08-06-2023, 05:14 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-06-2023, 05:39 PM by homercrates. Edited 3 times in total.)
8.
Long ago I enjoyed a little sim game called Football Identity often referred to as FID. It was a soccer simulation league where you created a player and that player you would then play in games scheduled online on Sundays in a sim league. I had a blast with that but, when you have scheduled sims that rely on you controlling a character it was pretty committal.
There was a post on the r/nfl on reddit about this sim league and how now was a good time to join up as it was off season being a good time to jump in and try it out. My curiosity was piqued. I signed up and started looking around the forum for information as I am the type of person who likes to poke around and read up at my own pace to learn about it. I am the person at the store who declines help and says I am just browsing, even when I could probably use a little help. I was poking around and reading the forums going through a breadcrumb of links and at some point as the confusion set in I got a little bogged down. If I recall correctly it was the process of claiming for the rookie tasks. The nuance between which ones were auto-claimed and which ones were the ones that we needed to wait for approval started to throw me into doubt that I was doing anything correctly or understanding the process. I looked around for some videos online about the process. The only video I found online was about the character creation which was helpful for that process however I had already conquered that.
I am an avid board gamer. I enjoy complex games and rules and competition within those parameters. I have always found it much easier to digest the complications through a tutorial video rather than reading the manual. I rely on both. I like to read the manual then watch a tutorial then jump back into the manual cross referencing and reinforcing my understanding. I found myself a bit bogged down and I told myself although excited about a sim I just didn't want to invest the time into understanding the nuances between equipment and TPE and whether I was doing it right and if I was cutting my character short by not understanding the process fully. So I decided I would give up ISFL Sim game.
Then I got on my computer and noticed that I had some messages on discord and I opened them up. I saw I had several messages from various GM’s in the DSFL league and whether I had time to do an interview. These messages were about 4 days old. I thought to myself well 4 day old messages and I contemplated explaining that I was no longer interested. Instead I responded to one and wanted to see where it went. It was ToofPete, he replied back even though it was days ago since he reached out. I explained that I had no idea what I was doing and that I would interview anyway and we began. It was a pretty pleasant experience and he got me pretty excited about the SIM league so I decided to reach out to all the other older messages that people sent. I looked at the training times and realized that I had missed nothing yet, I was able to get my other weekly stuff in on time. I headed to the draft.
Draft day came and I made note of the time it would take place, and made sure to attend for fun. Before the interview process I had given up, after the interview process my interest was sparked again. I watched it live on youtube while doing other things at the computer listening along. I had a feeling the most interested team during the interview process seemed to be Portland. As the draft went on it got to the 4th round and I thought to myself there couldn’t be that many new players so I figured the draft would be about 4 rounds and that I was not going to be called on. I was wrong not only was there 10 rounds in the draft I heard my name called in round 6. There I was my graphic on display and Portland was taking me in pick 42. Then ToofPete said how he is making a bold prediction that this pick is going to be the steal in the draft. I was already sold on the league, but now I am determined to do everything I can to make ToofPetes' prediction come true and ensure that Thor Dangerson going in the 6th round is going to reverberate as a steal. Now I just gotta figure this game out and not make any usual mistakes.
[this word count is embarrassing 809]
10.
If I were the league commissioner for a day, I think I would concentrate on the only experience I have had so far and that is in player retention. I have barely been in this league. I have watched some prospect bowls, experienced the DSFL draft, and loved the scouting interview process. However I imagine the learning curve being so steep is part of the reason I would assume new signup player retention is not so high.
Some of the confusion I witness personally, is because most information is in the forum itself through a bread crumb of links to posts. Not all of those older posts are completely up to date and have older information at times which can be pretty confusing for a new player. At some point as I was going down the cookie crumb lane of links I would find a link to claiming your first TPE training for free, however this was an older process and buried in there is information that it was for s34 - s40 only. ( I am hazy on the concrete details). What I would implement is something bold at the top for new players. A new player note that is easy to scan past if you are a veteran but easy to notice if you are not. Something easier for the new players to digest and see that this process is now out of date and only there for older players to have a chance to claim.
Perhaps there should also be a section for common acronyms and different terms for new players to pick up on. In every game there are terms that become second nature to veterans that are not so clear to new players. For example I became quite confused when I was referred to as a s44 rookie. Everywhere I look I see we are in s43 and it is just beginning which created a lot of confusion for me. I had been drafted, I watched the process on youtube live. I was drafted for the s43. Surely I am a s43 rookie. However, I realized as I asked further in discord for clarification that I am a s44 rookie even though I was drafted. It referred to the ISFL. I was not drafted into the ISFL yet and that won't be until s44. My brain did not connect the distinction as I kept thinking of the DSFL as the regulatory league where teams of a lower division played much like the English Premier League.
That being said I think discord is very helpful, for those of us who are still climbing this steep learning curve. I am thankful for any and all answers I get to me questions in the process. The only thing I could speak to so far was my own experience which is still so very young. In the words of Marshawn Lynch “I am just here so I don’t get fined” (and get me some TPE).
