I saw an old reddit comment on a simulation hockey league recruitment post. It read something like "You guys make money from ad revenue and from more members".
Perhaps this wasn't verbatim, but they were insinuating the same. This led me to question, does this guy have a point? Does the Simulation Hockey League manipulate its users into joining for some monetary gain? Reddit, being the 'front page of the internet', has a certain type of user who comments on such niche posts. It may sound like I am taking offense to their innocuous comment, but typically a reddit poweruser tends to subscribe to a certain set of biases and predetermined values as they are influenced by media, algorithm, and opinions of the periphery of articles and entertainment they consume.
So, where exactly would we start?
People. People are subject to the influence of others. People are pack animals, they desire belonging, purpose, community. Traditionally, people would gather on the sabbath, for family dinners, community gatherings and such. Long since are the days of tin cans on a string, sunday service, tandem bicycles, baseball cards and glass coke bottles.
The digital age presents new cultural challenges. Cynicism of tradition, rejection of what is immediate and comfortable in pursuit of novelty. People are eager, ready, willing and able to simply "belong". It appears as if the traditional method of belonging to what Christopher Lasch's "Three F's", (Family, Folk and Faith) have been replaced by consumer identities. That is, identities that can be disposed of, developed, bought and sold.
In the past 5 years specifically, it can be argued that each individual's access to a global network of inalienable and infinite methods of communication have influenced their choice. There are endless avenues of community. Global lockdown expedited the search for digital community.
Liberal, Conservative, Dissident, Coffee Junkie, Travelling Enthusiast, INTJ, INFP (or the 14 other useless myers-briggs creations), Hip-Hop Head, Gamestop Stock Ape. What do these identities have in common? Besides looking like buzzwords from a remote email job terminally online millenial twitter biography, all identities listed are consumable, and disposable. At the root of it, they're all consumer identities that promote acquisition of goods and social capital.
Someone in search of belonging is vulnerable. Collectivism and community are arguably the most attractive and unique dynamics of the forum. I dislike using the term postmodern, due to political grifters and entertainers oversaturating the term since 2016, but for the sake of brevity, I will use it. David Foster Wallace described postmodernism as rejection of agency, irony saturated, and insincere. The cynical, power-reductionist postmodernist may state that vulnerable lonely losers may flock to the Simulation Hockey League, and that the Simulation Hockey League as an entity requires something from the user. (This is very normie like the reddit commenter).
Political talking heads like Stephen Crowder and Matt Walsh convince young men that they're a key part of a dissident faction of mass moral correction. They then attempt to sell these men epic new coffee mugs symbolizing their newly acquired values.
Politicians performatively demand social change and apologize profusely for their role in oppression while funding their vacations with the working class dollar. This is of course permissible, so long as they continually sloganize trendy peasant social movements.
Simulation hockey league doesn't demand a dollar. However, the end of season survey asked "would you consider donating $1 monthly to support website fees".
I responded yes, I would seriously consider it. I sit here today considering the same. The question begs, is the Simulation Hockey League, in a rentier economy a source of manipulation as a means to an end to exploit its users for capital? I'm certain that members would implicitly 'unionize' should membership fees become the standard - there are other modes of satisfying the sports-sim urge. The SHL does it best, in my opinion, due to the community. This prompt in the survey, to me, is an example that money is an afterthought, rather than a necessity.
The reductionist argument against the Simulation Hockey League is insufficient. David Foster Wallace was correct in stating that postmodernism as a cultural movement, is coming to a close. Screens, lights, gambling, games, work, death, commuting, social media. In the overstimulated West, sometimes the answer is simple - people are busy, and just want to kick it in a role-playing sports simulator. Perhaps there does not need to be an explanation, or an analysis. Perhaps cynicism is a boring, life denying quality and trait that many of us are tired of speaking of.
The Simulation Hockey League bridges the gap between irony and sincerity. Members of the Simulation Hockey League community collaboratively curate media, podcasts, and streams (most notably, hockey talk tonight). Media, podcasts and streams generate money in the meta-real; in the universe, or the game developed by the collective.
Perhaps the only sufficient capitalist critique against the simulation hockey league is that oldhead users whose SHL bank accounts are in the millions have a higher draft stock. Perhaps they should share the wealth with users like me. There is an argument that in the meta-real, there is a capitalist critique to be had - As in oldhead users are more capable of upgrading and developing their player, due to hoarding their millions of dollars they receive, all while taking league minimum. Perhaps this would read more true when the Steelhawks were dominating when the league lacked all forms of parity. With that being said, the draft may offset concerns of teams hoarding players with large bank accounts, or at least deferring the problem until after their ELC.
I guess what I am trying to say, is that I should be given some money from long term SHL power users, as I will be going into detail about my new suggested SHL policies. I hope you all consider my criticism of this 2 year old comment on reddit. The reddit user smugly proclaimed that the simulation hockey league was exploitative, while having a wall of funko pops and snes collection.
02-19-2024, 12:46 PM(This post was last modified: 02-19-2024, 12:47 PM by bbjygm. Edited 1 time in total.)
02-19-2024, 12:31 PMBongo Wrote: Simulation hockey league doesn't demand a dollar. However, the end of season survey asked "would you consider donating $1 monthly to support website fees".
Server fees get larger the more we grow, just gotta remind people that the owners will otherwise pay out of pocket if the donations dry up and then there's less guarantee for the stability of the league.
02-19-2024, 12:31 PMBongo Wrote: Perhaps the only sufficient capitalist critique against the simulation hockey league is that oldhead users whose SHL bank accounts are in the millions have a higher draft stock. Perhaps they should share the wealth with users like me.
If we could share wealth I'd have divvied mine out to my team long ago. Old users tend to be more likely to have a couple forms of income so they keep pace with coaching, but once you cross a threshold you just have nowhere to spend your money.
Also, I agree this is very long-winded to achieve the word count. Good job, and hope it's a good payday!
02-19-2024, 12:46 PMbbjygm Wrote: Server fees get larger the more we grow, just gotta remind people that the owners will otherwise pay out of pocket if the donations dry up and then there's less guarantee for the stability of the league.
If we could share wealth I'd have divvied mine out to my team long ago. Old users tend to be more likely to have a couple forms of income so they keep pace with coaching, but once you cross a threshold you just have nowhere to spend your money.
Also, I agree this is very long-winded to achieve the word count. Good job, and hope it's a good payday!
I remember in s22 days when we use to spend. 25 per tpe. They invested all that money into Apple and Microsoft stock, and then sold the stock to buy moon plots
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