Helping the community grow

[smozoma]

It looks to me as though the NHL94 community has maxed out. We are losing people at the same rate we are gaining people.

The GDL league has 24 coaches and a few on the waiting list. The Blitz League has a couple fewer. When I started Blitz, I thought we would keep getting new guys and I could have 36 teams! (3 leagues of 12)!

Here are some ideas for helping the community grow:

• If you make NHL94 YouTube videos, post a link to http://forum.nhl94.com in the description, and add a short annotation bubble at the start and end of the vid with the link. Do this to your old existing NHL94 videos, too.
  
• Stop arguing, especially dumb things like cheap anti-USA or anti-Canada comments. No insults. Be friends or just ignore the people you don't like. People won't want to stay if they see a bunch of petty drama. I need to watch this, too
  
• If you read sports-related blogs, slip in an NHL94 online reference when appropriate (if they mention video games for example)
  

Add your own, and do your part!

Edited January 17, 2009 by smozoma

[shaftman]

good ideas.

[Guest Wags13]

Depends what you mean by community. If you mean it in terms of league participating members..then I agree with you..if you mean it in terms of new people finding the site and forum, and regular games (lg, exhibition, 2 v 2 pick up games, etc)..I'd actually say we are growing slightly.

The league aspect of it is losing steam because when I first joined there were limited leagues. GDL, Classic Lg were about the only leagues available regularly. Capitalism, Blitz, Dynasty, Fixed, 2009 rom league, all jumped up in a very short time and I think it caused league fatigue- haha i coin that! This plus the implosing of the SNES community, makes it seem like there is lack of activity. Plus there is a fatigue factor that happens with the individual player- hence the farewell tour and retirement threads.. you know what always happens though, its like the Godfather 3: "Everytime I try to leave they keep pulling me back in"

[hokkeefan]

I think in some drunk rant last year I said this site would have problems in population growth but I dont remember what I said would help haha......this is NHL94 and alot of us old timers who were taken by this game and couldnt let it go are coming to and end due to most of us getting close to 40 years old( the original nhl94ers) when were dealing with mortgages and vehicle payments and have no time to sit on a pc and play this game anymore unfortunately .......but I see your point at pushing it whenever were at another site ...but the point is the nhl94 game is probably laughable to these new kids who have 360's and ps3's and are all next gen.The older breed is the foundation of this game and in time its going to obviously lose its luster to new gen people. In consequence this community will plateau.Which is too bad but I think this community will always get enough new blood to go for many,many years to come......but I will try to have as many kids as possible and brainwash them with nhl94 ...LONG LIVE THE COMMUNITY !!!!

[The Russian Rocket]

Well what about me? I have a 360 and NHL 09 and still need my 94' pill.

NHL 09=Close to perfect simulation

NHL 94=Close to perfect arcade.

[Evan]

Hey guys,

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On Smozoma's comments:

It is true that since a lot of threads here lead to bickering and end in console/country wars, this will turn new people away. They read that, and don't want to get involved. It's totally understandable. We could say it forever, stop the useless arguments but hard to see that happen. Also negative comments to new users who are trying to get setup is a poor choice of posting.

I don't know what you are expecting with the community "growing". I would say it's already had its success, with the large fan base. I have never done any advertisement for this website, and you can see it doesn't really need it. Most internet users know how to search for NHL94 if they're interested in it. But feel free to plug the site.

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Wags makes a good point about league fatigue. To run and maintain a league is a huge daily task.

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Hokkee, you'll still find noobs playing NHL94 because younger guys want to play older games to see where the newer ones came from, see what all the hype was about.

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There will generally be a "cycle" of rookies/vets here. The guys who came here years ago and are now getting older so there's less time to spend playing this game and making posts (some of them are considered "retired"). The new guys, mostly high school/college guys who have plenty of time to play games and check out editing the game, poking around the site everyday. Then they'll get older and not be around as often, while the new guys will be. It will be interesting to see what becomes of the community in say 20 years, when some of us are in our 50's.

