Have we gotten too easy?

[Beketov 9,005]

In my continued attempts to look at the past of the VHL and complain about things, I take a side-road this week. I'm not so much complaining about this, more just discussing a change that has been sweeping through the VHL for a few seasons now. I want to peak under the hood and see how members, new and old, like the changes.

 

So, a bit of a history lesson. When the VHL first opened the main PT's we have now were still the same. MS, Podcast (which may have been added a bit after I think) and GFX. VHL.com existed as well but was named differently and worth less. Over time they evolved slightly as we went from 4/week to 6 and then gradually into the guaranteed 6 we have now. See, back in those days, things were graded. You did't just post whatever and claim your full 6. You carefully constructed your PT to make sure it received 2 grades that would give you 6. I'm no VHL historian so I can't recall exactly when the shift over to auto-6 came in but it was relatively recently.

 

Soon after, or maybe slightly before, I don't recall, Welfare and Pension were introduced. Of course, back then, welfare was worth anywhere from 2-4 TPE depending on your past players, not the 4-5 you get now. Press Conferences didn't exist at all until very recently as well, same with things like the lottery. Things like the fantasy zone came around early enough but not trivia which is usually the easiest avenue.

 

So, what's all this got to do with my original question: has the VHL gotten too easy? Well, it's very simple. Back then getting the 9 TPE /week cap took work. If you did your PT and got a perfect grade that would give you 6, VHL.com at the time gave you 1. That's 7 obviously. The last 2 usually came from jobs but not everyone had one. As the league has evolved, even more jobs have been automated and removed and yet nowadays, more people hit the cap then ever before. Why? Because we have made it easier, quite intentionally actually. We wanted the VHL to be less restrictive to new people, people who had maybe never done a sim league before. We didn't want to have it be quite the wall between "I'm new and lost" and "I've been here for years, I'm amazing." I do believe this has mostly worked but have we gone too far? Is it now too easy to get the cap every week and be a superstar? That's what I want to know.

 

So, I ask you, the members; both old and new. Are we now too easy? Are the old ways of needing to really work for your TPE better or have times changed and things must be quickened? Does the VHL seem more approachable as a hobby now than it did in the past or does it just seem too simple to master?

 

Ultimately this has been quite ramble I know but it's an interesting topic nonetheless.

[Beaviss 4,957]

The only thing I could see being "too easy" is the amount of TPE given with welfare. We have a large variety of members on the site and I think that less work they have to do with PT's the more they can spend commenting and socializing boosting the activity on the site overall. 

 

Opinion: Its at a healthy state right now

[Victor 10,921]

Speaking as someone who can TPE whore in either environment I think the changes have been good. I still feel like hard work pays off, but many members who would have been alienated before have joined and/or stuck around. So nothing was lost, but flexibility was gained.

[Beketov 9,005]

4 minutes ago, Beaviss said:

The only thing I could see being "too easy" is the amount of TPE given with welfare. We have a large variety of members on the site and I think that less work they have to do with PT's the more they can spend commenting and socializing boosting the activity on the site overall. 

 

Opinion: Its at a healthy state right now

An argument that could be made though: without decent welfare how many people who use it stick around?

 

Admittedly I mostly agree, I think we went too far with the balance where it’s literally a 1 TPE difference, but it’s a valid topic of discussion.

[Beaviss 4,957]

4 minutes ago, Beketov said:

An argument that could be made though: without decent welfare how many people who use it stick around?

 

Admittedly I mostly agree, I think we went too far with the balance where it’s literally a 1 TPE difference, but it’s a valid topic of discussion.

 

If we dropped it by 1 tpe I dont think we would lose anyone but i think we would have more Medias written.

[Cornflakers 73]

I personally think welfare is a joke.

My articles may not be 'amazing' and my gfx 'suck' in your eyes, but im working on them, im taking time out of my day to do something, am i getting paid by you? no. it's all for fun, i would rather someone post something stupid, then them lurk and claim welfare.

 

And if people start grading PTs, and I can get a quicker TPE from welfare, as opposed to having to be 'graded' ... then I know what I'd do ...

This league takes a ton of time as is, compared to other sim leagues, but it's also the most active sim league I've been in ...

I don't like seeing people get things for free, writing 500 words, if it doesn't make sense, takes more 'skill' than clicking 'welfare herp derp'.

 

I also think the more you post and stuff, the more TPE you can get, but it would also suck if it was skewed so people w/o a life could just have 10,000,000 TPE before I can claim my weekly 12 TPE cap (which, capped, I get on monday, but I spend the week thinking about what to write, and I made a gfx last week that took me like 3 hours). So I saved it up, posted it, boom, cap tpe is good to go, if there are uncapped opportunities, it would be nice if it was made available to the people within a week, outside of a week, it's like, cmon fam, you couldn't check the site for an entire week, that's weak ...

