The Most Wacky Football Manager 14 Feature Idea Ever

4:37 pm Chappers

by Chappers  12/06/2013 | 4:373 Posted in Best Stuff, Hype n News, Possible Features 

Well after a title like that you must be expecting something BIG, trust me it is, the wacky feature I have in mind for Football Manager 14 is actually fairly conceivable but definitely a big change to the way we do things.

The inspiration for this idea came from an article I wrote on What Culture about features that I wanted to see in FM 14, well in fact it came midway through a reply to a person commenting on that thread, nonetheless from what public opinion seems to be, this idea could be ‘life-changing’ for FM gamers.

Before I spill the beans I just wanted to point out a couple of statements I have read and had put to me in the last week or two whilst running this site that kind of lead me to where I am going with this:

Alan Worral said (here): “SI do their best to attempt to create a real world but it’s near impossible”.

Jabb Cooper said (here): “besides it’s sure to spoil the fun when you already know your striker will be very good in advance before you train them”

After only a couple of weeks running this site, pooling opinion and writing about the subject I love it is clear to see one common feeling that we all have as FM players: the want to make Football Manager 14 as life-like as possible but without making it as life-like as possible. Confusing huh? Let me explain.

Computer games, films, TV and pretty much every piece of technology out there is trying to make itself as life-like as possible. With the fresh 3D TV’s, Smart technology and voice control coming as standard with the new XBOX  you would imagine that FM players would be playing ball and looking for a similar ‘feel’ with the new FM.

You big bunch of hypocrites!

The problem is most of the opinion seems to be hypocritical, in the forums across the FM’osphere everyone is calling for the game to be more realistic, myself included, calling for a change in AI and irradicating the sometimes ‘silly’ transfers, mistakes and inconsistencies that the game seems to throw up all to regularly. But in the same token players don’t want to see ‘out of game factors’ like injuries, transfers and form effecting in-game play, we can’t have it both ways people!

There were some great points made about the similar subjects on our recent interview with several real FM experts.

I think I have the answer, I think I know how SI can deliver a game that is the most life-like piece of entertainment that ever existed on PC/MAC and believe it or not it is actually fairly simple and obvious.

Here goes…

Scrap, get rid of and completely remove player attributes, by that I mean the 1-20 numbers that differentiate Messi from messy.

What is the biggest difference between real-world management and the Football Manager series? Yep, player attributes.

You don’t see Sir (won’t be long) David Moyes saying “I’m going to play Antonio instead of Nani ‘cos his crossing is 18 and I reckon that could make the difference in this game”.

Think about it, after your initial scout of the player and first impressions do you ever really pick one player over another simply based on the numbers on his profile? I know I don’t. My picks are usually based on form, consistency and my overall opinion of a player and his effectiveness.

In it’s place should be a more detailed break down of morale, performances, scout recommendations, form and detailed analytics about the current players’ playing level, mental state and other determining factors.

In it’s place could be things like “David Beckham is getting a bit old now but its really worth playing him alongside Will Hughes because they work really well together”.

Or even “Messi was looking a bit tired in training, give him 45 minutes tops in the game”.

Though statistical representations of this would be more suitable there is every possibility of this being a comments based breakdown.

What do you think?

Am I completely off my rocker? Do you have a better way of making FM more life-like without making it too life-like? Comments below.