01-28-2024, 03:40 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-28-2024, 03:41 PM by bernardhibou. Edited 1 time in total.)
Tier 1: Task 7
As I rack up more seasons in the DSFL/ISFL, I've been able to spend a bit more time reflecting on my experience both as an individual contributor and as part of a team (both in terms of my player and me as part of the discord community) and think about what motivates me as a user. Something I've recently become more interested in is the league cash/TPE system, and the various generation methods that exist. In previous OTs I've offered some thoughts on alternative generation methods, most recently bringing up the prospect of utilizing player roleplaying as an additional means of accruing league cash and/or TPE, but after a few months of reflection, I've become keenly aware of one of the major drawbacks to this idea - time. Although I don't have a strong handle on our general league demographics, I would imagine that the majority of us have quite a few IRL responsibilities and/or priorities that already prevent us from being as active as we would ideally like, and introducing an entire new dimension of TPE generation would make this even worse. So for this OT, I'd like to consider league cash/TPE generation from the perspective of a (veteran?) user.
Currently, the primary method of TPE generation is through PTs (regular and special) and OTs (wiki updates, this task, and special surveys etc), bank purchases (equipment, weekly training) hosted on the forums, with exemptions being offered in exchange for performing essential league work such as auditing, processing updates, judging awards, grading media and head office jobs, as well as some miscellaneous administrative roles. This system is designed to provide a level playing field for general users, and reward those who are able/willing to put in some extra time. It was developed around the forum registration system, which allows for a high degree of control by moderators, and reduces spam from bots or other bad actors. With this high degree of manual control, however, comes a concomitant increase in workload for those who perform league roles, with the exception of some community-focused roles that can be performed on Discord. It also leads to relative conformity among PT/OTs, which, while not exactly a source of continued creativity over the course of multiple seasons, ultimately saves users a certain amount of time so that they can complete their tasks without mental over-exertion.
League cash generation is a bit more varied, and can be earned through media articles/image submissions, team salaries/contract stipulations, literal gambling, league jobs, certain special tasks and discord activity. Depending on one's interests and availability, the potential for earning large sums of league cash is there, although aside from T6 equipment and regular weekly training purchases, there aren't a great deal of money sinks for this generated income, and so generally this money is either banked for future seasons, or used for more frivolous reasons (exciting casino bets etc). While cash is primarily generated through forum activity, a certain amount can be earned through Discord activity alone. As with TPE generation, there is a certain amount of manual moderation required in order to grant cash, but there is more automation in place to take some of the burden off administrators (I am not 100% sure which of these are automated/semi-automated but I believe that discord activity monitoring and team salaries would be included here).
Given the amount of manual work being put into both TPE and league cash generation, rather than solely creating additional TPE generating structures such as RP systems, perhaps there are some additional money sinks that could be put in to convert excess cash into TPE. This could include, for example, team facility construction projects (training field, team gym, team plane etc) that could be completed each season to grant TPE. Of course, this would require a certain amount of initial setup work (forum and/or discord database connectivity), as well as involve some system limitations to prevent oligarchs from dominating such projects, but this could be something that could further reward users without a great deal of significant time investment, and perhaps worth considering in the future as we continue to grow the league.
Thank you for reading this brain fart, comments very welcome!
As I rack up more seasons in the DSFL/ISFL, I've been able to spend a bit more time reflecting on my experience both as an individual contributor and as part of a team (both in terms of my player and me as part of the discord community) and think about what motivates me as a user. Something I've recently become more interested in is the league cash/TPE system, and the various generation methods that exist. In previous OTs I've offered some thoughts on alternative generation methods, most recently bringing up the prospect of utilizing player roleplaying as an additional means of accruing league cash and/or TPE, but after a few months of reflection, I've become keenly aware of one of the major drawbacks to this idea - time. Although I don't have a strong handle on our general league demographics, I would imagine that the majority of us have quite a few IRL responsibilities and/or priorities that already prevent us from being as active as we would ideally like, and introducing an entire new dimension of TPE generation would make this even worse. So for this OT, I'd like to consider league cash/TPE generation from the perspective of a (veteran?) user.
Currently, the primary method of TPE generation is through PTs (regular and special) and OTs (wiki updates, this task, and special surveys etc), bank purchases (equipment, weekly training) hosted on the forums, with exemptions being offered in exchange for performing essential league work such as auditing, processing updates, judging awards, grading media and head office jobs, as well as some miscellaneous administrative roles. This system is designed to provide a level playing field for general users, and reward those who are able/willing to put in some extra time. It was developed around the forum registration system, which allows for a high degree of control by moderators, and reduces spam from bots or other bad actors. With this high degree of manual control, however, comes a concomitant increase in workload for those who perform league roles, with the exception of some community-focused roles that can be performed on Discord. It also leads to relative conformity among PT/OTs, which, while not exactly a source of continued creativity over the course of multiple seasons, ultimately saves users a certain amount of time so that they can complete their tasks without mental over-exertion.
League cash generation is a bit more varied, and can be earned through media articles/image submissions, team salaries/contract stipulations, literal gambling, league jobs, certain special tasks and discord activity. Depending on one's interests and availability, the potential for earning large sums of league cash is there, although aside from T6 equipment and regular weekly training purchases, there aren't a great deal of money sinks for this generated income, and so generally this money is either banked for future seasons, or used for more frivolous reasons (exciting casino bets etc). While cash is primarily generated through forum activity, a certain amount can be earned through Discord activity alone. As with TPE generation, there is a certain amount of manual moderation required in order to grant cash, but there is more automation in place to take some of the burden off administrators (I am not 100% sure which of these are automated/semi-automated but I believe that discord activity monitoring and team salaries would be included here).
Given the amount of manual work being put into both TPE and league cash generation, rather than solely creating additional TPE generating structures such as RP systems, perhaps there are some additional money sinks that could be put in to convert excess cash into TPE. This could include, for example, team facility construction projects (training field, team gym, team plane etc) that could be completed each season to grant TPE. Of course, this would require a certain amount of initial setup work (forum and/or discord database connectivity), as well as involve some system limitations to prevent oligarchs from dominating such projects, but this could be something that could further reward users without a great deal of significant time investment, and perhaps worth considering in the future as we continue to grow the league.
Thank you for reading this brain fart, comments very welcome!