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+---- Thread: *The ISFL: Bringing People Together (/showthread.php?tid=48184)
*The ISFL: Bringing People Together - CaptainDMG - 10-28-2023
Creating a media post that is a minimum of 1,000 words is very reminiscent of when I was still in school. In a time where social media makes everything more short form and “digestible” to be scrolled through, there is something foreign about having to elaborate on one’s own thoughts when many of us are used to seeing or posting smaller blurbs instead of longer expositions. Yet, speaking of school, I was thrown aback this week as I saw a conversation exchange that included @Crazy Tomato (DE) posting his French homework (notably where he got a 31.5 out of 44) and then him saying that he is only 14 with a non-set dinner time. First of all, kudos to @Crazy Tomato (DE) for finding the ISFL and being an integral part of the Community Engagement team! Secondly, s’améliorer les notes à l’école.
However, the reason why his age stuck out to me is because it reminds me of when I used to play Call of Duty when I was in my 20’s. Admittedly, I am terrible at first person shooters but that is what all my friends were into at the time (you know there is nothing more American than killing Nazi zombies). Yet, whenever we would play multiplayer and have our headsets on, there would undoubtedly be some teenager who was way better than you that would kill you and then use a bunch of expletives to denigrate you afterwards. Except, this is different and according to the rules of the chat, “Failure to comply to these rules may result in a warning, timeout, or kick from the server. Infractions of the ISFL rules, like Tampering, or severe and repeated infractions may result in official punishment from Head Office.” For those of you keeping track at home, I am all too familiar with the punishments of the league (see my previous media post if you are interested).
But I digress. The fact that @Silence Suzuka (WR) who was only two years old in 2005 can be involved in the same hobby or activity as @Sconnie (Worsthan Blaze – FB) who was a sophomore in high school at the same time is what makes the ISFL intriguing; it is similar to real sports and entertainment. When you go to a sporting event or the movies you will see a wide range of people from all different demographics and walks of life but they are all there to experience the same thing, entertainment, or at the very least a distraction from the trappings of life.
Honestly, that is how the ISFL probably got started in my opinion (since I legitimately have no idea how it did). In my mind, I liken it to how some guys at one point in their life or when discussing things with their friends think: “we should open our own bar”. At least that has happened to my buddies and me on a few occasions, and we have even thought about doing it later in life when we retire and need something to do. So, in that same vein, there was probably a group of guys who were like, “you know what, we need something fun to do”, and because the internet has seemingly limitless amounts of potential the ISFL was founded. It was equal parts video game and multi-level marketing; in that you have a digital interface but needed to recruit people to play the game with you (and the way to do so is incentivize people to recruit by giving the recruiters TPE).
Regardless of how the ISFL has formed, it has drawn all different types of people to itself. It is this niche game that has its own fandom that boasts a microeconomy and a regulatory bureaucracy complete with a “casino”, trading cards, and even merchandise. Taking the perspective from the outside looking in, since I am only two weeks into it, the mystique of the ISFL is sort of hard to explain to others. I have shared the nuts and bolts with my wife before (which can also be seen in a previous media post), but she still does not truly understand why I am as engaged with the league as I am.
For instance, here is the discussion my wife from this past Thursday when I was waiting for the DSFL games to start.
Her: *sits down on the couch next to me* Who is playing tonight? (referring to the Thursday Night NFL game)
Me: Bucs and Bills
Her: *seeing that I have my laptop open and waiting on Discord for the stream to begin* Oh, you have your simulation “thingy” tonight as well
Me: Yeah – our games are on Tuesdays and Thursdays
Her: You don’t actually do anything though, right? Like, you just watch the screen.
Me: I mean, I upgrade my player and then he is part of the simulation I watch.
Her: But you specifically do not have to “do” anything to “play” the game, right?
Me: Correct. I just watch a little circle with #99 and wait to see how he does and cheer on my team (go Tijuana Luchadores!)
Her: So, you get experience points for how well you do in the game?
Me: No. I have to earn TPE, aka experience points, through different tasks and such on the league page throughout the week and then I have to apply it to my player.
Her: Like all those articles that you have been writing?
Me: Yes and no. Technically, those articles are just “media” pieces that earn me league money that I can spend on various things; a few of which do earn me TPE. Like, every week, I can spend a million dollars in “Weekly Training” to earn five TPE.
Her: A million dollars!?!
Me: It is not *that* much money considering that writing these media pieces during this specific week of 2.5x has netted me a decent amount of money, but then again that is why I am doing it now; more “bang” for my buck. I do not plan to write too many more media pieces in the future unless there are other multiplier weekends.
Her: Got it. Is that why [DangWookie] was doing his podcast?
Me: Right. Apparently, according to what I see on the Discord chat, 2.5x media week is kind of big deal.
Her: So how many people are in this league again?
Me: Short answer, I have no clue. But rough math based off the number of teams and the number of names I see on the Discord channels, a few hundred maybe? There are teams who have “bots” as players so I do not know for sure. *looks up ISFL YouTube Channel* Hmm, that is interesting…
Her: What?
Me: The most watched video only has 732 views but most of them average less than 400 views. So if I assume that the league is probably around 300 people, give or take a few.
Her: Wow. It is strange how you found it then.
Me: Yeah. I guess I need to ask [DangWookie] how he heard about this thing then.
And that is where I am going to leave this post and my audience. I am going to reach out to DangWookie to chase down how *I* even got roped into the ISFL to begin with.
RE: The ISFL: Bringing People Together - DL14 - 10-28-2023
1m 36s