Lore-um Content

[jacobcarson877 2,558]

How important is lore in a forum-based simulation hockey league, such as the VHL?

 

Well, I don’t think this whole operation would have any value without it. STHS, contracts, TPE, none of that gives us a whole lot to work with when it comes to value. Sure, we can do TPE analysis and see who is scoring and who is not, but that’s pretty low-level, Jacob-has-no-creative-juices-left kind of analysis. Sure you could do a couple more interesting things with it, but the numbers coming out really aren’t the driving force of the league’s value.

 

Imagine for a second that we were all doing this in isolation. No reactions on the forum, no replies. No Discord or forum messaging. In fact, you couldn’t even see other peoples’ posts. It was just you and STHS. Would this be as fun? Would you really come in every day, every week ready to create forum content all in the name of maybe getting some numbers spit back out at you? I know I wouldn’t.

 

I’m a numbers guy through and through. My degree is in Computer Science, and I’m back for more, this time in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. I’m a numbers guy. And yes, my largest projects here have been crunching numbers to help figure out the best and brightest strategies for my teams, players, and the league to pursue. I know there are many others like me, and it’s been a pleasure to be able to see snippets of their work. For me, some of the excitement of the VHL is being able to learn to be the best. To find the hidden patterns that guide the sim into giving us better numbers, all within the context of the humanity of the puzzle. But I don’t think that on its own, that has much meaning.

 

So what does have meaning, and why does the VHL need lore?

 

The VHL, and all other sim leagues and forums beyond that, need loosely interconnected stories, winding bunny trails, and completely contradictory perspectives. The forum represents our collective experience and reactions to some arbitrary numbers spit out at us, and a loose expectation of outputs. Every week, we come in and we contribute to the lore of this site, and iteratively develop the narratives that go on to span years of real time. History plays a part in that, being able to track the differences over time, seeing notable outliers, and tracking paces and milestones. We do in-depth lore formalization with our Hall of Fame articles, and many people keep a strong collection of their own player and team’s lore. I can always count on the Vancouver crew to create a great interconnected lore between them, I can always count on JRuutu to recount some event of the week in a zany, out of proportion way that separates his work from the pack. I can count on VSN to give us some really high quality overviews of the current season, at least while the writers are still able to type words (the curse comes for us all!).

 

The VHL only means something because we collectively decide that it does by putting out forum content. We record and output our interpretations of this collective reality, and set it in as solid of a stone as any other human lore can be. What we do is important, and is what will keep this league going for as long as it does.

 

Excited to read about everyone else’s experiences this week!