Let me preface by saying: yes this is my first sim league ever, and I am completely new to this. Yes, my boyfriend has been involved for awhile and I can ask him certain questions, but without that lifeline, I have to say there are numerous times I would have just quit out of sheer frustration with the inability to find what I need, or by being overwhelmed by the resources available.
When you first log in, you see “Getting Started” and looking at that, there is a “Create a Player” forum. Sweet. This seems easy so far. I see the player templates, I see the Rookie start guide and I click it. Awesome, there’s a table of contents, it seems pretty organized, I think this will be okay. Enter frustration number one:
“If you need an invitation to our rookie discord as well, please contact a Rookie Mentor or a member of Head Office”. Now personally, I think this would be a great place to list (preferably with hyperlinks to their profile for ease of messaging) the Rookie Mentors and Head Office personnel. If I am brand new, I’m not going to know where to look for that information and there are a lot of forums to sort through and comprehend. Making information incredibly easy to find is helpful in retention of players, especially if they are new to sim leagues (everyone has to start somewhere and if they choose to start with you, you want them to stick around, right??)
League overview, some information, sweet sweet, again mention about contacting Rookie Mentors with no clue who they are. The video - fairly helpful (one or two mistakes or things I noticed that needed clarification. At one point he spends the TPE but doesn’t remove it from Banked TPE, so I wanted to double check I was supposed to do it), but truly, the video rocks. I’d even recommend putting it higher in the post.
Here comes my second frustration: I now have three tabs open to create this player. The video, the forum post and my own ‘create a player’ window. Queue my starting to feel overwhelmed by the amount of information (and unfortunately, forum pages look similar upon first glance and when I can’t remember what each forum location or post is called, it can be easy to feel uncertain which one I want to find again).
Frustration three: I now have the Rookie Start Guide, the Rookie Video and a third separate “Player Builder Form” which, without clicking doesn’t really explain what it is. Calling it a “TPE distribution tracker” may have made more sense to someone new, otherwise it just felt like yet ANOTHER ‘here’s how you can do this’ post and I wasn’t ready for a third one of those.
Okay, TPE guide, sweet. This helps me figure out the numbers. It would be nice if it was just at the top of the create a player pages, but again I can deal. I’m not too overwhelmed yet, but seriously, having it in the create a player templates (especially since, ya know, it’s supposed to go in your player update page) seems like a streamlining move.
Now to earn new TPE and update my player. Unfortunately, there are … 4 links (granted one links to the forum where you should post, so let’s narrow that down to 3 links) that are reference tools. If I’m new to Sim leagues and this league, do I really need 3 different resources (on top of now the 3 “welcome new player” resources) to add and update TPE? Also instead of typing out in a document and then linking the forum separately, wouldn’t screen caps of the forum have been more beneficial. I look at the guide and look at the post and they seem so different in terms of presentation (aka, the forum looks different than the document) and for me, personally, it feels once more like another hurdle I have to pass.
Can we also talk about the number of times update, updaters, updated updates in that next paragraph. I get that calling them updaters makes the most logical sense, but goodness, it’s a lot of updates. “After an updated has recorded your updates you will begin a new update post by replying” can definitely be streamlined into “After your post has been marked “Updated” you should provide all future updates to TPE in a reply. Repeat ad nauseum. Sometimes less is more.
Now I’ve got some information about how to earn money and what it’s used for. Awesome, I like this. The League Job List seems cool until I realize that this forum requires you to join discord because after all, the jobs say ‘message me on discord if you’re interested’ … So I can’t just play via the forum, well, that stinks but okay, fine. I join the discord, get unsolicited messages (wasn’t aware that I’d receive PMs which would wake me up when I joined!), promptly change the server settings to not allow people to PM me who aren’t friends, and continue in grumblance because if it’s a forum thing, why am I required to apply via discord.
Now I take a pause, trying to figure out how I want to earn some money (and the next piece talks about retirement, I figure I haven’t even played a season yet, that can wait for now) and I start writing media. Sure, most of my media are shit-posts, because that is what I do, but they are shit-posts about my sweet Amazonian ballerina kicker, and she deserves all of the love and respect in the world.
Before writing my shit posts, I look at the forum grading post, see the pay scales, and start producing content. This is all great, until I realize that ‘Hey, my posts are being marked as read, but there’s no ‘GRADED with my payout at the bottom.’ I think that my shitposts are unacceptable, start looking through the forum posts, through the older graded posts and see that ‘huh, even things that are definitely hardcore league material’ also aren’t being marked as GRADED with a dollar amount. No biggie, I’ll go to the banking forum and then see if it’s been posted there.
I go to the banking, I’m not in the bank log, which, okay, I get I’m new, nbd. However, I notice a couple of things: there is a post detailing the payouts of everything except media. So I’m beginning to wonder ‘is media not paid anymore”. Out of curiosity, I click the job payouts, twitter payouts, and gfx payouts. The job payouts shows posts with my name, for some rookie task point payouts “Hm,” I thought. “That would have been nice to be tagged in,”. I noticed some posts had tagged users, and others didn’t. Personally, every post in a payout should be tagged. It lets users know that they’ve had their content seen, and they can check when it’s been processed.
