Has AFL Fantasy been a flop?

[Jozzy]

When the AFL decided to ditch Virtual Sports and pretty much move on from 'Dreamteam' to run what is now AFL Fantasy through FanHub most of us raised our eyebrows. The first season we encountered quite a few bugs and I never liked the first layout but I now quite enjoy how FanHub and the AFL have the lay out and it all works quite smoothly.

As for the changes to the game I still really don't know what to think. I no longer really have an opinion on them, I just try make the best team to use with-in those rules. I'm not sure if it was their initial intention to try and become quite different from Supercoach but the two platforms have gone from being almost identical with different scoring systems to two quite different games. However, far more people prefer Supercoach.

I'm not sure what the figures are like on the amount of registrations that AFL Fantasy now gets but the amount of interest on the game, talk on these boards, social media and general discussions has significantly dropped since the start of AFL Fantasy.

 

[Mego Red]

Supercoach has the largest daily paper behind it.

AFL Fantasy has a sporting website.

Supercoach will always have more people and there's nothing wrong with that.

But I've stayed with AFL Fantasy and prefer it. I like the trades, I like the challenge of getting enough cash to build your final team and I like how transparent the scoring is.

 

[Keystone agony]

Supercoach has the largest daily paper behind it.

AFL Fantasy has a sporting website.

Supercoach will always have more people and there's nothing wrong with that.

But I've stayed with AFL Fantasy and prefer it. I like the trades, I like the challenge of getting enough cash to build your final team and I like how transparent the scoring is.

This.

AFL FANTASY needs to signup to the next biggest daily newspaper if i was them.

I prefer AFL fantasy, i sort of just picked that one because all my mates played in when there was seperation between RDT and AFLFantasy.

I think it was their intention to be different to supercoach.

 

[Big Sauce 21]

They killed fantasy, the site is still trash. Doesn't even put players in order ffs such a small thing to get right. League tables and match ups are crap, rankings and stats are also hard and ugly to read.

Completely ruined it

 

[Keystone agony]

They killed fantasy, the site is still trash. Doesn't even put players in order ffs such a small thing to get right. League tables and match ups are crap, rankings and stats are also hard and ugly to read.

Completely ruined it

Players are in order for me. You mean when you go to pick them from the defender list or when you pick them, they dont go in at price order? The latter really isnt a problem is it?

 

[Jozzy]

Players are in order for me. You mean when you go to pick them from the defender list or when you pick them, they dont go in at price order? The latter really isnt a problem is it?

I believe he's talking about the latter, when he's pick his side it puts the team into the order you've picked it rather than ordering them on their price.

It does annoy me to, although it only took me a minute to move them into price order myself.

 

[doona]

Doesn't even put players in order ffs such a small thing to get right

I actually hate this in RDT. you cant change the order they appear. In fantasy during the season I like ordering them on averages etc... So I guess it is each to their own, in terms of preferred functionality

Personally, there were crashes last year but the AFL fantasy site is way better then the RDT site and has more features (for example drag and drop)

 

[Mego Red]

I don't play Supercoach, but the Fantasy website is better than UF and RDT.

 

[2006_Eagles]

I actually hate this in RDT. you cant change the order they appear. In fantasy during the season I like ordering them on averages etc... So I guess it is each to their own, in terms of preferred functionality

Personally, there were crashes last year but the AFL fantasy site is way better then the RDT site and has more features (for example drag and drop)

I'm pretty sure RDT orders by average descending

 

[doona]

I'm pretty sure RDT orders by average descending

Got the average and price mixed up. I like the ability to order how I want. especially of bye rounds and things like that. AFL Fantasy gives you more option.

 

[dylan123]

I actually hate this in RDT. you cant change the order they appear. In fantasy during the season I like ordering them on averages etc... So I guess it is each to their own, in terms of preferred functionality

Personally, there were crashes last year but the AFL fantasy site is way better then the RDT site and has more features (for example drag and drop)

Might be worth shooting them a message and see what they say, they might always consider adding it. I sent the RDT guys a message to let them know I wasn't a fan of the scrolling speed a week or two ago and they fixed that up

As for the thread question, yes. It really hurt the 'DT' competition. Some took up the new game in fantasy, some followed VS to RDT and others just decided to take up SC. It really split the competition up, I remember DT used to have around 200-250k people playing at it's peak (50-100k behind SC) and now it wouldn't be getting anywhere near those numbers. You can tell from these boards as well, the DT board used to be the most popular board fantasy board on bigfooty by a fair bit and now both this board and the RDT one are very quiet in comparison to what they were/what the SC board is like.