[495]
Long ago I enjoyed a little sim game called Football Identity often referred to as FID. It was a soccer simulation league where you created a player and that player you would then play in games scheduled online on Sundays in a sim league. I had a blast with that but, when you have scheduled sims that rely on you controlling a character it was pretty committal.
There was a post on the r/nfl on reddit about this sim league and how now was a good time to join up as it was off season being a good time to jump in and try it out. My curiosity was piqued. I signed up and started looking around the forum for information as I am the type of person who likes to poke around and read up at my own pace to learn about it. I am the person at the store who declines help and says I am just browsing, even when I could probably use a little help. I was poking around and reading the forums going through a breadcrumb of links and at some point as the confusion set in I got a little bogged down. If I recall correctly it was the process of claiming for the rookie tasks. The nuance between which ones were auto-claimed and which ones were the ones that we needed to wait for approval started to throw me into doubt that I was doing anything correctly or understanding the process. I looked around for some videos online about the process. The only video I found online was about the character creation which was helpful for that process however I had already conquered that.
I am an avid board gamer. I enjoy complex games and rules and competition within those parameters. I have always found it much easier to digest the complications through a tutorial video rather than reading the manual. I rely on both. I like to read the manual then watch a tutorial then jump back into the manual cross referencing and reinforcing my understanding. I found myself a bit bogged down and I told myself although excited about a sim I just didn't want to invest the time into understanding the nuances between equipment and TPE and whether I was doing it right and if I was cutting my character short by not understanding the process fully. So I decided I would give up ISFL Sim game.
Then I got on my computer and noticed that I had some messages on discord and I opened them up. I saw I had several messages from various GM’s in the DSFL league and whether I had time to do an interview. These messages were about 4 days old. I thought to myself well 4 day old messages and I contemplated explaining that I was no longer interested. Instead I responded to one and wanted to see where it went. It was ToofPete, he replied back even though it was days ago since he reached out. I explained that I had no idea what I was doing and that I would interview anyway and we began. It was a pretty pleasant experience and he got me pretty excited about the SIM league so I decided to reach out to all the other older messages that people sent. I looked at the training times and realized that I had missed nothing yet, I was able to get my other weekly stuff in on time. I headed to the draft.
Draft day came and I made note of the time it would take place, and made sure to attend for fun. Before the interview process I had given up, after the interview process my interest was sparked again. I watched it live on youtube while doing other things at the computer listening along. I had a feeling the most interested team during the interview process seemed to be Portland. As the draft went on it got to the 4th round and I thought to myself there couldn’t be that many new players so I figured the draft would be about 4 rounds and that I was not going to be called on. I was wrong not only was there 10 rounds in the draft I heard my name called in round 6. There I was my graphic on display and Portland was taking me in pick 42. Then ToofPete said how he is making a bold prediction that this pick is going to be the steal in the draft. I was already sold on the league, but now I am determined to do everything I can to make ToofPetes' prediction come true and ensure that Thor Dangerson going in the 6th round is going to reverberate as a steal. Now I just gotta figure this game out and not make any usual mistakes.
[this word count is embarrassing 809]
10.
If I were the league commissioner for a day, I think I would concentrate on the only experience I have had so far and that is in player retention. I have barely been in this league. I have watched some prospect bowls, experienced the DSFL draft, and loved the scouting interview process. However I imagine the learning curve being so steep is part of the reason I would assume new signup player retention is not so high.
Some of the confusion I witness personally, is because most information is in the forum itself through a bread crumb of links to posts. Not all of those older posts are completely up to date and have older information at times which can be pretty confusing for a new player. At some point as I was going down the cookie crumb lane of links I would find a link to claiming your first TPE training for free, however this was an older process and buried in there is information that it was for s34 - s40 only. ( I am hazy on the concrete details). What I would implement is something bold at the top for new players. A new player note that is easy to scan past if you are a veteran but easy to notice if you are not. Something easier for the new players to digest and see that this process is now out of date and only there for older players to have a chance to claim.
Perhaps there should also be a section for common acronyms and different terms for new players to pick up on. In every game there are terms that become second nature to veterans that are not so clear to new players. For example I became quite confused when I was referred to as a s44 rookie. Everywhere I look I see we are in s43 and it is just beginning which created a lot of confusion for me. I had been drafted, I watched the process on youtube live. I was drafted for the s43. Surely I am a s43 rookie. However, I realized as I asked further in discord for clarification that I am a s44 rookie even though I was drafted. It referred to the ISFL. I was not drafted into the ISFL yet and that won't be until s44. My brain did not connect the distinction as I kept thinking of the DSFL as the regulatory league where teams of a lower division played much like the English Premier League.
That being said I think discord is very helpful, for those of us who are still climbing this steep learning curve. I am thankful for any and all answers I get to me questions in the process. The only thing I could speak to so far was my own experience which is still so very young. In the words of Marshawn Lynch “I am just here so I don’t get fined” (and get me some TPE).
[495]
![[Image: wvbMa9Y.png]](https://i.imgur.com/wvbMa9Y.png)
![[Image: iJGiAmo.png]](https://i.imgur.com/iJGiAmo.png)
s43 Baron Nomination for Best Author, and Best New Author. Quite possibly, the greatest compliment I have received from anybody. I am no author I draw because I can not write. Most of you can not read.