*S23 End-of-Season Rookie Survey

[DarknessRising]

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I would like to first thank Bex and HO for giving me the opportunity to do this for you and the league.

Hello all readers, this media article will be the analysis/results of the S23 rookies survey that I ran with the guidance of HO to help better understand how the class felt in their personal experience of the league and what could potentially be done in the future for the benefit of the league. Whilst you will see what each question was below, let me give a quick summary of what was asked. There were 26 questions in total, the first section was basic info to allow me to track who completed and is being kept anonymous besides the question regarding being a newbie or recreate. The second section of questions pertained to first impressions of the site, particularly interested to see what new users felt and struggled with the most since it’s a common complaint that pops up. The third section dealt with thoughts and feelings of the DSFL season whilst the fourth section was about the offseason, NSFL league and any other feedback. Most questions used a Likert scale to rank how they felt, where 1 was really bad/confused/hard and 7 meaning perfect/fun/easy etc. There were a handful of short answer questions and some open-ended questions for any suggestions or feedback they may have been that they wanted to give that was related to that section of the survey.

In a class that had 93 players drafted in the NSFL, most people I’ve talked to say there is roughly 60 people active. Out of this, there were 20 responses submitted so on behalf of HO and myself, truly thank you for your participation and feedback you have given to this project. This leads into my very first suggestion for the future and that is to do this every ear with the draft class during the offseason and maybe make it a special PT for them that offers 2 or 3 TPE to ensure we get the most feedback possible. Furthermore, multiple commented saying this was a good idea, even going as far that I or someone else, should do this every season and I will take this chance to publicly state I support this and am happy to do this every season.

Having 20 responses makes the data and graph easy to understand, every person equates to 5%.. The only question in the first section that will be made public, to keep everyone able to be as honest as possible for the good of the league, is the amount of newbie players to recreates.



Out of the respondents, three-quarters of them were newbies which I feel shows a good rate of increase of fresh blood into the league. This however is probably the most susceptive question to inaccuracy without a large proportion of the rookie class answer it.

[div align=\\\"centre\\\"]----Section 2 - First Impressions of the Site----[/div]

This section was not mandatory to complete as it was mainly for newbies opinions and up to recreates if they wanted to complete it or not. To see how this league spreads and attracts new people, the survey asked them where they found out about this league.



Reddit and sim leagues are definitely the biggest sources of people for this league. Note also that friends and sim league did sometimes overlap, and I put them into only one category but there is probably more overlap between the two since being in a sim league might have led them to meet someone who introduced this league to them. The data was as expected from this question and will be somewhat close to these every season unless it’s a big reddit class.

When we do get a new user onto the site and into the league, one of if not the very first thing they need to do is create a player. Without a system that enables it to be easily done, people will just close tab and go onto something else as their first impression matters a lot.



As evident, it seems the creation of your player isn’t a difficult process for most to get their head around the creation of the player. The average response is a 5.25 with three quarters of respondents rating the experience above average. It seems as though the trouble with first coming into the site does not have to do with the creation of the player, but other factors. One respondent suggested automating this process, making me think of how joining in another sim league is done through google forums and drop-down boxes that is then submitted and waited to be approved. A system like this will ensure creation is even simpler but seems as though it may not be necessary and hard to replicate with all the different positions, archetypes and info that goes into player creation.

Onto the next question, which was always going to be the most interesting to me personally, as everyone, even vets of the league, have complaints about the way the forum is structured and navigating it.



navigating it.
It is evident that unlike player creation, there is definitely more struggles navigating the site. The average response for the question was a 4.2 just above average but over half the responses are either a rating of 3, 4 or 5, showing that a majority of people do not really like how the forum is laid out. This is something HO knows is a common thread between users and is investigating for a while how to do something about it, the problem is most certainly known about.

