04-11-2023, 09:20 PMHabsFanFromOntario Wrote: I do think removing the nationalism/countries from IIHF and having a created teams that recruit people to join them might be interesting. Like a fantasy drafted tournament, or individually recruited like it's colleges. Sounds fun and serves a similar purposes without tying identities to nations.

I'm against it but if this is the path chosen, then it's worth looking at designs that are "fantasy" but still echo the countries that user's are trying to emulate. It's part of the core fantasy of hockey for a player to have a birth nation, more than other north american sports leagues.

A good example of evocative fantasy is the Scythe boardgame factions. Scythe specifically is more focused on europe as an alternate history (and in 1920) but they are evocative

https://iron-harvest.fandom.com/wiki/Scythe#Factions

The base 5 are:
Republic of Polania
Saxony Empire
Crimean Khanate
Nordic Kingdoms
Rusviet Union

You can see that they are pretty obviously themed after specific regions and countries, but dont necessary carry with them a specific country. Just like the WJC in a lot of cases.

I would move that if we are going to be arbiters of what is a good and bad nation and open up the can of worms that is geopolitics, we should instead do away with literal representations and move towards evocative branding. No doubt your heads are swimming with ideas of how to brand USA or Canada without actually calling them that.

Only problem with that is that it's less inclusive by definition. What do we do with players who want to create as South East Asian or African or South American or any country not represented in the IIHF? It requires a bit of effort to accomodate every culture and country, else just not allow those sorts of distinction. idk, i think that distinction is important to a lot of players