Just have to remember that not everyone who comes here is interested in just playing in leagues. There's a lot of interest in editing and modding the game to play their own simulations or even fantasy leagues. We've come a long way with this, thanks to several guys here. There's also the casual user, who really just reads up here on occasion just to see what's been going on, but don't have any desire to play online or edit the game. All types of users are welcome here as long as they aren't hurting the community, and we should honor that.

-Evan

[metzgerism]

All good points, Evan, especially this: Also negative comments to new users who are trying to get setup is a poor choice of posting.

Something that I should definitely be cognizant of.

I have a suggestion to keep everyone interested...Blitz is already doing it, and Classic has always done it (for a lack of space otherwise), but I think that every league should try to have some sort of relegation/promotion system involved. Inferior players like myself enjoy actually winning a few in our careers, so that's either done by the Capitalism-style playing of 200 games, or playing in a lower league with more evenly matched players.

I don't know if this is something we want necessarily, but if we had gotten the right number in FDL I would have split up the divisions by player strength, so that Carse and Bo and Habs were in the same division, and myself, shaft, and houli were in a different division.

I'll make a post about this for GDL6.

[smozoma]

Thanks for the insights, guys..

I've definitely been 'blindered' by my hardcore-league bias. The Capitalism league showed how strong interest in the game and site is due to its simple 'pick up and play' rules. And since i never play non-league games, I don't see the more casual guys.

Any thoughts on adding a wiki part to the site, Evan? It's nice for tutorials, since anyone can edit them when they become out of date or someone gets bored of maintaining their tutorial thread.

[addisonbr]

I was going to just post "+1" to Evan's post, but that's no fun.

It is true that since a lot of threads here lead to bickering and end in console/country wars, this will turn new people away.

I consider this one of my greatest failures as a mod, not helping to modify this culture here to eliminate the flame wars that seem to erupt every few minutes. It doesn't just turn new people away either - without going into details, some of the nonsense has driven away older vets at times as well.

Also negative comments to new users who are trying to get setup is a poor choice of posting.

I agree to the maximum. I consider jumping on new people to be a cardinal sin.

Wags makes a good point about league fatigue. To run and maintain a league is a huge daily task.

Yep, although I'd expand that definition to include participation in leagues as well. There are so many leagues floating around here that it can be exhausting. I'm not saying we should go back to one league - it would be a bummer for people who wanted to get involved to have to be on a waiting list for a long time. That would be a drag. But having a lot of leagues running at the same time can feel a little dilutive. I found that when I was in one league, I loved it. When I was in two leagues, I liked it. When I was in four leagues, I found it to be a chore.

Hokkee, you'll still find noobs playing NHL94 because younger guys want to play older games to see where the newer ones came from, see what all the hype was about. There will generally be a "cycle" of rookies/vets here. The guys who came here years ago and are now getting older so there's less time to spend playing this game and making posts (some of them are considered "retired"). The new guys, mostly high school/college guys who have plenty of time to play games and check out editing the game, poking around the site everyday. Then they'll get older and not be around as often, while the new guys will be. It will be interesting to see what becomes of the community in say 20 years, when some of us are in our 50's.

I love this game - you know I do. But I think it's going to be sort of like horse racing or the local Elk's club. If you go to a track these days, everyone is over the age of 60. Do some young folks find it and like it? Yes, but not as quickly as the old timers are dying out. Same with the local lodge - it used to be a place where guys in their 30s-50s hung out, but not today. A buddy of mine bartended at one for a while and said that it was like a retirement home, except that the members were recruiting him like crazy to join.

On the other hand, I think there are still a lot of people who loved this game in the 90s who haven't discovered this site yet and would love to be involved. And I think we will all continue to play a lot of games well into our old age - the reason only young people used to play video games isn't because they start thinking they're stupid when they get older; it's because they're the only ones who got to grow up with them.