This leads onto the next question, which was an open-ended question asking what the participants thought was the biggest problem with the site layout for new players who joined the league. Everyone that gave an answer had some negative component into it. Generally, the biggest complaints is just how spread out everything is, important links and sections like PT’s and update pages are hard to find when you have no idea where you are going. A more common response was linking PT’s and that the PT thread is a bit too far down for something that is extremely important to perform as a user. After time, participants said they did learn and its just that first impression of it being quite chaotic with lots of different tabs and sub-threads to learn can put a user off. I personally think it was confusing when first joining but after a couple weeks, you learn all the actions and it just becomes normal to go to all the different sections you need to. It can be streamlined and improved, but if that is too hard to, a system to help new people, maybe providing links to the most crucial areas and explaining what they are for when creating a player, in the rookie guide or something similar may be a band aid solution for now.


[div align=\\\"center\\\"]----Section 3 - DSFL Season----[/div]

The DSFL seems like a precious gem. For being a developmental league and at times very frustratingly weird comes game time with how TPE limits certain key skills and the absurd amount of penalties, everyone seems to fondly remember their DSFL time. This sentiment is echoed throughout the responses to the questions.



Not one participant rated felling unhappy with joining the league after their season spent in the DSFL. It shows that people are actively engaged in this league and that the DSFL season does a good job of keeping people happy and interested.



This question further emphasis the view of the positive vibes the DSFL gives to the new users. Almost everyone came in happy and excited to join the league and start the season and all but 1 person were either as happy or happier. Keeping the same happiness from the start of the season is just as good as increasing it as people come in very pumped up for the league. That one ‘No’ response hints there may be some downside to how the DSFL operates but I’m sure that person is still committed to the league, rather just didn’t enjoy the season.

Understanding how users feel about the games is just as important as how they feel overall in the league. At the end of the day, its dots on a screen that we all want to see succeed and if these dots aren’t doing well or the quality of the streams aren’t good enough, the retention rate of players would drop



At the end of the day, its dots on a screen that we all want to see succeed and if these dots aren’t doing well or the quality of the streams aren’t good enough, the retention rate of players would drop. As seen above, 90% of participants are enjoying or at least alright with how the DSFL games went. 10% however were a little disappointed, giving a rating of 3. It is in the nature of the DSFL and the rules surrounding it that it isn’t going to be completely fair and competitive as some teams lose everyone to call ups whilst others start the season will a much higher amount of capped or high TPE players. Whilst not much can be done about that, it is crucial to keep this in mind to not let the balance go too far and have some teams no chance at being competitive.

As the league’s developmental league, the DSFL isn’t where the heart of the action is and so I put it to the participants to see if they feel that the DSFL gets the attentions it requires for its needs.



Overwhelming yet again, is there positive sentiment in the DSFL and the participants feel as though that the DSFL is been taken care of by the higher ups. 35% of people either don’t have an opinion or feel as though HO could put a little more time into the DSFL. HO now has a separate DSFL committee, the thusly named DSFL HO that should be a lot more attentive with their focus solely on the needs and wants of the DSFL so that should help continue to maintain the DSFL as a fun and looked after aspect of this league.


An important aspect of the DSFL league is fostering the new players that come, teaching them the league and how to do complete PT’s, the rules and systems that are in place and to get them engaged in the league to stay active. A lot of this comes onto the team’s GM’s to keep an active, likeable LR and to make sure the rookies on their team get any help they need in order to succeed. The next questions looks into this idea.



Another overwhelmingly positive response though I would argue this is a very invalid question at the same time. Whilst everyone who participated say GM’s keep them active and earning, 85% said they also make them engaged in the league. The problem with this question is that the most active users in the class are more than likely the participants in this survey. As a result. It is very probable that this question ends up in a state of heavy bias, where those who answer are only going to feel a certain way. Players that went IA would be the users who say no to this question. Due to this, this data can be taken very cautiously.

An important aspect about the DSFL and NSFL league is that as more and more active user come in, players are more likely to have to spend more time in the DSFL by being sent down. This is especially true for the Quarterback position and seen a lot more often for offensive position players due to the higher amount of them. If the DSFL was an environment that people enjoyed or was satisfactory, they therefore shouldn’t mind being sent down to play another year.