 

[Big Sauce 21]

Might be worth shooting them a message and see what they say, they might always consider adding it. I sent the RDT guys a message to let them know I wasn't a fan of the scrolling speed a week or two ago and they fixed that up

As for the thread question, yes. It really hurt the 'DT' competition. Some took up the new game in fantasy, some followed VS to RDT and others just decided to take up SC. It really split the competition up, I remember DT used to have around 200-250k people playing at it's peak (50-100k behind SC) and now it wouldn't be getting anywhere near those numbers. You can tell from these boards as well, the DT board used to be the most popular board fantasy board on bigfooty by a fair bit and now both this board and the RDT one are very quiet in comparison to what they were/what the SC board is like.

Because the site is a complete mess. I'm not the only one who hates the layout of it

 

[dylan123]

Which comp are you talking about with that? Fantasy?

 

[YippeeYiYeo]

Because the site is a complete mess. I'm not the only one who hates the layout of it

i dont see how the site is trash. Im able to navigate it quite easily. The auto-save function works after any changes. The multi-trade system works well. I think you are complaining just for the sake of complaining to be honest. There were some huge teething issues in its first year but thats all been sorted out.

I think its a real shame that DT got split up like this. The supercoach board looks a lot more active but i just cant be so committed to do the rolling lockout every game every week. Doesnt anyone that plays supercoach go on holidays or work weekends?

 

[Big Sauce 21]

i dont see how the site is trash. Im able to navigate it quite easily. The auto-save function works after any changes. The multi-trade system works well. I think you are complaining just for the sake of complaining to be honest. There were some huge teething issues in its first year but thats all been sorted out.

RDT was brought back in for the fact players didn't want change. Shame people haven't found it

 

[YippeeYiYeo]

RDT was brought back in for the fact players didn't want change. Shame people haven't found it

RDT just continued on without the AFL's support.

Change happens in all aspects of life, and sometimes not for the better. Everyone knows where RDT is. But keeping 2 or 3 teams (if you play SC as well) updates and staying on top of eveything is just too hard.

The real shame for me is that this community has really become smaller. I think about 5 years ago there were almost 20 divisions on bigfooty for dream team. The elite/celebrity thread for a couple of years was very interesting to follow. No idea where those guys have gone now. Its as though theyve disappeared from the fantasy football scene completely. A quick look at m0ntys profile and he hasnt been here for a couple of years. Tried to contact him here to tell him that the archive feature on fanfooty isnt working but i doubt ill get a response, and cant find how to contact him on that website.

I think the main 2 gripes people had when Virtual Sports lost the AFL gig was that the first iteration of the AFL Fantasy had major flaws, and the game was dumbed down too much to 2 trades every week. Ive gotten used to 2 trades every week and flaws with the website have been ironed out. For me there just doesnt seem like a need to play RDT. What is there to gain?

 

[dylan123]

RDT just continued on without the AFL's support.

Change happens in all aspects of life, and sometimes not for the better. Everyone knows where RDT is. But keeping 2 or 3 teams (if you play SC as well) updates and staying on top of eveything is just too hard.

The real shame for me is that this community has really become smaller. I think about 5 years ago there were almost 20 divisions on bigfooty for dream team. The elite/celebrity thread for a couple of years was very interesting to follow. No idea where those guys have gone now. Its as though theyve disappeared from the fantasy football scene completely. A quick look at m0ntys profile and he hasnt been here for a couple of years. Tried to contact him here to tell him that the archive feature on fanfooty isnt working but i doubt ill get a response, and cant find how to contact him on that website.

I think the main 2 gripes people had when Virtual Sports lost the AFL gig was that the first iteration of the AFL Fantasy had major flaws, and the game was dumbed down too much to 2 trades every week. Ive gotten used to 2 trades every week and flaws with the website have been ironed out. For me there just doesnt seem like a need to play RDT. What is there to gain?

The famous coaches thread was great, think most of those guys have either stopped playing SC/RDT/AF (or at least to the level they once did) and others have moved to other forums.