Now I check the GFX post, and see that the very first post says “all media and gfx payouts”. Oh cool, so maybe I wasn’t tagged in these posts either, but since it’s been graded it should be on there. Nope, nothing, so click on Caltroit’s username, see it seems they’re only involved in Graphics payouts and I start flipping back until I see another poster, and oh look, they’re media posters. So, this last post is April … So has media not been paid since April, I wonder. Because now there is absolutely not thread for this.
I figure I check the bank post again, I post in the rookie help chat (Which the rookie chat is a whole different rant), and I don’t see anything. My boyfriend tells me and screenshots “It’s in the media tab” except, when I looked at my bank log, there wasn’t a media tab. Either things aren’t loading correctly, or something was blocked and then unblocked, but either way, I see I’m receiving credit, but at this point I’ve had to go through so many layers without any direct communication (which the forum states) to me. After asking for clarification for this rule, I learn and realize that not even the head of media is accurate on the forum, which, seems like a huge oversight.
As for the Rookie League chat, it felt as though, especially since it was linked to “Rookie Mentors” that it was a chat meant for rookies of this sim league, but as I joined it felt as though I was alienated. I didn’t feel comfortable asking a question for help as I felt like an outsider (and this fully may just be my own anxiety talking). It seemed as though everyone within the rookie chat had had multiple characters before, and I was wondering why there would need to be NSFL gms in a chat that is clearly geared toward new players and DSFL teams. Sure maybe for future scouting or communication, but surely that isn’t the only reason. Add to this my frustration at the fact that it seems as the discord channels seemed disorganized, information was being posted multiple times, several different links, different users, I wasn’t sure what the most updated information was, and where I should find it.
I’m not saying that I’m ready to quit the league, I really do want to give it a solid chance, and my boyfriend really does enjoy the friends he’s made in the community (and I really love and miss football), but I have to tell you it’s felt very difficult and frustrating trying to figure out what to do for this league at times. There are definitely times it seems as though there are ‘secret rules’ and ‘that’s just how it’s done’ with no explanation as to why or where someone new is supposed to find this information.
TL;DR - there are definite improvements that can be made for new players, and the forum needs to make sure the forum is displaying accurate information at all times, and is as easy to navigate and understand.
When you first log in, you see “Getting Started” and looking at that, there is a “Create a Player” forum. Sweet. This seems easy so far. I see the player templates, I see the Rookie start guide and I click it. Awesome, there’s a table of contents, it seems pretty organized, I think this will be okay. Enter frustration number one:
“If you need an invitation to our rookie discord as well, please contact a Rookie Mentor or a member of Head Office”. Now personally, I think this would be a great place to list (preferably with hyperlinks to their profile for ease of messaging) the Rookie Mentors and Head Office personnel. If I am brand new, I’m not going to know where to look for that information and there are a lot of forums to sort through and comprehend. Making information incredibly easy to find is helpful in retention of players, especially if they are new to sim leagues (everyone has to start somewhere and if they choose to start with you, you want them to stick around, right??)
League overview, some information, sweet sweet, again mention about contacting Rookie Mentors with no clue who they are. The video - fairly helpful (one or two mistakes or things I noticed that needed clarification. At one point he spends the TPE but doesn’t remove it from Banked TPE, so I wanted to double check I was supposed to do it), but truly, the video rocks. I’d even recommend putting it higher in the post.
Here comes my second frustration: I now have three tabs open to create this player. The video, the forum post and my own ‘create a player’ window. Queue my starting to feel overwhelmed by the amount of information (and unfortunately, forum pages look similar upon first glance and when I can’t remember what each forum location or post is called, it can be easy to feel uncertain which one I want to find again).
Frustration three: I now have the Rookie Start Guide, the Rookie Video and a third separate “Player Builder Form” which, without clicking doesn’t really explain what it is. Calling it a “TPE distribution tracker” may have made more sense to someone new, otherwise it just felt like yet ANOTHER ‘here’s how you can do this’ post and I wasn’t ready for a third one of those.
Okay, TPE guide, sweet. This helps me figure out the numbers. It would be nice if it was just at the top of the create a player pages, but again I can deal. I’m not too overwhelmed yet, but seriously, having it in the create a player templates (especially since, ya know, it’s supposed to go in your player update page) seems like a streamlining move.
Now to earn new TPE and update my player. Unfortunately, there are … 4 links (granted one links to the forum where you should post, so let’s narrow that down to 3 links) that are reference tools. If I’m new to Sim leagues and this league, do I really need 3 different resources (on top of now the 3 “welcome new player” resources) to add and update TPE? Also instead of typing out in a document and then linking the forum separately, wouldn’t screen caps of the forum have been more beneficial. I look at the guide and look at the post and they seem so different in terms of presentation (aka, the forum looks different than the document) and for me, personally, it feels once more like another hurdle I have to pass.
