Warnie’s take on how DT should be played in 2013

 

Off the back of the article on the Herald Sun website today and a whole heap of discussion on here thanks to Tbetta, Griff and co, I’m going to put forward how I think AFL Dream Team should/could be played next year. These are realistic things and not pie in the sky type stuff that gets floated around.

Firstly, I write here with a bit of a business brain… I want AFL Dream Team to be more popular and I want it to be played for longer so it will obviously bring more clicks to the actual game itself and our website. I don’t want it to be easier on a whole, but easier to manage. I want it to appeal to the masses and not get stuck in the world of making the game too hard… so the key is to keep the engagement up and let people celebrate some success.

Some of the changes mooted are as follows:

Rolling lockout – I am massively against this. As a keen player of the game, I love the idea… but to be honest, there are 198 games over the season and you would have to know what’s happening in all of those (with subs, late changes, etc) and have access to technology to make required changes. I would hate it that if I was like any other normal person enjoying a Saturday night on the piss or playing a game of footy and miss a crucial ‘out’ that someone who is sitting on the computer is able to get an advantage over me. This would take my enjoyment out of the game. A couple of missed things here could end your season. I vote no here despite over 70% of coaches on the Herald Sun site liking it. Personally I think these stats are skewed as those voting now are the people who love it a lot (not the 90% casual users who play for a bit of fun).

Trades – This is one area that is dividing a lot of coaches. 24 trades was about right for this year. I managed, but it took a lot of effort not to use them all up. People don’t want donuts, people don’t want their guns out. I like the proposed 30 trades as hopefully that would keep people playing longer. Yes people will use them up, but it would head in the right direction. At least you SHOULD have a few left after the multi-bye rounds. The stat drop off for our site is pretty big after trades are used up – obviously it would be for the game itself too. The two trades per week, use them or lose them idea is awesome. I would love for the game to go down that path but a lot of other tweaks would need to happen relating to the magic number and also the price changes. This would keep people keener for longer but there is a fine line there. Make the magic number too high, casuals can’t get enough players they know or can follow… or leave it the same and teams are finished early and the overall battle (and even leagues) will be more of a luck thing. Hmm… this needs some more thinking. But I think we should increase trades to increase engagement, so 30 would work for me.

Emergencies – Making 4 emergencies is a no brainer for me. Especially if we stay away from a rolling lockout. Normally ruck emergencies aren’t put on and I know I was caught out once this year. I like this change for hardcore and casual users.

Multi Bye Rounds – Here I think we should just leave the squad of 30 (not go to 33 like some would suggest as I think it ruins the game for the other 20 rounds) but only take 18 players. Whether that is as simple as a best 18 scorers or 18 scorers by position (6-5-1-6). Either of those are fine with me… but I would prefer the positional 18 as that adds an element of skill. While this would guarantee you a full scoring team it would go pretty close to it and with the proposed 30 trades, you could still use 3 per week over these weeks too. One of these MUST happen. We can’t have the same system as this year. Before people bang on about not having league matches over these weeks, unfortunately they have to happen… so don’t argue otherwise.

So my realistic take on how AFL Dream Team should be played in 2013 is to increase to 30 trades, retain squads of 30 and limit to 18 players on your ground in MBRs with 3 trades allowed each week. These should be pretty simple changes. I’m sure we’ll see a bit more over the next few weeks and we’ll keep you up to date here at DT Talk!

Follow and discuss #DT2013 with me on Twitter: @WarnieDT.