As for monty, you could contact him on the fanfooty forum, there's also the email address admin@fanfooty.com.au that you might have luck with in terms of mentioning a problem but I think you'd have better luck going through the forum first. Just a little tip, if you go to the player profile, click the year you're after, you can read the notes on the individual if that's what you're after. Here's Brad Crouch's for example - http://www.fanfooty.com.au/players/year.php?firstname=Brad&surname=Crouch&year=2013

Fantasy wasn't the game RDT was, it was a brand new game with the concepts appearing to be worse than RDT (at least for most hard core DT fans). A pricing formula that was unknown going into the season (still is for the most part, guess no one really cares enough to find out, at least I haven't), random decisions behind how certain players were priced (and rookies being an even higher premium than RDT/SC). Get that along with a website that functioned terribly and it doesn't surprise me that the numbers for this competition would have fallen even further behind SC.

Don't get me wrong, they've done a few nice things such as the live ranking and now the history page but the decision to flick Virtual Sport for a sub par product in it's first season was a weird decision. That along with offering prizes less and less (weekly prize is just a season's AFL League pass) and the reasoning behind getting rid of Virtual Sports makes little sense to me.

Again, comes down to personal preference with the comps being split. I'm the opposite myself, following RDT given it's the game I loved playing and having AFL Fantasy as an after thought where I make trades with just a few minutes thought.

 

[YippeeYiYeo]

The famous coaches thread was great, think most of those guys have either stopped playing SC/RDT/AF (or at least to the level they once did) and others have moved to other forums.

As for monty, you could contact him on the fanfooty forum, there's also the email address admin@fanfooty.com.au that you might have luck with in terms of mentioning a problem but I think you'd have better luck going through the forum first. Just a little tip, if you go to the player profile, click the year you're after, you can read the notes on the individual if that's what you're after. Here's Brad Crouch's for example - http://www.fanfooty.com.au/players/year.php?firstname=Brad&surname=Crouch&year=2013

Fantasy wasn't the game RDT was, it was a brand new game with the concepts appearing to be worse than RDT (at least for most hard core DT fans). A pricing formula that was unknown going into the season (still is for the most part, guess no one really cares enough to find out, at least I haven't), random decisions behind how certain players were priced (and rookies being an even higher premium than RDT/SC). Get that along with a website that functioned terribly and it doesn't surprise me that the numbers for this competition would have fallen even further behind SC.

Don't get me wrong, they've done a few nice things such as the live ranking and now the history page but the decision to flick Virtual Sport for a sub par product in it's first season was a weird decision. That along with offering prizes less and less (weekly prize is just a season's AFL League pass) and the reasoning behind getting rid of Virtual Sports makes little sense to me.

Again, comes down to personal preference with the comps being split. I'm the opposite myself, following RDT given it's the game I loved playing and having AFL Fantasy as an after thought where I make trades with just a few minutes thought.

Cheers for the help on contacting m0nty. That achive feature is so handy with looking at roles and vests from years previous.

What are the other forums the famous coaches visit? I guess more famous coaches could come along here and spruik things up. There are always going to be Top 10 ranked people from each season. Would be cool if The Traders came on here and revitalised these boards.

The weekly prize for Fantasy is pretty s**t. And the match day concept was next to impossible to win and seemed like a penny pinching way to save prize money. I think it only went off twice last year... Thats been changed this season so that a guaranteed 1k is given away weekly. I doubt the 44 trades will be changed back to 30. Its like admitting theyve made a mistake, and the 2 trades each week keep people logging on right to the end of the season instead of tuning out at round 16 when their team has bombed. Fantasy really should change it to 1 bench spot in the rucks and 3 in the midfield. But they probably dont want to be seen as copying another format.

Ill probably make a RDT team again with it being an afterthought. Unless im kiling it early on and decide to make it my main. Is there any way to check last years rankings or history?

 

[Keystone agony]

Cheers for the help on contacting m0nty. That achive feature is so handy with looking at roles and vests from years previous.

What are the other forums the famous coaches visit? I guess more famous coaches could come along here and spruik things up. There are always going to be Top 10 ranked people from each season. Would be cool if The Traders came on here and revitalised these boards.

The weekly prize for Fantasy is pretty s**t. And the match day concept was next to impossible to win and seemed like a penny pinching way to save prize money. I think it only went off twice last year... Thats been changed this season so that a guaranteed 1k is given away weekly. I doubt the 44 trades will be changed back to 30. Its like admitting theyve made a mistake, and the 2 trades each week keep people logging on right to the end of the season instead of tuning out at round 16 when their team has bombed. Fantasy really should change it to 1 bench spot in the rucks and 3 in the midfield. But they probably dont want to be seen as copying another format.

