 100 different possible options and random spreadsheets is a waste of time.  I just don't do them.

 

Just my thoughts.

[Baozi 1,662]

My 2024 resolution is to convince @Beketov to retire so I can retire.

[Spartan 4,531]

27 minutes ago, JCarson said:

A slightly different topic:  I would like to see us build out some additional ways to get TPE, I am not suggesting that we increase the TPE each week but if we could add some additional methods.  Some people find doing multiple smaller tasks easier than having to do a larger media spot.  Along with this I want to suggest that the trivia option is sometimes really horrible, for a person who joined the league later and is mainly discord based trying to find anything on the forum, in the 100 different possible options and random spreadsheets is a waste of time.  I just don't do them.

 

Just my thoughts.

If you have specific task ideas, I'd recommend writing them in a vhl.com or media spot and tagging me. I can forward it into BoG for further discussion and give you my thoughts as well if you'd like.

[AJW 2,201]

Add in a TPE checklist so noobs can see what tasks they can do each week!!!

[Daniel Janser 2,217]

6 minutes ago, AJW said:

Add in a TPE checklist so noobs can see what tasks they can do each week!!!

 

Mubblefubbles did a lot of work on that regard (I am sure he is not the only one, but the one I remember)

[AJW 2,201]

3 minutes ago, Daniel Janser said:

 

Mubblefubbles did a lot of work on that regard (I am sure he is not the only one, but the one I remember)

I meant put it on the forum home page somewhere so you can actually find it the first day you join  I love this from Mubbles though

Edited January 3 by AJW

[Daniel Janser 2,217]

2 minutes ago, AJW said:

I meant put in on the forum home page somewhere so you can actually find it the first day you join

It is under 'Create a Player' -> New Member Guide... also most discord LR have it in a respective channel as well. And iirc Beks mentions it in his welcome message. But yeah maybe we could put it in a tab on top... 

[AJW 2,201]

8 minutes ago, Daniel Janser said:

It is under 'Create a Player' -> New Member Guide... also most discord LR have it in a respective channel as well. And iirc Beks mentions it in his welcome message. But yeah maybe we could put it in a tab on top... 

 

Let me be more specific. Make a list that literally says :

 

WEEKLY TASKS TO DO

•Point Task

•Supplemental Tasks

•Practice Facility

•etc…

 

Once a member submits that task it gets checked off and moved to the bottom. This obviously requires somebody to set all this up on the portal/forum. Bek said before it shouldn’t be a hard task to do AND why do I have to click three things to find a TPE calculator when I could instead just look at a weekly checklist on my home page. 
 

Just a suggestion, I find it way easier to know what I’m doing if I have it listed out in front of me and it seems very new user friendly. Also not everyone has discord so you can’t expect people to check discord when our league is a forum league.

Edited January 3 by AJW