The winds of change

[jRuutu 2,467]

To please the TikTok generation, the media, and the sponsors, VHL announced that the settings of the sim will be changed. In short, from now on we should see more goals than in the past as the goals slider was moved from the "owie ouch boo boo, I can not score" to "come on in, the more the merrier".  The change is going to affect all three leagues, VHLM, VHLE, and VHL.   

 

In the official press release, the league stated that the goalies have been too powerful, which caused the need to make the change. Those who read the press release perhaps noticed that the lack of goals was never directly mentioned as the focus is mainly on the goalies and how good they are. Based on the whispers I have heard (1), the decision to change the settings now is the result of ongoing negotiations between the league, player association, the media, and the sponsors.  The league has been worried for some time now about the dominance of active players in comparison to the welfare users. The goalie position has traditionally been a position that only the most active members pick. If you want to make it to the very top you need to earn a large amount of TPE, there is a lot of competition and only one goalie can play at once, so the welfare users tend not to pick a goalie position.

 

Active player domination in the goalie position has caused concern also among the media and sponsors as active TPE earning tends to lead to top-level players being built, which in the goalie world translates into fewer goals as a top goalie can change the direction of the game on their own. From the sponsor's and media's point of view, the lack of goals is bad for the business as the TikTok generation is not able to enjoy a game of hockey without seeing a goal at least once every five minutes.  From the league's point of view, the lack of goals also means fewer donations as the "pay-to-win" - crowd has started to feel the return for the donations is not as high as it maybe should be. Being active is one thing, but when you start to donate real money to the league you expect to be at least mildly aroused when you open the index after each sim.  Representatives of the pay-to-win crowd were interviewed during the negotiation process. The message was clear: bring us more goals or we will spend our money elsewhere.

The player association, according to the whispers I have heard (2), was against the decision to change the settings. The worry was that if the settings were changed the players would find the game itself closer to Sunday afternoon practice rink hockey than serious competition between professional athletes. Therefore, the player association suggested that instead of starting the season with 0 goals and 0 assists, each player could have 30+30, that way the statistics at the end of the season would look better and the game itself would remain the same. The media and sponsors were interested in the suggestion as the TikTok generation has notoriously poor memories, but not being able to show the goals anywhere ended up being too big of an obstacle.  The league was also positively involved in debating the suggestion as the pay-to-win players tend to only care about the statistics. If there was a big increase in the goals and assists without the product on the ice suffering too much, perhaps the number of donations would also increase. But after the media and sponsors ended up rejecting the idea - it was enough for the league.

 

In the end, all parties managed to find a solution that pleased everybody - the settings would be changed, which would result in more goals.  It is too early to say and predict just how much the scoring will actually increase, but it is fair to assume the big difference will be seen in 5 to 10 seasons from now. The long-term goal is that fewer and fewer active users create goalies as putting TPE and effort into the position seems a lot less attractive than now. The hope is more and more welfare users end up creating goalies, which will only increase the scoring more as the goalies developed by welfare users will almost certainly never reach the same levels as goalies created by the active users.  As the active players decide to create forwards and defenders instead of goalies, the scoring will increase even more as there will be more top-level players on the ice. This pleased the league, the media, and the sponsors. According to the whispers I have heard (1,2), the player association was the least pleased party around the negotiation table, but the hope for the player association is that the game of hockey will grow and spread to new markets through the increased exposure in media and through sponsors investing in the sport around the world. Despite welfare goalies potentially dominating the goalie scene in the future, the player association hopes players from those new markets will bring active goalies into the league who can have it in their hearts to be the whipping boys of the league, the media, and the sponsors.  

 

The settings were changed in the sim, but so were the settings changed in the hearts and minds of the users in VHL. How many users can find satisfaction in being handed free goals and assists by the league? Will the index be visited less frequently during office hours than now? Is it time that we see the rise of not only welfare goalies but also classics such as the enforcer and powerforwards as the users look into meaningful build options? Both, powerforward and enforcer, have gone almost extinct in VHL during the recent years. A big part of that is the ongoing propaganda by the league to remove checking and fighting as big hits and dropping the gloves does not please the sponsors and the media. 

 

One thing is for certain: the winds of change are blowing.

 

1. The voices could be real and heard by others
2. The voices could also be real and heard only by me

 

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[jRuutu 2,467]

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