In the Hands of the (SI) Gods
Written by Niniev // September 12, 2009 // Opinion // 3 Comments
So I’m sitting here at the PC trying to think of something to write about FM, FM10, FMV or similar and have realised I cannot talk about FM10 as I have signed an NDA with Sega which prohibits me from doing so.
So lets talk about FM10!
With just over a month before the game is due to be released we’ve all been reading the blogs from Miles over at Mirror Football (hopefully) and have been checking out the new features due to come in this year.
But I look at it and wonder if SI are starting to over complicate the game.
With all the new features offering backroom advice, assistant manager advice, pre match meetings etc how many of us will use these features after just half a season?
We found in FM09 that things like the press conferences got tedious really quickly so will we choose to continue our feelings in the same vein?
I’m not saying that SI needs to make the game more “arcadey” or even dumb down the feature list as we are all looking for a more realistic game every year, more advancement over the rest of the management games out there.
BUT!
Some of us just want to start the game, pick our favourite club and attempt to sign a few players and win leagues, cups and more.
Yes we want a more realistic game, but maybe its time to have two options on starting a game – simple or advanced.
Think back to Champ Manager 2 – you set up a simple 4-4-2 tactic, drew a few lines and had just as much fun then as you did in CM4 watching 22 dots sliding around a pitch!
Those where the times when you could load the game and not worry about sliders, tweaking, player interaction, press conferences and all that and actually play a whole season in a weekend – if not quicker!
It’s just a thought to put out there, I’m not saying it has to be implemented but maybe something that needs to be considered for FM11 if the game advances as it does.
Maybe that’s harking back to far, but sometimes we have to look back and see what has happened and why we have fallen in and out with CM/FM over the years.
3 Comments on "In the Hands of the (SI) Gods"
Hmm, I agree in some respects but in others not so much. I agree with the likes of press conferences becoming tedious but its not something you even have to do, your ass man can do that for you. Same with player interaction, its useful when you need to use but when you don’t need to you don’t have to.
I think if anything the tactical aspect of the game has taken steps backwards in terms of how in depth they appear to me. Granted they have more of an effect on results and how your team actually plays but theres still nothing much more you can do in regards to tactics that you couldn’t do maybe 6 or 7 years ago. I think the removal of arrows may have backfired slightly, its harder to control your players, how do you tell a player to come inside from the wing, how do you tell a player to go wide from his central striking position?
At the end of the day FM bases itself on real life and tries to make it as realistic as possible – press conferences and the likes are all part and parcel of being a football manager. Its up to SI and us essentially whether we want a game which is a real life simulation of a football manager or a football manager game. I think they’ve managed to just about meet in the middle this year, hopefully same again next year (although on first signs it does seem to edge away from the game aspect as you say)
I have to agree some with Gers here, the removal of the arrows and what they represented in the tactical world of FM seems to have backfired a bit. I loved having aml/amr’s cutting inside to amc’s and with the arrows making it happen was just a fw click and drags away, now with the new engine I have to play around with instructions for ages to match them up to something that might resemble it in some degree, it’s somewhat frustrating and I still don’t understand why they removed them.
And I have to repeat daddy Miles from your podcast when he made a very good point about press conferences, they are quite repetive in real life aswell! Maybe not as repetive as the ones in football manager as you get the exact same questions in the exact same wrapping, but the point does still stand.
I do agree with you tho Niniev, just starting up the game and kicking off with your favourite club and just setting up some easy tactics before you kick ass and get half a season done in one night had a a charm off it own. But on the other hand we have always asked for realism, and that’s what SI is trying to give us.
Press conferences are definitely tedious and if you didn’t have the option to let your ass man take control of them you would of probably uninstalled the game with in 10 days but I suppose it shows what real managers have to go through every match day, which is obviously what FM have tried to set across.
I feel like I’m doing something wrong and not playing the game ‘properly’ or not being a proper manager by letting my assistant do press conferences but it is just too repetitive and tedious for me to do them. It’s that classic battle of realism v ‘fun’ (if you like)