Clearly, the DSFL has been well loved this season. Only one person would not enjoy or at least be content with being sent down, whilst 45% of people rated it as either a 6 or 7. It just becomes more and more apparent that the this class really enjoyed their time spent here and that the teams have raised a good connection to their players for them to so overwhelmingly enjoy if they were sent down again.

Just to further establish an idea of the connection players have to their DSFL team and to transition into the section about the NSFL, they were asked if they were happy/hyped to join a NSFL team or feeling sadder and not wanting to leave their DSFL team.



It’s clear that the players still love the DSFL, with 65% feeling the same or wanting to stay in the DSFL. 35% therefore, as well as obviously seen, are excited for their future and shows that the development has worked to make people excited about what’s to come in a player’s career and ticks another box for the aims and goals of the DSFL complete.

Finally, there was another open-ended question for any suggestions or feedback about the DSFL and its processes participants had. Most participants had nothing to say, even saying they really enjoyed their experience and that the league is doing a great job. Some responses noted that the waiver system where new players are left for 48 hours as things are sorted should be looked into to not leave a user so much in the dark and, what may link to that, the need for approval to post on the forums so there is no discouragement of people who have to wait to create. Other feedback included the draft scouting and questions being very static and just the same, increasing the QB TPE cap to allow them to be more effective, scale intelligence to reduce the impact of speed and to encourage player performance and the games more than just TPE and who won. The most interesting feedback called for a full affiliation system between the NSFL and DSFL teams where they can only call up and send down from that team or alternatively send downs should be apart of a dispersal draft after the DSFL draft so a team can’t rely on send downs and it spreads them out evenly to keep the league competitive. League affiliation has been brought before but the idea of a dispersal draft I have not heard of before, though personally believe it will do as much harm as it does good as it takes players out of the teams that built a connection with and adds more chaos for the DSFL since they pretty much have to draft an entire team again between DSFL and dispersal draft.

Another general statement that was made that I do truly believe in being the case is that in “prospect zones” or discord LR, there is people that already know each other, teammates or recreates, that can sometimes make it hard for a newbie to really “break in” to the conversation or feel like they belong. I don’t think this is a dangerous or toxic problem, but there were definitely times where I felt like it was more watching others talk then talking myself just because I felt out of place. I don’t know how you would combat this but it was something that I wanted to point out as I agree with it and think just airing it out to give people awareness may be enough to try and encourage interaction with new user recruits in prospect zones or prospect sections of LR’s.

[div align=\\\"centre\\\"]----Section 4 - Off-season and the DSFL----[/div]
As this survey was done before the draft took place, set up very soon after the championship games, there was some draft-related questions that will be quickly summarised.




The drafts are by far some of the most thrilling and hype moments so its no wonder the prospects rated their excitement so high. In the second graph, we can clearly see that the NSFL draft has even more hype surrounded, probably due to it being the big league, in the eyes of a large percentage of the participants. Comments as well throughout the survey highlighted that the draft process is the best out of other sim leagues and super enjoyable. I personally thought it might be cool if people who were some of the most highly mocked to go in round 1 were in a “green room” discord can and when picked can come into the stream and say their bit.

With the draft, came scouting questions and most teams like to get to know how the user feels to their team. Some people may not want to play for certain teams who are rebuilding or just branded the way they are. This questions then, seeing how many teams a player doesn’t want to play for, might give an indication as to the statistics behind this.



Over half of the respondents are willing to go to anytime but surprisingly to me, 30% have 1 team they don’t want to go to. Whilst specifically not asking for teams, I think there might be some ideas to who it might be. 2 people had 3 teams they didn’t want to play for, which still left 75% of the teams on the table, which whilst ideally would be all of them, is still a good rate that I think reflet the good management of all the teams.

As each season goes to the off-season, a big factor in teams is regression, thinking if new draftees will be ready to take over or if they don’t need to get a replacement just yet. Asking the participants how many seasons they think they might do with their player also shows how much they might be dedicated to this league.