Can we also talk about the number of times update, updaters, updated updates in that next paragraph. I get that calling them updaters makes the most logical sense, but goodness, it’s a lot of updates. “After an updated has recorded your updates you will begin a new update post by replying” can definitely be streamlined into “After your post has been marked “Updated” you should provide all future updates to TPE in a reply. Repeat ad nauseum. Sometimes less is more.
Now I’ve got some information about how to earn money and what it’s used for. Awesome, I like this. The League Job List seems cool until I realize that this forum requires you to join discord because after all, the jobs say ‘message me on discord if you’re interested’ … So I can’t just play via the forum, well, that stinks but okay, fine. I join the discord, get unsolicited messages (wasn’t aware that I’d receive PMs which would wake me up when I joined!), promptly change the server settings to not allow people to PM me who aren’t friends, and continue in grumblance because if it’s a forum thing, why am I required to apply via discord.
Now I take a pause, trying to figure out how I want to earn some money (and the next piece talks about retirement, I figure I haven’t even played a season yet, that can wait for now) and I start writing media. Sure, most of my media are shit-posts, because that is what I do, but they are shit-posts about my sweet Amazonian ballerina kicker, and she deserves all of the love and respect in the world.
Before writing my shit posts, I look at the forum grading post, see the pay scales, and start producing content. This is all great, until I realize that ‘Hey, my posts are being marked as read, but there’s no ‘GRADED with my payout at the bottom.’ I think that my shitposts are unacceptable, start looking through the forum posts, through the older graded posts and see that ‘huh, even things that are definitely hardcore league material’ also aren’t being marked as GRADED with a dollar amount. No biggie, I’ll go to the banking forum and then see if it’s been posted there.
I go to the banking, I’m not in the bank log, which, okay, I get I’m new, nbd. However, I notice a couple of things: there is a post detailing the payouts of everything except media. So I’m beginning to wonder ‘is media not paid anymore”. Out of curiosity, I click the job payouts, twitter payouts, and gfx payouts. The job payouts shows posts with my name, for some rookie task point payouts “Hm,” I thought. “That would have been nice to be tagged in,”. I noticed some posts had tagged users, and others didn’t. Personally, every post in a payout should be tagged. It lets users know that they’ve had their content seen, and they can check when it’s been processed.
Now I check the GFX post, and see that the very first post says “all media and gfx payouts”. Oh cool, so maybe I wasn’t tagged in these posts either, but since it’s been graded it should be on there. Nope, nothing, so click on Caltroit’s username, see it seems they’re only involved in Graphics payouts and I start flipping back until I see another poster, and oh look, they’re media posters. So, this last post is April … So has media not been paid since April, I wonder. Because now there is absolutely not thread for this.
I figure I check the bank post again, I post in the rookie help chat (Which the rookie chat is a whole different rant), and I don’t see anything. My boyfriend tells me and screenshots “It’s in the media tab” except, when I looked at my bank log, there wasn’t a media tab. Either things aren’t loading correctly, or something was blocked and then unblocked, but either way, I see I’m receiving credit, but at this point I’ve had to go through so many layers without any direct communication (which the forum states) to me. After asking for clarification for this rule, I learn and realize that not even the head of media is accurate on the forum, which, seems like a huge oversight.
As for the Rookie League chat, it felt as though, especially since it was linked to “Rookie Mentors” that it was a chat meant for rookies of this sim league, but as I joined it felt as though I was alienated. I didn’t feel comfortable asking a question for help as I felt like an outsider (and this fully may just be my own anxiety talking). It seemed as though everyone within the rookie chat had had multiple characters before, and I was wondering why there would need to be NSFL gms in a chat that is clearly geared toward new players and DSFL teams. Sure maybe for future scouting or communication, but surely that isn’t the only reason. Add to this my frustration at the fact that it seems as the discord channels seemed disorganized, information was being posted multiple times, several different links, different users, I wasn’t sure what the most updated information was, and where I should find it.
I’m not saying that I’m ready to quit the league, I really do want to give it a solid chance, and my boyfriend really does enjoy the friends he’s made in the community (and I really love and miss football), but I have to tell you it’s felt very difficult and frustrating trying to figure out what to do for this league at times. There are definitely times it seems as though there are ‘secret rules’ and ‘that’s just how it’s done’ with no explanation as to why or where someone new is supposed to find this information.
TL;DR - there are definite improvements that can be made for new players, and the forum needs to make sure the forum is displaying accurate information at all times, and is as easy to navigate and understand.
![[Image: Untitled_drawing4.png?ex=65189885&is=651...a7e4ddfd2&]](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/906612704905666593/1157434655218352178/Untitled_drawing4.png?ex=65189885&is=65174705&hm=723bcd75bd49d3fa16b31bd7ebf7e536fca998ba339a37ec7590f00a7e4ddfd2&)
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