Ill probably make a RDT team again with it being an afterthought. Unless im kiling it early on and decide to make it my main. Is there any way to check last years rankings or history?

Why would the traders bother to come onto this board. They would be helping another service (ie Bigfooty) when they run and own their onw site (DTTalk). Thats where they do the spruiking.

A few of them mainly Roy and Warnie used to be members here and post here quite a bit before and even at the startof DTTalk days. They now never do and never will.

As for where those top coaches go as Dylan mentioned whos been around here for a while with me now. They either dont play or not to the effect and research they use to or have moved to other forums/boards.

There was the elite dreamteamers forum where i believe you only got invited to if you had a certain ranking for a few years running.

Fanfooty club started up but i believe thats about as busy as bigfooty relating to fantasy afl. It was going well for a bit but then fell apart. I know dylan123 use to be apart of it so he may know more.

I think the top coaches keep to themselves and mainly read theough DTTalk now without posting.

Personally i use to post way to much on bigfooty with DT and afl fantasy and im glad i dont as much anymore i have found new passions albeit still love AFL FANTASY. I keep cards close to my chest because well i play any game to win it not to help others win it. Im all for discussion but not about specific players/teams too much.

I have a little gabder through DTTalk but not much. I do my own research mainly through social media then watch the NAB games and go through fanfooty.

They need to aort that site out though everythings been deleted likes roles ect bit of a pain going to each individual player.

 

[dylan123]

Cheers for the help on contacting m0nty. That achive feature is so handy with looking at roles and vests from years previous.

What are the other forums the famous coaches visit? I guess more famous coaches could come along here and spruik things up. There are always going to be Top 10 ranked people from each season. Would be cool if The Traders came on here and revitalised these boards.

The weekly prize for Fantasy is pretty s**t. And the match day concept was next to impossible to win and seemed like a penny pinching way to save prize money. I think it only went off twice last year... Thats been changed this season so that a guaranteed 1k is given away weekly. I doubt the 44 trades will be changed back to 30. Its like admitting theyve made a mistake, and the 2 trades each week keep people logging on right to the end of the season instead of tuning out at round 16 when their team has bombed. Fantasy really should change it to 1 bench spot in the rucks and 3 in the midfield. But they probably dont want to be seen as copying another format.

Ill probably make a RDT team again with it being an afterthought. Unless im kiling it early on and decide to make it my main. Is there any way to check last years rankings or history?

Well you've got the EDT group which is a private forum which would have a number of the 'original' famous coaches. Got other forums such as the one Impromptu set up (think that's more SC focused) and tooserious (think they're both mainly SC focused). As KA mentioned, Fantasy Footy Club is another forum which I post at which is RDT/SC focused (principles for RDT/AF are rather similar but little to no AF specific talk). Again, there isn't as many posting on FFC as there was a few years ago either as I think the popularity of the comps have died off a little, more forums to use and I guess facebook for whatever reason being a popular place for fantasy decision. I haven't visited DT Talk for a number of years now but I'm sure they've got a bit of traffic as well.


To win the match day prize was next to impossible as you've mentioned, I think I saw it said you basically needed an average of 126 per player for that to be a possibility which was a joke - good way to save money whilst saying they had big prizes up for grabs.

Still wish it was just 20-24 trades as I found the game a lot more fun to play back then, really had to think through your trades as you couldn't just pull the trigger every week and get away with it in the second half of the season - but understand that probably doesn't apply to the masses and they'll get more traffic with the ability to trade more frequently.

Unfortunately there isn't a way to get your ranking for RDT - something which I thought they were going to bring in a couple of years ago but never did (which is why it was a nice move from AF, especially even having the 2014 results still). You can however go to your emails and get your email from round 23 which will have your total score for the 2015 season, so you won't know your exact rank but you'll be able to compare it to others/help with the league rankings here.

 

[doona]

Really thinking about it, the AFL should have allowed both styles of comps. Like there are draft leagues, etc.... It would have been another bow rather then a break away league.

Wasn't that the reason the AFL ditched Virtual Sports? Because they were going in different directions as opposed just for the sack of ditching