A Cross Sim Interghange Part II: Make it better for everyone

[kdr]

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word count 2860

Hello all, maybe you read my or looked at my first article in honor of the Cross Sim charity going on right now.  And of course maybe you didn't.  I didn't plan to do this second part quite so soon, but there are a couple of things that changed my mind on that.  What were they you ask?  Well, the first part is as I played more and more and learned more about each league individually, I found there there are indeed a number of people who, like me are cross sim-ming along in happy enjoyment of sim life and felt there was a good time audience for this and it would give input or impetus to that person that is enjoying the one league to cross over and be like Bo, or Primetime, or even a Danny Ainge and have just a cup of coffee to try out the other sim sports league.  In fact, in my first post I tried to do a poll on how many leagues the average player is in, but !professional (if you know, you know) and I failed.

Those of you in the PBE know I give cliffnotes for long article to see what you are going to read so your

TL,DR cliftas
1) Reason for it: a WOW moment in SHL and some HOs want it I hope
2) Highlight a couple of nice/interesting unique aspects from each league that maybe the others can learn from
      a) SHL: innovations in minors trestment
      b) ISFL: media editors and casino games
      c) PBE: Discord and community events
      d) SSL: affiliation innovation and technology
3) Impromptu streaming awards are handed out (spoiler alert: everyone is a winner)
4) Open invitation to SBA to say why it is a great place to join
5)Made some cold hard cash to feed my max earner needs in all places.

But, why do it now so soon after my first foray into the cross sim media world.  Well, there were really two important things that happened this past week or so that led me to believe this was the perfect time for me to do this:
1)The first thing was something that I learned in one of the leagues that made me say OMG that is so cool, why is it that the other leagues don't use this it would make playing so much better and more fun for the players of the other league. (more on this later of course)
2) I might have still held off, but then I was browsing what kind of jobs are around for me to feed my need for max earner HoF player ability in all leagues and I saw a job posting for a HO position that said and I quote, "...we hope will come ideas around how we could be doing things better, whether that be in terms of automation or a better user experience. As well as new ideas, things like.."  Now, I am not sure I would have the time to be full time HO, but why not learn from other leagues basically doing the same as you and see if the things some users are enjoying there might be doable in your league. 

So, how should I structure this article for the best read and easiest consumption for both the players and HO honcho's out there.  I have decided to change how I was going to structure it and in this next part of the article I am going to go through each of the leagues I am in and give one or two of the kind of added value items that I feel, from my experience, they might do a little differently from the others and might be a good addition to your league.   At the end I might also just give some of the core functions and how some seem to feel different, but I am not sure about that yet so we will see.

Let's get started and I will start with the league that had that WOW moment and made me say yes please. And we go to:

The Simulation Hockey League (SHL). 
#1 this first difference/point has to do with the minor leagues and how they treat players in the minors.  Now most of the leagues treat minors players in generally the same way (spoiler alert, one does it different and it will come up later in this article).  You get drafted to the minors in year one and then after the first year you get drafted by the majors the following year and still play in the minors until you are called up.  There is a cap for minors players.  However, in one of my scouting encounter with Buffalo (who I must say had the best opening for any scouting brining the Led Zepplin) I learned that unlike the others who have a hard cap, the SHL has a moving cap.

OMG, does this make sense or does this make sense.  I have previously said in my first article that I really like how the SHL handles their minor leagues.  They have separate PTs for rookies to get them warmed up on how the system works.  But to have a moving cap makes so much sense and mirrors the true life of how the minors works.   So, what are the benefits:

1) Just like in real like it allows a player to develop their player a little each year in the minors.  A cap is a good idea, but a hard cap might lead to...
2) A lose of interest in a player.  I was not a max earner in one league at the beginning, but I have become one and after a season and a half in the minors I hit the cap ceiling. Now, I have at least a year and a half in the minors maybe more depending on who drafted me and when they call me up and my player is static. I am still excited to see him play and will keep up with my tasks on time, but will some loose interest. I have seen this a little and it leads to...
3) I am an auditor in two leagues and I see that when people hit the cap all of a sudden instead of weekly updates you get large monthly updates of items.  This makes things mare difficult for the updaters and in tern for the auditors who how a lot to track all at one time.

