Taking the Leap to Online Play

Pax25 · Post by **Pax25** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 7:17 am

I'm an experienced online strategy wargamer (and former ice hockey player), where we all have to meet once a week at the same time for 3 hours to advance our online wargame, so this sounds like very little time commitment in comparison. In fact, it sounds a lot like fantasy football (which I also play), where you log in everyday or a couple times a week and check on your team. So if there's room in the NMHL, count me in.

This may be a stupid question, and I read the lenghty discussion/argument at the bottom of this sub-forum, but it sounds like TBL is willing to support a separate forum(s), with sub-forums for various online leagues, so why wouldn't the various leagues move there forums here? I think if people saw all the activity going on with the existing leagues it would encourage them to play.

Post by **getzlaf15** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 5:04 pm

To be honest Pax, i thought the same thing...

Why have all these links to different sites when we can have the forums all together. I know it's not my decision and we'd need to see what Arch, Calv, the TBL community, J (NBHL) and Shooter (DMNHL) think of it and if they would allow it.

Online play is a different side to EHM which I fear not enough people try. And what better way to advertise the leagues than to have it on a site where most EHMer's visit?

Pax, have you taken over a team online yet? I seen that you signed up on NBHL and i know there is a spot on. Either CLB or ANA. Just wonderin if you have spoken to J yet?

Post by **shooter_80** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 8:57 pm

Great question Pax!

This was discussed thoroughly when the original discussions about the partnership between DMHNL and TBL were being had. It was thought to be the best thing for now to do it the way it is. This allows people to be introduced to online play and still allows the commissioners of those leagues to have full control over the content of their league forums. It does not mean that some day that leagues will not fully jump over to TBL but we needed to get something started first. We thought the way it is set up is a good first step.

I hope that gives you a decent answer - I realise it is a short one but the full answer would be an absolute novel!

We hope to see you as a GM in DMHNL or NBHL soon!

Please feel free to msg me if you have any questions about online play or are just up for a chat about EHM in general.

Pax25 · Post by **Pax25** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 12:23 am

getzlaf15 wrote: Pax, have you taken over a team online yet? I seen that you signed up on NBHL and i know there is a spot on. Either CLB or ANA. Just wonderin if you have spoken to J yet?

Yes, I contacted J through PM on this site, downloaded MSN, and signed up on the NBHL forum. I've tried contacting him a couple times today via MSN so I can get started but have not heard back. I need someone to guide me through downloading EHM 2005 (since I have 2007), unless it as simple as downloading 2007 and downloading the 07 patch?

To shooter_80, Thanks for answering my question, I agree this seems like a good first step, however, I'd be fearful there may be no more online EHM community if the two sides don't merge soon.

Pax25 · Post by **Pax25** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 7:06 pm

Update: I got 2005 downloaded and took over the Columbus Blue Jackets yesterday. Mostly rearranged their lines and tactics, and got my scouting network going. Had first sim today and the team went 2-1-0.

Just wanted to say thanks to all the people who helped get me get started. For any fellow Blue Liners looking to get started with online play, have no fear, everyone is really helpful and will guide your through the process.

markiemark66 · Post by **markiemark66** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 10:15 pm

Yeah Pax25 I did the same thing but took over the Canadians. Did you join dmhnl? First thing I did was go over staff and make some offers especially in the scouting area. Now the scouting network is spreading its' tentacles across the hockey world.

I sit just below a playoff rank. For a league and player i have no idea about i'd like to make the playoffs but i think rebuilding for next year might be the wise choice. dunno.

Yes and thanks to Shooter80 for all the headsup.

Pax25 · Post by **Pax25** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 5:26 am

Nope I joined the NBHL. No particular reason why except that happened to be the league that had a spot open.

Post by **shooter_80** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 10:52 am

Glad to see you both Pax and Markiemark to have joined an online league. I am in both NB and DM (I run DM and hence the immediate association with TBL) so I will be able to chat with both of you on MSN.

My advice - stay with one league until you have familiarized yourself with online play. I think Getzlaf (in NB) can back me on this as he has done so and came over from TBL as well. You will get to a point though where you are itching to make more trades or have set your team to the way you like it. This is the point when I joined another league.

Smart plan Markiemark - scouting is key when you join these leagues. As you can imagine both are db's that you wont be familiar with. DM is in 2024 so you will not know any of the players until you have scouted and NB, in 2007, has an edited db which isnt used anywhere else.

Either way, it is a pretty close community and I believe both leagues work well together. Wil, Drew, and J are doing a great job on NB and I believe Getzlaf has been starting to help out as well (sorry if I missed anyone). Both leagues offer up something different because of the time difference in the games. With DM being the oldest online league and longest running, it offers up a challenge similar to a faked db (although there still are a lot of known players around, ie, Crosby is 35yo). NB, being newer, still offers up playing the game with all the players you may/may not know.

Anyways - I'll stop my post here as it is starting to get long.

If you have any questions, please dont hesitate to ask!

Post by **shooter_80** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 11:14 am

Pax25 wrote:To shooter_80, Thanks for answering my question, I agree this seems like a good first step, however, I'd be fearful there may be no more online EHM community if the two sides don't merge soon.

The thing is Pax - there was a community before we partnered up with TBL. What we wanted to accomplish was opening up the idea and angle of the game to others and get the two communities working together. So partnering with TBL has helped expand the online community for sure but isnt necessarily vital to keeping online EHM alive if you know what I mean.

So going from basically no exposure at all on TBL to having our own section where we can have discussions like this is great. I also think it was just right. Where before if we had a GM leave a league, it would be recycled system most of the time where we would chat with someone that has been in a past league. Now, in both NB and DM there is a constant flow of new GM's which helps the league keep more fresh. Mind you, the odd GM does stumble their way back to a league now and then - finding new GM's is an easier task.

Having said that - merging the two would definitely have its benefits. The issue we talked about before merging is what we could handle in terms of running the league. You have to remember that people running these leagues are doing so on their own spare time. The amount of time to run a league is already at its maximum, in terms of what I can offer anyways. If we were merged onto the TBL forum, the traffic would most likely increase even more, thus creating even more work.

Other ideas were tossed around as well, such as Arch being in the middle of redesigning the TBL site. Having complete control over your own leagues forum was something that was discussed. We would be moving our forum to someone elses website and would become reliant on TBL. At the moment, these online leagues are self sufficient in a way. (I hope that makes sense and I am sure I will think of some of the other reasons originally discussed as we chat more).

I am not saying I am against having the communities merge completely and I think it could be done. I just think that we need to be careful and go through the right processes slowly if we were to make it work. It would need to be layed out in such a way that you have a general thread for EHM online with basics, such as what we have now, but then you would also need to have a forum section for each league and each of these sections can be quite large. Each league have their own way of doing things and although each are similar in a way - this is how I see how it would be layed out if it were to happen.

Please keep in mind as well - this is just on the "running the league" side of things. I am not sure about the logistics on the TBL side.

Post by **vilifyingforce** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 3:27 pm

I think us at the NB would be open to discussion, but, we moderate our site the way we feel is prudent. TBL has a different approach to their modding. I wouldn't want to have a tbl mod clip discussions or edit any info on an NB forum because it goes against tbl forum rules which us at the nb don't feel is necessary. When these gaps exist it makes it hard for everybody to come together and have a big family all under one roof. We would be open for talk though I think.