 

But also, 'log onto the site every day i don't care about you or your family' is a bit harsh.

[Bushito 1,945]

The update scale got way harder and while we were promised more team type tasks and earning opportunities, nothing has been added or changed in that aspect yet. S59 and 60 were a week and a half shorter than the last 10 season average as well. I think it's fine the way it is but mild tweaks wouldn't hurt either.

[Beketov 9,005]

9 minutes ago, Cornflakers said:

I personally think welfare is a joke.

My articles may not be 'amazing' and my gfx 'suck' in your eyes, but im working on them, im taking time out of my day to do something, am i getting paid by you? no. it's all for fun, i would rather someone post something stupid, then them lurk and claim welfare.

 

And if people start grading PTs, and I can get a quicker TPE from welfare, as opposed to having to be 'graded' ... then I know what I'd do ...

This league takes a ton of time as is, compared to other sim leagues, but it's also the most active sim league I've been in ...

I don't like seeing people get things for free, writing 500 words, if it doesn't make sense, takes more 'skill' than clicking 'welfare herp derp'.

 

I also think the more you post and stuff, the more TPE you can get, but it would also suck if it was skewed so people w/o a life could just have 10,000,000 TPE before I can claim my weekly 12 TPE cap (which, capped, I get on monday, but I spend the week thinking about what to write, and I made a gfx last week that took me like 3 hours). So I saved it up, posted it, boom, cap tpe is good to go, if there are uncapped opportunities, it would be nice if it was made available to the people within a week, outside of a week, it's like, cmon fam, you couldn't check the site for an entire week, that's weak ...

 

But also, 'log onto the site every day i don't care about you or your family' is a bit harsh.

Just out of curiosity, purely because I don’t know you as well as some of the older members, how old (roughly is fine) are you?

 

Just curious, not saying it changes anything regarding the validity of your opinion. I’m just sorta curious to gauge opinions based on how much free time people likely have.

[Cornflakers 73]

@Beketov I'm 26. I mean I have "free time" at work lol ...

But, my girl is very tight with my time ... *cracks whip* ... she's not huge on me playing games or doing my own thing when we're chilling together.

I'd say I have like an hour a day maybe, an hour every other day, although I spend far more time than that reading, looking at results, etc, not to mention content creating for tpe -

 

[Spade18 1,305]

7 minutes ago, Cornflakers said:

@Beketov I'm 26. I mean I have "free time" at work lol ...

But, my girl is very tight with my time ... *cracks whip* ... she's not huge on me playing games or doing my own thing when we're chilling together.

I'd say I have like an hour a day maybe, an hour every other day, although I spend far more time than that reading, looking at results, etc, not to mention content creating for tpe -

 

[Spade18 1,305]

43 minutes ago, Bushito said:

The update scale got way harder and while we were promised more team type tasks and earning opportunities, nothing has been added or changed in that aspect yet. S59 and 60 were a week and a half shorter than the last 10 season average as well. I think it's fine the way it is but mild tweaks wouldn't hurt either.

 

This was a big thing I was in favor of.

 

Even when I was doing MS and reaching the cap every week, I was hungry to do more. 

 

I understand for parity sake, we cant have 2000TPE people in the league, but I know if there were more uncapped TPE opportunites, I would be jumping at them.  Especially team centric ones. 

 

I remember pitching the ideas of posting pictures of your favorite memorabilia, or telling stories about times you;ve met NHL players... things that let us get to know each other and keep people active and can start discussion.

[Beketov 9,005]

2 minutes ago, Spade18 said:

 

This was a big thing I was in favor of.

 

Even when I was doing MS and reaching the cap every week, I was hungry to do more. 

 

I understand for parity sake, we cant have 2000TPE people in the league, but I know if there were more uncapped TPE opportunites, I would be jumping at them.  Especially team centric ones. 

 

I remember pitching the ideas of posting pictures of your favorite memorabilia, or telling stories about times you;ve met NHL players... things that let us get to know each other and keep people active and can start discussion.

I’d argue we’ve been far more generous than in the past in regards to uncapped stuff. We’ve been throwing far more of it around than ever before. However team tasks are something that has yet to return, hopefully we can get them figured out.

