Thoughts from an Old, Incompetent Hand
Aug 3, 2022 9:19:39 GMT -5
killiam bing and montrealdude like this
Post by rw on Aug 3, 2022 9:19:39 GMT -5
Thoughts from an Old, Incompetent Hand
I’ve had a few opinions about the good and bad I’ve observed and figured I would corral them into one article. Maybe some of them have been discussed before, maybe some haven’t. Some will be about the mechanics some about the social life some random ideas, this will be an accurate reflection of my meandering brain. Odin and I got along well.
- Too much Information – We know too much about each player. Scouting is much too cheap. 15k to reveal an entire players build removes the intrigue in trying to deduce the scores behind the grades. I enjoyed trying to deduce why a player had A inside, is his jumping high, and inside scoring shit? Is it the opposite? As we know those are very different outcomes. The argument can be made that an advantage goes to those with the most experience but the mechanics article should level the playing field as much as possible. 15k should be the price to see each category or 15k to see 3 random categories. As it stands we know the exact build of any decent player.
- GM Bios – We should have semi-required bios (give 5 or 10k for a completed bio). That way new GMs could have a reference for each GM, their history and if you’re comfortable a little about your personal life. Up to each GM how comfortable they are with sharing but I think most of us are pretty open. It would be a good refresher for current GMs too. Like I knew some from 2.0 and 4.0 but I have interacted with some at different levels. Bios would be a good way for us to keep up with each other. At the very least you could put your sim league history.
- Mentorship – An idea I had for new GMs is to assign them a mentor for the first 3 seasons. This mentor could be compensated some but I hope most would do it in good faith. Yes, there could absolutely be issues if the mentor doesn’t give much advice and trading would be banned between the two but the benefits much outweigh these concerns. An open conversation about the league, the relationships and mechanics could be had helping the transition of new GMs. It seems a significant problem is new GMs get overwhelmed with the vast amount of information and they feel lost trying to adjust to the league. Most GMs aren’t competing in their first 3 seasons, particularly with how GMs enter into the Wheel, so there won’t be natural conflicts. Mentors can also give new GMs a friend in the league which is mostly why us lonely bastards are here.
If folks do like this idea I'd be happy to lay out a framework that could be pinned and referred to.
- No Discussion in Sim Threads – This is my biggest gripe. Why does no one post in the Sim threads? Is it not allowed or has it fallen out of fashion? It was a great place to discuss the up and down swings of a season. Now it’s done in shout but different folks have different schedules. An example is in sim 9 I went 10-0. Ank made a comment about the Celtics going off. I love hearing about my team. I am a simple fool who lives for the recognition of comments like this. Had I checked shout an hour later I would have completely missed this comment. If the sim thread was active Ank would have posted this comment there and I would have seen it regardless of when I checked the board leading to the high of human recognition being cemented in the board rather than the whims of shout.
- Consistency – One of the biggest strengths of the current league is the consistency. More than balancing, profiles or player grades the reliability of eric strengthens the league. I disagree with eric on a few things (wheel placement, inability to be the least bit flexible) but his reliability forms habits that reinforces our activity. He has Pavoloved us with his ability for timely and consistent sims. Active GMs have an unconscious internal clock that goes off right around sim time and we come hoping for that mythical 10-0 sim.
- Defense - I still have no idea about how defense works, can someone explain to me. Now I pretty much look for steals and blocks. I have no idea about anything else. There must be some correlation with drive defense, post defense, right? The mechanics article doesn't talk about it too much.
- Slow Down on 7.0 – This has no basis in anything other than me being selfish. Grade inflation is here but not debilitating. I am finally starting to get going and I don’t want the carpet swept out from the surging Boston Celtics. As soon as folks started to see inflation they seem to have pounced on 7.0, let’s slow down a bit. How does the process work for migrating to 7.0, do we have to have a majority vote? How do the changes work, do we vote on them or are they decrees by the commish? Was it 3.0 where we tried different software, any thoughts on that again. I liked that change but at the time no on else did. Could be a good changeup for folks especially with eric's skill at conveying information from the software. That's wizardry to me. Wait, let's not start thinking about 7.0. Stay focused on 6.0.
