S84 Town Hall 5

[Mike Lowry]

Seems like we're approaching the "cruise control" period of the season, where I expect to start seeing a ton of "same" in the DCs around the league.
Is there anything we can do to increase engagement and activity in this stretch?
Or does it boil down to an inevitable period of playing out the games to see who built the best hand?
What would you suggest?

Rules: 1 point if you give thoughtful answers, which I will award after the timer ends for responses. The timer ends for responses at the moment the corresponding week's Sim is run.

Note: Use approximately 5 sentences as your bare minimum for 1 point. If you write 3 long, complex sentences, you'll still get a point. If you write 5, 3 word sentences, you will not get a point. Don't @ me.

Due: Due by the deadline for sim 7

[IamQuailman]

Seems like we're approaching the "cruise control" period of the season, where I expect to start seeing a ton of "same" in the DCs around the league.
Is there anything we can do to increase engagement and activity in this stretch?
Or does it boil down to an inevitable period of playing out the games to see who built the best hand?
What would you suggest?

I don't know if we can really do anything to force engagement more than we already do with Pick 'ems and Town Halls. People will make trades, and that will keep them privately engaged until trade deadline. People on the fringes of the playoffs may tinker with DCs. But honestly, I don't know if there's much you can do to force engagement. Although, I will say engagement tends to be at an all-time high on the discord weekly. So if you aren't on the discord server, even passively, I'd recommend joining just to poke around... we've had some old heads pop in just to chat (False9/Andy, Garbageman/Josh, yankeesman/Nick to name a few).. you don't have to check in everyday... and it's nice because the variety of channels allow you to participate in semi-targeted conversations. So I encourage non-Discordians to JOIN US

[WigNosy]

I generally feel each season of sim league is split into several phases:
1. Rookie Draft - Tends to be a lot of chatter and activity as GMs jockey to improve their core, especially via trade since this is the first time a new set of assets (the rookie players) become available.
2. Free Agency - Lots of activity as teams prep their bids, a lot less trade talk. Maybe RFA this year improves that.
3. Preseason through Sim 2 - Everyone is usually pretty excited about their teams prospects so there is a lot of chatter but trade talks are a bit muted because of the 60 day rule. Some deals are usually getting done to be executed for 12/15 but we don’t hear much about them and generally GMs are waiting for a large enough sample size with their team.
4. Sim 3 through Sim 8 - The secondary trading frenzy (rookie draft season often has more moves). Depending on the year, more or fewer deals get done, but this is when teams are talking to each other most,
5. Sim 9 - Sim 12 - Everyone is playing out the string (more on this in a minute). No roster moves can be made, and there is only so much impact coaching can have. This is usually the “quiet time” in the league, and I’m not sure there is a way to change that “naturally” (though something like “bonus points for media in this period” could be a stimulant).
6. Playoffs - Half the league starts this period checked out (those not in the playoffs), and as elimination continues, more teams join the list. Not a lot can get done until the lotto order is decided anyway because nobody with a top pick knows exactly where their pick will fall. This could be improved by holding a manual lottery during the playoffs and using that order to adjust picks manually instead of relying on FBB to determine the lotto results during the offseason.

Another quick thought: coaching/game planning can’t do a lot during the regular season because you are facing 6 to 9 different lineups every sim. It becomes more important in the playoffs when your opponent is fixed - you have just 1 lineup to scheme against and you can try to exploit matchups, but I think that is why you see a lot of “same” toward the end of the regular season - changing your lineup to match up with Game 2 in your set of games is likely to disadvantage you in Game 5, so why bother? I don’t think we can easily change that without significant restructuring of how sims are run.

[Mike Lowry]

I can't help drawing on Wig's post. I like the idea of getting the draft lotto moved forward.
I think that draws the tanking teams back much sooner and relieves the hangover of playoff elimination that much shorter.
I myself was thinking bounties or in season tournament.
Couple points for the team who beats the top team by the most points, couple points for the team that causes the most injuries, couple points for the team who sustains the most injuries, most points in a single game, least points in a single game, plenty of possibilities.
Also, enhanced media scoring might lift some spirits, but I would suggest that we expedite the sims similar to the playoffs. Once all the DC's are submitted we run the sim right away and turn the 2 week stretch into a couple of days. This might be ADHD though. It will just cycle seasons faster and clean up parade confetti at a speed that might take away from hard won championships.
As a devil's advocate, maybe the dry spell is necessary to build excitement for the playoff run.
Might need that time to breathe and recover.
Who Knows??

[K-100]

I think folks will find ways to stay engaged if they want to this time of the season even if they are in "cruise control". Teams will tank, showcase their rookies, or decide to meme and/or produce media to build up their banks. I dont think we need to find ways to increase activity. Just let people do what they want to do and the engagement will come naturally.

[greepleairport]

Seems like we're approaching the "cruise control" period of the season, where I expect to start seeing a ton of "same" in the DCs around the league.
Is there anything we can do to increase engagement and activity in this stretch?
Or does it boil down to an inevitable period of playing out the games to see who built the best hand?
What would you suggest?

