How to Make a Successful Association: Updated

How To Make a Successful Association- Credit to Wyze, badreligionau, and Clutch


1. Pick one team, and stick with it
Nobody wants to see the forum spammed with 5+ topics created by the same guy, each declaring he is starting a new Associaton. People will grow less and less interested in each new Association you start.

2. Choose a team you are a fan of
Don't choose the team that you think everyone else will follow because in the end, the longevity of your Association will come down to how much you like your team. A good Association will get followed no matter which team you decide on.

3. Find a layout that works for you and stick with it
Writing about the games should be easy if you have a template in which you can go by... and it doesn't have to be spectacular. Often the simplest layouts are the most successful.

4. Make multiple backup saves
Pretty self-explanatory. Anytime we see someone's lost a Association due to this we think, "the dog ate my homework" excuse. And like clockwork, that person's gung-ho and into a new Association, with a new favorite team and new favorite players within days.

5. Include as many details about your team as possible
This includes pictures, position, ratings, etc.

6. Include as many details about the games as possible.
Box scores, injuries, lead changes and as always, "pictures are worth 1000 words"



7. Enjoy the Silence (or, "What is the sound of one hand clapping?")
Just because nobody's clapping doesn't mean no one's listening. I've done enough game recaps to know that replies CAN'T be your sole reason for keeping a Dynasty. If it is? You're guaranteed to be disappointed and will eventually quit.

Also remember, folks have lives; sometimes they'll be too busy but will comment a few days or posts later. Sometimes a particular recap will move them to comment, while another one won't; that's the nature of things. Comment fluctuations are to be expected.

8. Post constructively (or, "What goes around, comes around.")
I don't mean to be a Rah! Rah! Cheerleader spamming every active thread with, "NICE WIN!!!! " ; that's probably less useful for the Dynasty/Assoc. maker than no comment at all.

DO take the time to read their recap and mention something related. If it's a criticism, don't come off as a heel about it. Just tell them and give them a chance to make adjustments the next time.



1. Use paragraphs
By using paragraphs, it makes your post look cleaner, neater and overall more appealing to read. Thus, people will be more likely to read it and post.

Example [YES]

I'm of the belief that where there's smoke, there's fire. I can't see the special that airs tonight on ESPN being anything other than a failed attempt at LeBron apologizing to Cleveland.

He's making the Cleveland fans look like fools, and bringing unwanted attention and embarrassment to them. No matter what the outcome of the show is tonight, this was the wrong approach to handle the situation. Nobody is bigger than the game, please respect the game enough to just have a press conference to announce your decision.

I don't care that he wants to go to Miami. Just go, don't drag Cleveland's face through the mud on your way out the door. That's uncalled for. You can have all the one hour TV shows you want in Miami, don't put this on National TV.


I've never gotten too sucked in to Lebron and his antics. Maybe its because I was never a huge basketball fan. But I'll be okay no matter what. I don't need your apology on ESPN tonight. I'm not a 6 yr old, you don't have to console me after you give me bad news.

The sun will come up tomorrow in Cleveland, and life will go on without you. Please just sign your contract and leave us alone from now on. Its been real, its been great; but it hasn't been really great.

Example [ NO ]

I'm of the belief that where there's smoke, there's fire. I can't see the special that airs tonight on ESPN being anything other than a failed attempt at LeBron apologizing to Cleveland.He's making the Cleveland fans look like fools, and bringing unwanted attention and embarrassment to them. No matter what the outcome of the show is tonight, this was the wrong approach to handle the situation. Nobody is bigger than the game, please respect the game enough to just have a press conference to announce your decision.I don't care that he wants to go to Miami. Just go, don't drag Cleveland's face through the mud on your way out the door. That's uncalled for. You can have all the one hour TV shows you want in Miami, don't put this on National TV.I've never gotten too sucked in to Lebron and his antics. Maybe its because I was never a huge basketball fan. But I'll be okay no matter what. I don't need your apology on ESPN tonight. I'm not a 6 yr old, you don't have to console me after you give me bad news.The sun will come up tomorrow in Cleveland, and life will go on without you. Please just sign your contract and leave us alone from now on. Its been real, its been great; but it hasn't been really great.

2. Use proper punctuation and grammar.
Self explanatory. Make sure to take proper care to spell city and player name's correctly. (It is understandable if English is not your primary language, but please try your best)

Zydrunas Ilgauskas plays for the Miami Heat

1. Use uniform pictures
This again, emphasizes the neatness and visual appeal of your Association.

Example [ YES ]

Example [ NO ]


2. Get pictures of players in your uniform

This one is really up to the user's discretion, but for me this is a nice touch to add. For example: if you've recently acquired Kobe Bryant and you're controlling the Boston Celtics; what better way to create a discussion with your readers than to post a picture of him in the Celtics jersey?

3. Evolve (or, "There are no rules, just tools.")
Be creative. Don't be locked into a particular template or look. It's nice to be consistent, but you can also lose your edge when things become too monotonous. It's a tricky balance since you also want to stick to what works; it's all trial, error and the attitude to continue.

