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When I look at the people who have posted in this thread, I see very few who have played any Pub in years. Pub is the food for keeping the leagues healthy.
I play a lot of Pub, but not because it is fun. I mostly played Pub because it was good for the zone. I looked at it kind of like the cost for playing and a way to give back to the zone. If player wasn’t contributing by being on staff, or donating money to the zone; then I always felt playing Pub was the next best thing. But I understand why more players don’t contribute by playing Pub; unfortunately dumbass decisions by staffers make donating time to Pub just about meaningless. (Like holding events when Pub is struggling just to stay alive with 9-10 players.)
Yes, stacking of TWLB squad is (and has been) a real problem. Having the guy who leads our zone, after giving a interview in which he blows a lot of smoke up everyone’s ass about what is best for the zone, jump from a struggling squad to a stacked one at the start of TWL Season 20 was incredibly demoralizing. This action epitomized the selfish kind of thinking that has always plagued this zone.
There is no ‘fixing’ TWL unless the zone management is also fixed. For the first time in 17 years I am very close to not playing the zone anymore at all. Who wants to contribute to the zone at this point? Look at how many good people have been burned out trying to help this zone and TWL. Of course contributing to a community full of selfish people is not something that many smart people would want to waste their time on. But it has been up to the zone leadership to address issue this over the years and obviously they have completely failed. This failure was not due to ‘not knowing’; there were plenty of people pointing out that there were few incentives for anyone (players or staff) to ‘do the right thing’. Hell, for years the entire staff structure was setup in a way that was completely counterproductive to the health of the zone. IMO the zone often ‘rewarded’ the wrong kinds of behavior. If this is true, who is to blame for the selfish thinking of many players?
TWL follows the zone. As the quality of the zone has contracted, so has the quality of the leagues. The solution for squeezing out some more years from the zone is for both staffers and players to reinvest in contributing to the zone in one way or another. (Obviously we have to rely the support of players who have previously enjoyed the zone along with nurturing a small group of new players.) Zone leadership and players need to be selfless and make all decisions in the context of what is best for the zone, not what is ‘most fun’ for them alone. But given the actions of most existing players and staff, this doesn’t seem likely at this point. This is most evident in TWLB now, TWLD and TWLJ probably have a few more years left in them since they can be done with fewer players.
It is like TW is a local community park with basketball courts, baseball fields, soccer fields, and nice walking trails. TWL is a annual league held in this community park. Is the expectation that it is fine for TWL players to show up once a year but never ‘giving back’ to support the running of the park? On the other hand if the park is being mismanaged and has fallen into disrepair, why would anyone want to contribute their time to it? Fix the management, support the right kind of behaviors, and TWL might be able to hang in there a few more years. Continue on the current path, and TW becomes just like the HZ zone. (Zone almost completely inactive with periodic leagues in which highly skilled players fuck with each other.)
Eph
I play a lot of Pub, but not because it is fun. I mostly played Pub because it was good for the zone. I looked at it kind of like the cost for playing and a way to give back to the zone. If player wasn’t contributing by being on staff, or donating money to the zone; then I always felt playing Pub was the next best thing. But I understand why more players don’t contribute by playing Pub; unfortunately dumbass decisions by staffers make donating time to Pub just about meaningless. (Like holding events when Pub is struggling just to stay alive with 9-10 players.)
Yes, stacking of TWLB squad is (and has been) a real problem. Having the guy who leads our zone, after giving a interview in which he blows a lot of smoke up everyone’s ass about what is best for the zone, jump from a struggling squad to a stacked one at the start of TWL Season 20 was incredibly demoralizing. This action epitomized the selfish kind of thinking that has always plagued this zone.
There is no ‘fixing’ TWL unless the zone management is also fixed. For the first time in 17 years I am very close to not playing the zone anymore at all. Who wants to contribute to the zone at this point? Look at how many good people have been burned out trying to help this zone and TWL. Of course contributing to a community full of selfish people is not something that many smart people would want to waste their time on. But it has been up to the zone leadership to address issue this over the years and obviously they have completely failed. This failure was not due to ‘not knowing’; there were plenty of people pointing out that there were few incentives for anyone (players or staff) to ‘do the right thing’. Hell, for years the entire staff structure was setup in a way that was completely counterproductive to the health of the zone. IMO the zone often ‘rewarded’ the wrong kinds of behavior. If this is true, who is to blame for the selfish thinking of many players?
TWL follows the zone. As the quality of the zone has contracted, so has the quality of the leagues. The solution for squeezing out some more years from the zone is for both staffers and players to reinvest in contributing to the zone in one way or another. (Obviously we have to rely the support of players who have previously enjoyed the zone along with nurturing a small group of new players.) Zone leadership and players need to be selfless and make all decisions in the context of what is best for the zone, not what is ‘most fun’ for them alone. But given the actions of most existing players and staff, this doesn’t seem likely at this point. This is most evident in TWLB now, TWLD and TWLJ probably have a few more years left in them since they can be done with fewer players.
It is like TW is a local community park with basketball courts, baseball fields, soccer fields, and nice walking trails. TWL is a annual league held in this community park. Is the expectation that it is fine for TWL players to show up once a year but never ‘giving back’ to support the running of the park? On the other hand if the park is being mismanaged and has fallen into disrepair, why would anyone want to contribute their time to it? Fix the management, support the right kind of behaviors, and TWL might be able to hang in there a few more years. Continue on the current path, and TW becomes just like the HZ zone. (Zone almost completely inactive with periodic leagues in which highly skilled players fuck with each other.)
Eph
p
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