Besides the 1 answer of 0 which I don’t understand, it seems majority of people will go all the way until regression hits, where a few will then retire whilst other will mainly go to 10 seasons, 2-3 seasons after regression. There is one person who may be planning to go all the way, which would be interesting to see. This is as I expected because regression hits hard and can quickly take you out of the best player for your position, either not being able to fully succeed like a user might want to, even hindering their team when really deep in regression by having to play them.

The last question in the survey that I thought is important enough to be in here is the plans of payers to be active. Moving to the big leagues where user see the real action taking place, might become more active and involved in the league, whilst others may feel a little more detached since there is more to quickly understand and learn.



This shows some great sings from the participants of the survey. If all participants maintain or even increase their activity, its only going to mean good things for their players, teams and the league as a whole because it is all built on active, engaged players who make the league what it is.

[div align=\\\"center\\\"]----Conclusion----[/div]

That concluded all the main question worth nothing in this write-up of the results. What wasn’t mentioned isn’t really needed or as important and I wanted to try and keep the length of this down so more people would read it fully. Lastly, participants were asked if they had any comments they wanted to make at all about this league. I would like to thank those that did answer this with a very wide and strange array of answers. There was the praising of HO for their work, even myself included for doing this survey so thank you for that the compliments. The other more serious comments further noted how impressive our draft system is and that the draft cards made for each player is so much work and impressive. On the improvement sides, the 3 mentioned were bringing back 2x media for money, personally I think there is too much money in the league but enjoy the added boost to see what others that don’t usually post articles come up with. Secondly, someone suggested more TPE opportunities and work out how to try and sway teams to use different setups. I’m not sure if we need more TPE opportunities or to redo the upgrade scale to make the TPE that is earned more valuable to not overdo the workload for some people who are quite busy. In terms of swaying teams to use different setups, it will definitely be awesome to see teams that have different strengths, run game, pass game, secondary or DL rushes etc. but with the sim and the research put into it by people like Isteg with his famed articles, there is only so much that can be done before teams might be hindered since the optimum strategy is already known. Thirdly, and briefly, someone mentioned the forbidden e word…..expansion.

One more time, I would like to thank those that participated in this survey and HO for giving me this opportunity to help give back to the league and try to improve it. I would definitely enjoy seeing this doing every season, even running it myself every season with pretty much the same survey to compare data.

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3497 words with 16 graphs/tables

[The_Kidd]

I know it's a hot topic but who would know how difficult it would be to change the archetypes around to help incentivize people choosing other players?

1. Qb's need to striking differences in strength and weaknesses.

- Pocket passers should have max IQ and low speed and agility(70 max)
- Gunslinger should have max arm strength and limited IQ(80-85 max)
- Game Manager should not have a max over 90 on anything because a true game manger is not elite at anything, they just do enough not to get benched.
- Mobile is the same as gunslinger, should have an IQ capped around 75-80
- a 5th all-round archetype could possibly be used in place of mobile where all the main attributes for throwing and running are capped between 85-90 but the endurance can only be 80 max

2. Running backs need a similar overhaul as no one wants to be a blocking back(perhaps raise the blocking, strength, intelligence, and agility) or receiving back(max agility and hands, lower strength)

3. Perhaps QB's and RB's should regress a year earlier, OL, DL, TE regress a year later to influence more turnover

4. If you position switch to OL, DL, TE then you dont lose TPE.

5. Make OL and DL cheaper to build or start them on a higher floor

6. The speed attribute needs to be more expensive, literally the number one mantra that is conveyed is in order to win --- max speed, regardless of your position. It would be cool to see people build their other attributes first and then grind a season out to finally max their speed

7. This is a radical one, no free position switch until you played at least 2 seasons in the NSFL --- too many times players are coerced to position switch if they want to go to a favorable situation. Forces some teams to actually scout instead of chasing down active people and playing passive snake oil salesman.

Everyone wants to be a QB or RB, everyone is running nickel defense, everyone runs pass heavy offense if they want to win titles. Some more variety in playbooks, roster construction, and transactions could really electrify this league. Like I said before, "there's not enough business decisions" for an authentic experience. Oh and to speak on that, GM picks in the NSFL should be 1st round picks because the player you're drafting is more valuable than just an active high earner.