 

As for your last paragraph, all I can think of is Sandro talking about his dad golfing with (I think) Trevor Linden back in S10 or so and the entire community turning it into a meme. We were assholes back then but we had fun haha

[Spade18 1,305]

3 minutes ago, Beketov said:

I’d argue we’ve been far more generous than in the past in regards to uncapped stuff. We’ve been throwing far more of it around than ever before. However team tasks are something that has yet to return, hopefully we can get them figured out.

 

As for your last paragraph, all I can think of is Sandro talking about his dad golfing with (I think) Trevor Linden back in S10 or so and the entire community turning it into a meme. We were assholes back then but we had fun haha

 

I mean, that hasnt exactly changed =P

[Beketov 9,005]

Just now, Spade18 said:

 

I mean, that hasnt exactly changed =P

Oh you have no idea how bad we were haha. @Victor has probably been around long enough to remember.

[.sniffuM 1,741]

5 minutes ago, Beketov said:

I’d argue we’ve been far more generous than in the past in regards to uncapped stuff. We’ve been throwing far more of it around than ever before. However team tasks are something that has yet to return, hopefully we can get them figured out.

 

As for your last paragraph, all I can think of is Sandro talking about his dad golfing with (I think) Trevor Linden back in S10 or so and the entire community turning it into a meme. We were assholes back then but we had fun haha

 

Someone needs to find that post word for word, I'm sure it's come up on this forum before.

 

Then you got Jardy's llama story, and Kendrick the Oregon cornerback cop, and Jardy dating Kendrick's sister, and FISTED ANALLY BY A CIRCUS MONKEY, and plenty of other fun old VHL memes. There were certainly some assholes back then but I agree it was a fun way for the community to come together. IMO that only really works on a smaller league scale though.

[Bushito 1,945]

2 minutes ago, Beketov said:

Oh you have no idea how bad we were haha. @Victor has probably been around long enough to remember.

Victor started the same season as me. we both made goalies

[Victor 10,921]

3 minutes ago, Spade18 said:

 

I mean, that hasnt exactly changed =P

m8 you got a welcome message, most newbies in my time got accused of being Anderson.

[Victor 10,921]

Just now, Bushito said:

Victor started the same season as me. we both made goalies

The good ol' days.

[Beketov 9,005]

3 minutes ago, Victor said:

m8 you got a welcome message, most newbies in my time got accused of being Anderson.

And half of them were haha

[Baozi 1,658]

I mean I'm active in all parts of the site (and discord) for the most part except for PTs so i like to think I generally bring more to the table to a welfare guy that just logs in and lurks to collect welfare  @Cornflakers

 

I just simply don't have the time really to hash out PTs, as you mentioned yourself. Making good ones takes time anyways.

[Tyler 885]

51 minutes ago, Cornflakers said:

But, my girl is very tight with my time ... *cracks whip* ... she's not huge on me playing games or doing my own thing when we're chilling together.

Damn.

[Beketov 9,005]

1 minute ago, Tyler said:

Damn.

My wife is the same way. It’s not that she doesn’t let me have any time to myself or anything, I have plenty, but when we’re spending time together she’d rather I not be staring at my phone the whole time. Seems fair enough.

[Smarch 3,145]

37 minutes ago, Beketov said:

I’d argue we’ve been far more generous than in the past in regards to uncapped stuff. We’ve been throwing far more of it around than ever before. However team tasks are something that has yet to return, hopefully we can get them figured out.

 

As for your last paragraph, all I can think of is Sandro talking about his dad golfing with (I think) Trevor Linden back in S10 or so and the entire community turning it into a meme. We were assholes back then but we had fun haha

This league has become less fun for me because of this. I enjoyed this league because of the characters and the ribbing people would take/give. Yes, some of it went to far, but that's life. 

 

The VHL has become boring for me since about S59, and making stuff harder wouldn't help my case at least. 

 

Saying that, we shouldn't cater to one person/member cause they feel a certain way, so from my talks with others they see the league progressing so it's all g

[hedgehog337 3,483]

6 minutes ago, Smarch said:

This league has become less fun for me because of this. I enjoyed this league because of the characters and the ribbing people would take/give. Yes, some of it went to far, but that's life. 

 

The VHL has become boring for me since about S59, and making stuff harder wouldn't help my case at least.

 

so we all know what to do

 

 free this member

 

 

and yes, it became easier to get TPE's. I mean we had real grading back then when 6 TPE wasn't a guarantee.

[Tyler 885]

9 minutes ago, Beketov said:

My wife is the same way. It’s not that she doesn’t let me have any time to myself or anything, I have plenty, but when we’re spending time together she’d rather I not be staring at my phone the whole time. Seems fair enough.

 

Guess it depends on a handful of factors. Always gotta keep an eye out to make sure she's not in instagram