A Gustav 30 in 30, #2: Can't We All Just Get Along?

[Gustav 6,406]

 

Imagine being from Boston. Your city is big, important, and historically relevant. You're in a crowd of some of the most passionate sports fans around. You love a good bowl of clam chowder and you find it a little bit charming that you can sometimes tell who's your neighbor by listening to the way that they talk. It's a much better existence than that dump over in New York, where the people sound funny, the Giants fans won't stop reminding you of what Eli Manning did to the Pats, and don't even get you started on their idea of pizza!

 

But what's to stop them from feeling the same sort of pride in themselves and the same sort of derision towards you? After all, you sound funny to them, the helmet catch was pretty sweet, and maybe living in a heavily Italian area has given some people a pretty good idea of how to make a pie. It's obvious to most on either side who take the time to think about it that all these things are silly, but that doesn't even stop lots of people who think it's silly to think that way from doing so regardless. I've seen this come up in the VHL time and time again over the years, which will make this a perfect intro to at least one other article I have lined up, but here it shall fit as I'm doing my best to put things in chronological order.

 

My first experience with VHL tribalism came not long after I signed up. I distinctly remember one of my very first questions in the Bulls server being related to team rivalries and who I should write articles about--which led to me writing some of the anti-Halifax pieces I alluded to in my last article--but something a little more serious than friendly rivalry between @Rin and @McWolf was more serious conflict that arose between the VHLM's two expansion franchises that season, boiled over into personal issues between members, and had effects that persisted for seasons longer than they should have.

 

Anyone who was around at the time is probably aware that I'm talking about Houston and Philadelphia and the conflict between Sonnet and inaugural Reapers GM @BladeMaiden. I'm going to stay out of anything personal related to this because I feel that isn't quite my story to tell, but I think there was a lot to sort out from the perspective of the players themselves.

 

The expansion teams in S65 had quite a bit in common that would naturally lead to competition. They were led by very active first-time GMs with one or two seasons of VHL experience, they started with similar assets, and they both featured team servers that were among the most active the league has ever had to offer. VHLM expansion then was symbolic of a whole lot more than just having more teams--the league had just started to boom, its then-largest-ever draft class had just opened the floodgates, and everyone was out to prove that they were important in this whole sea of newness. And where most teams were active and built their identities on positively representing themselves to the wider community, Houston and Philly were really active and got there by hating each other. In my almost-30 seasons in the VHL, I've never seen anything like it and I've really never seen anything close. Both teams were full of first-gens (hello to fellow S65 Bull @Grape!) and the bad thing about that, if someone chooses to manipulate it, is that first-gens are super impressionable.

 

I'm unfamiliar with how things got started in the way they did. All I know is that not long after I'd joined the team, I'd read through some really nasty exchanges on the forums, been snapped at a few times myself with not much reason, and heard a lot secondhand. Beyond just whatever GM conflict there may have been, the players were heavily involved. In Houston, we were never mobilized to join in arguments, nor were we ever told what to think (something that I don't think could have been said the same both ways. @FrostBeard has a great thread covering the Reapers' side of things that also happens to explain a lot about some of the interactions I remember having with people I'd have no reason to dislike normally). That said, we certainly had enough exposure to the situation that we knew what to think anyway and were often fueled by the need to do what we thought was necessary to defend our team. I remember being part of some Discord arguments. I remember being angry at some forum topics that should have had nothing to do with me. And you know what? It probably helped keep me active. I had people in Houston that I considered my friends and I wanted to see them treated right. I wasn't about to walk away from that situation.

 

People who played for the Reapers probably felt the same way, and though my perspective is probably biased, it seemed absolutely insane how deep that ran. I remember multiple occasions when I saw one person fighting with someone else--and within a few minutes, that amped itself up into three or four. I don't believe any of the worst offenders there are still in the league, and I also can't say I'm disappointed by that. What I am disappointed by is some of the negative fallout that caused for some. I talked to a handful of people at the time who felt that they were treated very unfairly, and I remember a particularly unpleasant experience had by one of our active first-gens that he later cited as a major reason why he left the league altogether. Were this only a GM problem, it would be one thing. But players came to believe that being part of the problem equated to being part of things in general, and some who wanted to be important got sucked too far into that.

 

It was also a shame that it led me to think negatively of some people who played for the Reapers (Frost is one example, but I can think of others) who weren't even part of the problem. I'm sure that some people also associated me negatively with the Bulls. And there was no reason why that should have been the case--former S65 Reapers like @McLovin and fellow Buffalo expat @DMaximus  are people I genuinely like and people who I've never seen trying to fight anyone. But that sort of thing was hard to see in the moment when I saw others who I won't name coming after my GM and teammates simply for existing. It's something that I never hope to see again in the VHL and it's a problem that I'm glad to say our current group of GMs never has. It also happened to be something that was on my mind quite a bit in my first VHL season, enough so that there has to be some way that it shaped my course as a member. I think it made me realize early on that GMs are only human and that not every person I met online is worth my time and effort in stressing about. But do you know what else I learned? I had enough fun anyway that I learned that that's OK.

 

 

 

Read my other articles for the full Gustav experience:

#1: Lightning Glory Gonna Be My Name

[McLovin 466]

DAMN I had no idea any of this was happening behind the scenes when i first joined the VHL! I remember back then all I was worried about was my first gen having a good season in the M and getting pressers done on time, I had no idea there was a whole drama TV series happening at the same time 

[Gustav 6,406]

12 minutes ago, McLovin said:

DAMN I had no idea any of this was happening behind the scenes when i first joined the VHL! I remember back then all I was worried about was my first gen having a good season in the M and getting pressers done on time, I had no idea there was a whole drama TV series happening at the same time 

 

Maybe that's why you turned out OK 

 

I think my perspective of being mostly on the outside of things looking in contributed to the fact that I'm still usually in popcorn mode when one drama or another fires up here. Granted, I'll still do the right things as my job calls for them. But if it's got nothing to do with that, I don't mind that sometimes there's a thread that makes me feel like I'm back in the good old days. I'll never try to start things with anyone for no reason but there was something intoxicating about being around that when it was happening. Almost like there was something new for me whenever I opened my computer after work.

[Nykonax 1,564]

 

BladeMaiden leading her Reaper troops into battle against the Houston Bulls (S66 colourized)

[Rin 138]

3 hours ago, Gustav said:

I remember multiple occasions when I saw one person fighting with someone else--and within a few minutes, that amped itself up into three or four.

 

My favorite instance took place like a year after after the Bulls/Reapers fallout in which [Redacted Philly GM] got into a disagreement in a random thread. Someone rushed to join the thread, adamantly defending [Redacted Philly GM] on whatever point was being made.

 

The user that rushed to their aid had literally not logged onto the VHL in 3+ months. They replied to some press conference thread, went inactive for three months, and suddenly appeared in the right thread at the right time to defend their friend.

 

I don't claim to be fully in the right about anything that happened back in those days, but holy shit... at least I didn't start an active simp cult.

[FrostBeard 2,049]

I can get along with @Gustav

[Victor 10,940]

if anything we don't have enough tribalism. everyone's too nice. need more hatred, more rivalry, more forum content

[McWolf 3,115]

3 hours ago, Victor said:

if anything we don't have enough tribalism. everyone's too nice. need more hatred, more rivalry, more forum content

What's Robbie up to, these days?

[McWolf 3,115]

I absolutely despise @Rin.

[Berocka 2,263]

On 4/8/2024 at 11:37 PM, FrostBeard said:

I can get along with @Gustav

I don't know how