If someone offers you constructive crit? Listen. You don't necessarily have to jump, roll over and do what everyone tells you, but try to at least understand where they're coming from and what they're having issues with. Remember that you can't please everyone and some people, well, they just have issues with everything.


1. Get people involved
When the readers can interact with the writer and the story, people will feel more inclined to follow along. It can be as simple as asking the audience for an opinion on a trade situation or as elaborate as a custom draft class. The only limit you have is the one you put on yourself.

2. Give generated players life
We all know that NBA 2k (insert year) has the option that creates all these generated rookies that kind of have no personality because nobody knows about them. Simple solution; give them personality! Give them a role in your story and soon they can develop a life of their own (eg: Ty Maximilian).

3. It's not just about the game
Writing about the games and the league standings/stats is all well and good, but what's happening behind the scenes? Has Allen Iverson missed a practice? Does Captain Jack want to be traded to a good team? Is Dwyane Wade sick of playing with a bunch of Tito Jacksons? Let the Rumor Mill help you with this aspect.

The player stories are often the most important for engaging your readers, so it often pays to think outside the game you're playing.


1. Limit the All-Star Game to a weekend
Stacking your team with FA signings and pre-season trades is a sure fire way to lose interest. See what's gone down in Miami? Most people are already not interested Actually, not true; I am quiet interested as are most hoops enthusiasts. In virtual associations though? Tougher to pull off, but not impossible.

2. Don't trade away your whole team
Although it may be tempting to package your bench corps and send them packing to another team, try not to. It may seem like a good idea in that moment in time, but you will likely later regret it when your bench is depleted or you have a bunch of old vets, or a team full of generated rooks. Also, it is not advisable to make a trade just for the sake of making a trade.

3. If your winning every game by 30, up the difficulty
Again, this one is self explanatory. If you are playing as the Nets and you are blowing teams out night after night, it's time to up the difficulty setting. Still blowing teams out on Superstar? Try adjusting the sliders to create more of a challenge.


1. Have fun (or, "I aint getting paid for this shiz.")
Honestly ask yourself, "Am I actually having fun doing this anymore?" If the answer is NO? Take a break and do something completely non-related for a week or two. I've taken breaks as long as a few months only to come back more "into it" and re-inspired.

2. Balance your RL (or, "Everything in moderation.")
In contrast to #1, keep priorities in mind. Sometimes Association making can be a little too fun and you can get a bit too preoccupied and consumed by wanting to post play post play post post post etc etc.

Unless you're getting paid to do this, be mindful of the things you NEED to do (homework, job, spending time with the sig other) and save Association making as a guilty pleasure/reward for after you've taken care of RL business.

If it's been hours of non-stop gaming and your gal is repeatedly entering the room, evil-eying you without a word and leaving the room, she's about to blow. It's time to shut things down and ask her what she feels like doing tonight.

3. When to call it quits (or, "Goodbye cruel world.")
Being "bored of your team" isn't necessarily an excuse to switch teams. You're supposed to be a GM right? Bring in players that are going to keep you interested and make the game fun again for you. Or, make changes/trades happen in other teams that are struggling in your Associations; sometimes those moves make things interesting enough to continue because you can't wait to see how your squad will match up against them.

Ultimately? Real Life circumstances will pretty much dictate when it's time to hang up your GM clipboard and go do something else.


:!:SOME ASSOCIATIONS FOR NEWCOMERS TO READ
A Legend is Born II by Sit
Nellieball by Lamrock
A Legend is Born III by Sit
Redemption: River Walk Chronicles by Thierry (who has his own story to tell)
Road to Glory II by Valor
Hov's Sonics by hova-

Last edited by Houndy on Tue Feb 15, 2011 1:13 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Don't Be Like Thierry

Explanation not required.

Very nice. Both of you.

Thanks Houndy, stickied for convenience.

Your welcome

Lay off Thierry guys. I think (hope) the message has gotten through.

As for the topic, nice to be done, but a few too many generalisations for my liking.

My thoughts based on my previous dynasties/Associations:

- I never played practice games for any of my Dynasties or Associations. That cuts into real season time.

- I disagree vehemently with the part on generated or "real" draft prospects. Sit's story-based Associations would've been just as good with "real" rookies. My dynasties & Associations in the past have used both generated & "real" draft prospects. My personal preference is generated, despite my style being more traditional rather than story-based.

- I also disagree with showing headshots at the start of your Association. I have never done this. Everybody knows what they look like anyways, so what's the point in creating another generic Association.

- Box scores are completely unnecessary. Enough said.

- I don't agree with adding spice. Playoff games can be summarised by series or even entire playoffs if necessary. To each their own.

- Coach committing suicide?


Sorry if I'm being harsh, but if I was new to the site & followed your guidelines then my Association/Dynasty would've ended up being the complete opposite to what I actually did.