So, in conclusion on point #1, it seems an easy fix if everything is coded.  Doesn't have to be large.  If average TPE earned a season is 90-100, then give half of that to develop during the season.  For goodness sake I do Spring Training and other items in offseason let us at least use those to increase our player a little to see a change.

#2 Another fun TPE item they let you do is every season is redistribute up to 80TPE every season with no penalty (I believe the SSL might also let you do this too not positive).  Again makes sense for having more fun and flexibility of play.  Can add strategy to the game.  Striking out more than you thought or dropping all those balls, you and your GM talk and say lest drop down your X and increase your Y and we will win.  Might never use it, but it seems like a good thing to have and not too difficult to implement.  Even without a portal for automation, seems easy enough to do.  BTW, if I am wrong and all leagues let you do this hit me up and let me know.  And now on to...

The International Football Simulation League (ISFL)
#1 Well I think I will start with why I am typing this in originally on the ISFL media forms.....Ah thanks for asking.  Well, while some but not all of you have a nice word count included in your media pop-out editor, only he ISFL right there in the editor tells me exactly how much dollars I will be paid. (well it is really just an estimate and of course other items go into it) but man it is just uplifting to see that little ticker go up and it makes my finger click faster and faster.  Right now I have made a cool quarter of a million come on we are rolling.   Just a fun little add on for us media writing types.

#2 I have been having a lot of fun with how the ISFL uses their casino.  Yes others have casino's and use them pretty well, but specifically I feel the ISFL uses the casino well with the actually league.  They have things like 6 for T6 where they ask 6 questions about a specific team and they are fun questions and if you get them write you earn enough to buy their highest equipment level (T6 of course).  They also have weekly sportsbooks for every week of play.  Now the PBE does something like this in their live streams, but half the time I can't watch those. Why not just have something like that in the casino as well.  I can tell you I think it is fun. 

Professional Baseball Experience (PBE)
#1 I have said it before, but I think I will say it again. It is important because I know all the leagues talk about keeping interest in the discord and every scout always asks about how you will be in the locker room.  I think from my experience so far the PBE does this the best and I think it is in 2 simple items.  
1) They clean up and archive old channels.  Seems simple, but I can tell you in every other league discord I get lost in the channels because I find some I think are good and then realize nothing has been entered there in 2 years.  Get's frustrating. 
2) in the teams I am on I have my own channel between myself and the GMs.  Why do I like this?  Well there is always things I want to refer back to with GMs builds or such and it is good to have it in a channel that can easily get back to without clutter of an active channel or having to go to the private DMs and find the right one.  Seems an easy fix, and I don't think it would impact the GMs much because they would still get their ping.

#2 Their use of community activities is fun and creative.  Now I think not all leagues have this in their discord, ISFL might be the only other one.  But it is something that can keep interest in the community. Both have Poker, which I do not really do, but there are other things that come across the.  Like for the last few months alone they have also have a weekly marbles stream, they compete in outside fantasy leagues, I played pokerougue, someone even tried to get a chess event going, not sure if that worked.  I believe anyone can set up one of these as long as they get HO/commish approval to payout whatever the award for participation is.


Simulation Soccer League (SSL)

This is the last league I actually found and joined, but it is my favorite sport, the sim I have played the longest and the one I might understand the most going in.
But...

#1 I think they do more with less.  All of the leagues and sim communities are great and have made this so far a great experience for me.  The SSL is definitely the youngest of the 4, being in only their 16th sim season, while the others are in S78 and 2 in S49 respectively.  They have implemented their own players portal from scratch this past week (SHL was the first) and it seems to be working well.  Truly the players portal is the #1 implementation in any league to make playing easier to play and keep up with.

