Tier 1: option 5
As you read this, please remember that this is being written in my individual role as a league member who is also in the head office, not as a representative statement of the beliefs and priorities of the DSFL Head Office as a whole. That is a very important distinction as, contrary to popular belief and conjecture, the Head Office is not a monolith. We frequently have internal disagreements and substantive arguments regarding how we should best make improvements and tweaks to the league. While we stick by each other and the decisions we make, the group does have a diversity of opinion that is readily apparent in our discussions of new ideas and proposed rule changes, like the ideas I am discussing below.
There are a handful of problems facing the league that do not have solutions that are simple or easy to implement. These challenges and issues are what originally inspired me to join the ranks of the Head Office and have kept me engaged in the league, as I want to be someone who actually works towards positive solutions instead of simply complaining about things that I don’t like. One of the most important issues in my mind is that of waiver claims and guaranteed playing time. The way the sim rules are structured currently, rookies who are claimed on waivers during the season are not required to follow the same playing time regulations as other active players who were selected in the draft or who were sent down to play continue their development with another season in the DSFL. The feelings around this rule are complex and there are good arguments for both why it should be reformed and why the rule should be allowed to stay as it currently is. Changing the rule to favor giving increased playing time to the new creates could effectively make teams worse, since in many circumstances the waiver claims will be near 50 TPE and may reduce the player time of higher TPE players, effectively reducing team performance. This could create a situation in which teams are more hesitant to claim players, extending the amount of time they are on waivers and reducing the team’s enthusiasm for welcoming new players to their clubhouse. Additionally, implementing that kind of rule change may reduce the playing time for other active players by requiring that the load of playing time be evenly distributed. Some argue this effectively punishes players who have been in the DSFL a little bit longer.
The other viewpoint is that the league should be doing everything possible to get new people involved quickly and suggesting that includes getting them quick playing time. There is some belief that lack of playing time right off the bat may effectively lower the retention rate by driving people to inactivity through boredom or frustration with a lack of playing time. The fact is that this rule is confusing since it appears to go against the normal playing time rules and is contentious since there are many factors and varied interests in either keeping or changing this rule. I am of the opinion that it should be changed to guarantee at least some playing time for new creates who are picked up on waivers. I believe this would improve our new user experience and, as a direct result, slightly improve our retention rates. Others, particularly GMs or those trying to consider the viewpoint of the GMs disagree and relevantly suggest that this might disincentivize claiming players on waivers. This is not an indictment of the current GMs, as they are often placed in a difficult position and are doing their best within the context of the current rules and trying to keep a multitude of people, including us nosy nerds in the head office building, happy. Unfortunately, tracking how quickly most waiver claims get playing time and to what extent they see the field is challenging and is not something that the Head Office has found the time and manpower to properly investigate yet. This is something that I hope to address during the next couple seasons so that we may collaborate with all interested parties to make our decision based on the feedback we are getting from DSFL players themselves rather than simple conjecture and hypotheticals flying back and forth between the relevant parties. As I am writing this, a survey is conceptualizing that should begin to fill in those holes in the data and begin to give us a better picture of the complete DSFL experience from the perspectives of waiver pickups, new players who went through the draft, send-downs, and recreates on important issues like playing time, how effectively the league is supporting them, and other relevant concerns and areas of interest. I am hopeful that this survey will not only better inform our decisions about the rules, but also that they may be used to further our improvement efforts in the league and show a sincere effort on the part of HO to continue gathering feedback from the community that make this league fun to continue participating in.
849 words.
As you read this, please remember that this is being written in my individual role as a league member who is also in the head office, not as a representative statement of the beliefs and priorities of the DSFL Head Office as a whole. That is a very important distinction as, contrary to popular belief and conjecture, the Head Office is not a monolith. We frequently have internal disagreements and substantive arguments regarding how we should best make improvements and tweaks to the league. While we stick by each other and the decisions we make, the group does have a diversity of opinion that is readily apparent in our discussions of new ideas and proposed rule changes, like the ideas I am discussing below.
There are a handful of problems facing the league that do not have solutions that are simple or easy to implement. These challenges and issues are what originally inspired me to join the ranks of the Head Office and have kept me engaged in the league, as I want to be someone who actually works towards positive solutions instead of simply complaining about things that I don’t like. One of the most important issues in my mind is that of waiver claims and guaranteed playing time. The way the sim rules are structured currently, rookies who are claimed on waivers during the season are not required to follow the same playing time regulations as other active players who were selected in the draft or who were sent down to play continue their development with another season in the DSFL. The feelings around this rule are complex and there are good arguments for both why it should be reformed and why the rule should be allowed to stay as it currently is. Changing the rule to favor giving increased playing time to the new creates could effectively make teams worse, since in many circumstances the waiver claims will be near 50 TPE and may reduce the player time of higher TPE players, effectively reducing team performance. This could create a situation in which teams are more hesitant to claim players, extending the amount of time they are on waivers and reducing the team’s enthusiasm for welcoming new players to their clubhouse. Additionally, implementing that kind of rule change may reduce the playing time for other active players by requiring that the load of playing time be evenly distributed. Some argue this effectively punishes players who have been in the DSFL a little bit longer.
The other viewpoint is that the league should be doing everything possible to get new people involved quickly and suggesting that includes getting them quick playing time. There is some belief that lack of playing time right off the bat may effectively lower the retention rate by driving people to inactivity through boredom or frustration with a lack of playing time. The fact is that this rule is confusing since it appears to go against the normal playing time rules and is contentious since there are many factors and varied interests in either keeping or changing this rule. I am of the opinion that it should be changed to guarantee at least some playing time for new creates who are picked up on waivers. I believe this would improve our new user experience and, as a direct result, slightly improve our retention rates. Others, particularly GMs or those trying to consider the viewpoint of the GMs disagree and relevantly suggest that this might disincentivize claiming players on waivers. This is not an indictment of the current GMs, as they are often placed in a difficult position and are doing their best within the context of the current rules and trying to keep a multitude of people, including us nosy nerds in the head office building, happy. Unfortunately, tracking how quickly most waiver claims get playing time and to what extent they see the field is challenging and is not something that the Head Office has found the time and manpower to properly investigate yet. This is something that I hope to address during the next couple seasons so that we may collaborate with all interested parties to make our decision based on the feedback we are getting from DSFL players themselves rather than simple conjecture and hypotheticals flying back and forth between the relevant parties. As I am writing this, a survey is conceptualizing that should begin to fill in those holes in the data and begin to give us a better picture of the complete DSFL experience from the perspectives of waiver pickups, new players who went through the draft, send-downs, and recreates on important issues like playing time, how effectively the league is supporting them, and other relevant concerns and areas of interest. I am hopeful that this survey will not only better inform our decisions about the rules, but also that they may be used to further our improvement efforts in the league and show a sincere effort on the part of HO to continue gathering feedback from the community that make this league fun to continue participating in.
849 words.