IMHO, I believe the key success factors are longevity & focusing on aspects of the Association/Dynasty that interest you. Take Sit for example, he loves sports writing, has a closet sports journalism fetish so an outlandish (at times) story suits him. Whereas Lamrock has a self-deprecating sense of humour & plays off that. Some guys like using photoshop & creating life-like articles & graphics. Jae likes taking a team of bums & trying to make them relevant. I like team building, through draft & free agency.

If you don't know what you like, try different things. The things that bore you or are a pain in the backside are things you shouldn't be focusing on. That's why in the past I decided that recapping games wasn't for me, All-Star Weekend coverage wasn't for me. I didn't like wasting 3-4 hours doing recaps for a game that takes less than an hour.

I've said my piece

I think that the main ingredient in any story is to just have fun. Don't write for others but write for your own enjoyment. I love writing and that's why I do what I do. When you have fun, you stay committed.

The X, These are tips, you don't need to do any of this if you never wanted.... But I understand where you are going. Coach committing suicide was a joke by the way

I just pre-ordered 2k11... as you guys told me 1,000 times, I need to go with my fav team, I don't have one but I have a fav player that is Manu, so its San Antonio. I can feel it, I have a couple of trades / moves in my mind already! It really will be huge.

And that new association of yours will last 1000 minutes before you change again.

As I said before Thierry, oh boy

Sorry houndy, caught me on a bad day Still stand by my points though.

I just pre-ordered 2k11... as you guys told me 1,000 times, I need to go with my fav team, I don't have one but I have a fav player that is Manu, so its San Antonio. I can feel it, I have a couple of trades / moves in my mind already! It really will be huge.

I don't doubt that it will be awesome if you quit attempting associations.

Sorry houndy, caught me on a bad day Still stand by my points though.

Understandable, I'm one of the guys who has the balls to take criticism. What it really is, is that people can build off this, and if they like it. If not, then they change somethings. You know what I mean?

Also Theirry, I wish the best of luck to your association. Hopefully, this will be successful

Also Theirry, I wish the best of luck to your association. Hopefully, this will be successful

Thanks a lot man. Still the hate coming from others, but it's understandable.

I can feel it, I have a couple of trades / moves in my mind already! It really will be huge.[/b]

Mate, i don't doubt that you really want to redeem yourself and is excited at starting a 2k11 association. However, judging from precedent, i would strongly advise you to lay off the possible 20 deals that you have in mind(ok, maybe exaggerated, but you get the point) until you get through a significant proportion of the season. Making too many deals and getting too stacked is a recurring trend for you

and we're not "hating" on you, we just see the same mistake over and over again and want to help you fix it

Either way, good luck


With regards to the advices from Houndy, i would agree with the points of having good grammar and choosing real life over making associations. Other than that, my advice is same as Sit's - just have fun, you don't need to write behind the scenes stories if you don't want to, or write professional-length articles, just do what you're comfortable with or what you enjoy doing. I do what I do, and Sit does what he does 'cause we enjoy writing and love the game of basketball, we have fun doing it; but if you dont enjoy doing it, it becomes a chore and you'll quickly lose interest, leading to numerous endings.

We're not hating. We're speaking the damn truth.
We have 50 abandoned stories as rock hard concrete evidence. Even OJ can't deny what you have done.

Personally I think the difference between a successful story and an unsuccessful one is just sticking to it. If you swap and change teams all the time you will fail, if you can pick a team and play 2-3 seasons with them people will follow it, then they will follow your other stories too. I think gimmick's help too, like both of my stories have been gimmick based, some guys have NLSC draftees which keeps people interested and generates a lot of replies, it's always good to have some kind of hook to keep them interested. Even something small like X nicknaming his rookies, people would probably still remember characters from his stories 2-3 years ago.

It's also good to switch up your style I think. Sit's an exception because his works perfectly for what he's doing, but I have always thought (not meant as a bash against you Thierry) one of the reasons Thierry's have failed is (aside from the obvious) that they are all kinda the same. Same presentation, same write-up style etc. It is a bit like groundhog day. You can make that style successful but I reckon you've got to try and keep things fresh as well. I think Lamrock's the best at that, he seems more willing to try new things in his stories than anyone else. That's why even if he does swap teams a lot or lose interest, he'll still have successful stories because there's always something new to get people into them.

I know, sorry for the "hate", I know you guys are trying to help.

And of course I won't make all 20 trades at the start, I just have in mind what I want my roster to look like if I go into a few years in the story. I'll make the first around January, so I start with the default rosters.

And thanks for the tip Jae, I'm also testing some layouts see if I can do something different. Still a couple of months until I start.

It depends on what your style is. If your like me and like adding controversy, then add it. Personalize your association, to make it your association..

I should have added that

Good job Houndy, appreciate the effort. Maybe once I end my Rockets dynasty, I may start an association with the Rockets, but I'll change up the layouts of my recaps, and continue to include NLSCers in the stories.

Are you going to continue playing Live with the updated rosters?

Dammit, I forgot to add that I'm gonna get 2K11. But yeah, I'll continue playing Live.

For PS3? Or for pc. All the cool people do Associations, everyone knows that.

I have a feeling Live will be a whole lot harder to play once 2K11 comes out.