Cruise control does feel like sim league once sim 8 is simmed, and it's not yet the playoffs. I like that acknowledgement.

I think rewarding teams for at least typing 'same' three times a week drives engagement, even if it feels...same-y. I think the Town Halls drive engagement. @logpmess has another 5-on-5 in the works, driving engagement. Pick'em will drive ongoing engagement. I think some GMs are just going to check out either way, but I do think the only way to avoid that is thru incentives (point earning measures), and even then some GMs just won't do it.

But for now, we're just waiting to see whether or not Magic Johnson gets injured, guaranteeing the Blazers the top seed, or if the Blazers catch up anyway. ...They might!!

[AngryBanana]

Is there anything we can do to increase engagement and activity in this stretch?

No. Even if you think of new ways to get engagement, the GM will ultimately still do what ever they do. Nothing will change that engagement, especially once the trade deadline happens for a portion of the league who are not competing. Then as wig pointed out, it will only dwindle until the offseason as more teams fall off. We all have our own ways of playing, and a new “thing” will not deviate GMs too much from how they operate I think.

Or does it boil down to an inevitable period of playing out the games to see who built the best hand?
I think some of it is actually because GMs will avoid burnout. I know at times I like to have the ability to turn off my SLOE brain. I will sometimes enjoy the long builds with intentionally bad seasons in order to go “same” do the few things needed each sim, and then go about my day.

What would you suggest?
Nothing that I can think of. We have so many means to get points as it is, that I think there should be no reason to add more means for people to get points. And like I previously mentioned, I think any means to generate more involvement will ultimately not fuel a large intake of new involvement that was not previously there.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[logpmess]

Seems like we're approaching the "cruise control" period of the season, where I expect to start seeing a ton of "same" in the DCs around the league.
Is there anything we can do to increase engagement and activity in this stretch?
Or does it boil down to an inevitable period of playing out the games to see who built the best hand?
What would you suggest?

Rules: 1 point if you give thoughtful answers, which I will award after the timer ends for responses. The timer ends for responses at the moment the corresponding week's Sim is run.

Note: Use approximately 5 sentences as your bare minimum for 1 point. If you write 3 long, complex sentences, you'll still get a point. If you write 5, 3 word sentences, you will not get a point. Don't @ me.

Due: Due by the deadline for sim 7

There is no real reason for much activity right now. Sim to Sim, teams are either only looking at wins/losses. It's been said already, but there were no real reason to adjust D/Cs because you play so many different people. Right now, everyone is on injury watch. The only thing that happens is playoff seeding and lottery seeding.

The only thing I could suggest is maybe a double point for articles/media. Or an extra incentive for being involved. I think it would need to be more regulated. Not just putting out anything. Maybe we could do a mid-season press conference. But the only real way to even be involved from here out is through media.

[BigDaddyd8720]

Is there anything we can do to increase engagement and activity in this stretch?
Or does it boil down to an inevitable period of playing out the games to see who built the best hand?
What would you suggest?

I think we get into this dead period because people are waiting for the trade deadline. Once this sim ends, I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing some movement from teams either trying to make one final push or teams trying to sell off assets for a better draft spot. The bottom teams seem to be waiting for the right time to sell while the fringe playoff teams are going to be active. Once we hit the trade deadline, then you're really gonna see people coasting to the finish line. I also think people are having a hard time finding time to write articles. It's difficult to find something new and not trying to be repetitive.

[TheSyndicate]

Seems like we're approaching the "cruise control" period of the season, where I expect to start seeing a ton of "same" in the DCs around the league.
Is there anything we can do to increase engagement and activity in this stretch?
Or does it boil down to an inevitable period of playing out the games to see who built the best hand?
What would you suggest?

Due: Due by the deadline for sim 7

Sim Vegas helps with activity, at least for me. Makes me pay attention. That said, it is the slog of the season and not every piece of the season can be the one that is the most exciting. Media and town halls help (so thank you for this one), and I think everyone is chasing them media points, so I dunno. I think it just is what it is!

[Xist2Inspire]

Seems like we're approaching the "cruise control" period of the season, where I expect to start seeing a ton of "same" in the DCs around the league.
Is there anything we can do to increase engagement and activity in this stretch?
Or does it boil down to an inevitable period of playing out the games to see who built the best hand?
What would you suggest?

Like others have said, there's really not much that can be done. The Town Halls have been great, and the Pick 'Em also helps. Outside of finding ways to expand those concepts, I can't think of much else to do. The period where engagement is needed most is after the deadline, not before, so perhaps any ideas need to be target towards that period. In all seriousness, this has been a rather active season so far. I feel like there's been at least one move to discuss every sim. We're already at the ASG break, and it feels like we just started.

[Mike Lowry]

@IamQuailman
@WigNosy
@Mike Lowry
@K-100
@greepleairport
@AngryBanana
@logpmess
@BigDaddyd8720
@TheSyndicate
@Xist2Inspire

+1 point