#2 They have an interesting structure and I am not sure if it would work other places.  It might be a result of having a smaller pool of GMs and such to work with, but it is what I would call a linked structure.  There is only one draft, each major/minor team is linked together.  So, you get drafted by a team and they place you in the majors or minors and theoretically can call you up whenever even within a season.  It is like the developmental structure in Soccer.  But, actually it is much more like the majors/minors structure in say baseball and hockey.  Where every franchise has one or two minor league affiliates. Now, there are more Majors franchises than minors I believe so a one for oe wouldn't work and I am not sure if there are enough active players to have more, well there aren't.   But the first question I asked my majors GM in PBE when I was drafted was well what should I work on for you? And the answer was, nothing we leave that to the minors until call up.  I don't think it is doable in other leagues, but it is an interesting aspect of the SSL.


ok, I think that is some good food for thought so far for HO and players in other leagues.  And while I was typing this up I have decided that all of the sims have an annual awards show, so I am going to give out some of my own awards.  This is from an awards committee of one and is truly just my gut reaction to some of the experiences I have gone through so far.

So we start in the area of Streaming acheivement:

1) The award for overall realistic sim engine experince goes to:
The SSL:  they edge out the PBE slightly for the sim engine.  Both have good back end simulation and we know that all sims will be sims in some way and surprise us, but Football manager has a slight edge in watchable graphics over OOTP in my opinion.

2)Most Thorough Sim experience goes to
The ISFL: If you want to definitely see your player play every week, and who doesn't, then the ISFL is the place to be.  They are the only league to actually stream everyone of their league games majors and minors without exception.  Now, they have the fewest number of games to do, but still you can watch your player every week in a full game.  The SSL also show every game, but it is in highlight mode, because I have played full matches and they can be very long.

3) Best Interactive Stream goes to
The PBE: being the only one to use twitch as a medium might help with this.  But the live time chat right in the same place as the live commentary is going on and the fact that I believe they are the only ones to actually stream a live sim feed, makes for the experience.  As I said before, they have little betting question that you can get rewarded for and in the end turn in for money in the league to buy TPE items.

4) The Award for best Draft Night Stream and the best experince so far goes to:
The SHL:  They seem to be the only one that does this live and I am not sure about that, but I have seen the behind the scenes of the off line PBE draft, and I can say the work the GMs do is amazing.  So, to do it live is truely amazing.  They did have some technical difficulties, but I liked their full draft board tracker it reminded me the most of a real life experience.  But those who read the article I posted on SHL media of the post draft interview will know, it was a special experience because what I wrote there was true.  Since it is on youtube, I put it on my big screen tv while my family was finishing dinner and when my draft came up with the picture of my "player" Gordon McFisherman, my 5 your old daughter went happily crazy shouting Dad is going to Seattle Dad is going to Seattle which made her little brother giggle hysterically.  So, no one else had a chance on that one.

These are supposed to be social leagues and being able to share it with the family that way is fun.  They have since been able to see JamesIsRunning Wilder and Puma Superhoops play a game.  They haven't met Murphy LeSwift as of yet, but hopefully they will.


So, there you have it the conclusion of the first annual kdr sim league interchange and awards.  I hope again it has given so food for thought to the HOs and a little entertainment to others and made you think about why you enjoy this community so much.

There is one of the affiliates that I have not seen fit to join yet, The Simulation Basketball League, I invite anyone who is part of that and feel I am really missing out to let us know why.

And that is all from kdr

Murphy LeSwift: AMA/OBX  Dale Murphy render
JamesIsRunning Wilder: Portland/ TBD  JAmes Wilder render
Gordon McFisherman: QCC/Sea  Benoit Hogue based (but the Gorton's Fisherman render)
Puma Superhoops: Tokyo/Cairo  no render except my original two teams of QPR and UNAM Pumas