I’ve had a few opinions about the good and bad I’ve observed and figured I would corral them into one article. Maybe some of them have been discussed before, maybe some haven’t. Some will be about the mechanics some about the social life some random ideas, this will be an accurate reflection of my meandering brain. Odin and I got along well.
- Too much Information – We know too much about each player. Scouting is much too cheap. 15k to reveal an entire players build removes the intrigue in trying to deduce the scores behind the grades. I enjoyed trying to deduce why a player had A inside, is his jumping high, and inside scoring shit? Is it the opposite? As we know those are very different outcomes. The argument can be made that an advantage goes to those with the most experience but the mechanics article should level the playing field as much as possible. 15k should be the price to see each category or 15k to see 3 random categories. As it stands we know the exact build of any decent player.
- GM Bios – We should have semi-required bios (give 5 or 10k for a completed bio). That way new GMs could have a reference for each GM, their history and if you’re comfortable a little about your personal life. Up to each GM how comfortable they are with sharing but I think most of us are pretty open. It would be a good refresher for current GMs too. Like I knew some from 2.0 and 4.0 but I have interacted with some at different levels. Bios would be a good way for us to keep up with each other. At the very least you could put your sim league history.
- Mentorship – An idea I had for new GMs is to assign them a mentor for the first 3 seasons. This mentor could be compensated some but I hope most would do it in good faith. Yes, there could absolutely be issues if the mentor doesn’t give much advice and trading would be banned between the two but the benefits much outweigh these concerns. An open conversation about the league, the relationships and mechanics could be had helping the transition of new GMs. It seems a significant problem is new GMs get overwhelmed with the vast amount of information and they feel lost trying to adjust to the league. Most GMs aren’t competing in their first 3 seasons, particularly with how GMs enter into the Wheel, so there won’t be natural conflicts. Mentors can also give new GMs a friend in the league which is mostly why us lonely bastards are here.
If folks do like this idea I'd be happy to lay out a framework that could be pinned and referred to.
- No Discussion in Sim Threads – This is my biggest gripe. Why does no one post in the Sim threads? Is it not allowed or has it fallen out of fashion? It was a great place to discuss the up and down swings of a season. Now it’s done in shout but different folks have different schedules. An example is in sim 9 I went 10-0. Ank made a comment about the Celtics going off. I love hearing about my team. I am a simple fool who lives for the recognition of comments like this. Had I checked shout an hour later I would have completely missed this comment. If the sim thread was active Ank would have posted this comment there and I would have seen it regardless of when I checked the board leading to the high of human recognition being cemented in the board rather than the whims of shout.
- Consistency – One of the biggest strengths of the current league is the consistency. More than balancing, profiles or player grades the reliability of eric strengthens the league. I disagree with eric on a few things (wheel placement, inability to be the least bit flexible) but his reliability forms habits that reinforces our activity. He has Pavoloved us with his ability for timely and consistent sims. Active GMs have an unconscious internal clock that goes off right around sim time and we come hoping for that mythical 10-0 sim.
- Defense - I still have no idea about how defense works, can someone explain to me. Now I pretty much look for steals and blocks. I have no idea about anything else. There must be some correlation with drive defense, post defense, right? The mechanics article doesn't talk about it too much.
- Slow Down on 7.0 – This has no basis in anything other than me being selfish. Grade inflation is here but not debilitating. I am finally starting to get going and I don’t want the carpet swept out from the surging Boston Celtics. As soon as folks started to see inflation they seem to have pounced on 7.0, let’s slow down a bit. How does the process work for migrating to 7.0, do we have to have a majority vote? How do the changes work, do we vote on them or are they decrees by the commish? Was it 3.0 where we tried different software, any thoughts on that again. I liked that change but at the time no on else did. Could be a good changeup for folks especially with eric's skill at conveying information from the software. That's wizardry to me. Wait, let's not start thinking about 7.0. Stay focused on 6.0.
