Football Manager Live Comments by Martin Korda

First yay

if i had more time maybe, but FM feels a very personal relationship with a database - one i can't share.

It seems a little pricey.

Good review.
Just want to point out that buying the retail version of the game comes with a 4 Month subscription, and given that you can pick up a copy from Play for £18, it seems not too bad.
I dont think i can justify paying £10 a month for it afterwards though!

I was on the beta fairly late, and to be frank I didn't know what the hell was going on. If this is simplified, it's probably a good thing I haven't played the offline game since it first changed to Football Manager.

yyyyyyaaaaaawwwwwwnnnnn.

eeeeh sorry im tired.

nah, footballs hardly the most entertaining sport in the world (fell asleep watching the mersey derby) so the management aspect is not for me.

for those that like it, im sure its right up your street, but not mine im afraid

The RPG style learning of tactics is MEGA annoying. I shouldn't need to spend days working on a stat just to tell my team to boot it up to the tall guy up front.

It is a bit too pricey at the moment for what it is. I think I will wait for some improvements before committing to it.

In built VOIP chat would be a nice addition to combat those "gg wp" folks. I could imagine VOIP ending up being very social, having a bit of banter about the premier league or whatever while you thrash each other senseless.

If Sports Interactive are smart, they should bundle this with FM 2010 when it comes out. That way, all the regular players will have it and the temptation to fork out the subscription fee will be even higher since they physically possess it.

Think it requires more attention than Eve?

I spend enough hours on FM as it is. And that has no deadline pressures!

I was on one of the earlier betas and whilst it was fun I just couldn't spare the time required to get the most out of it. Same as pretty much every MMO.

I'm picking this up on Friday. Screw all other fantasy games, it's back to football basic for me!

I played on Beta for a long time and only left when 3 servers went bump and we had no game to play for a month with very little info. fed down to us, Lost the whole team and was asked to start again, this was OK when it was a free Beta but I wouldn't be happy if it happened 6 months into a yearly subscription, the only other annoying problem was the "AI" games, It was well understood amongst the Beta testers that the AI managed your team extremely well so often managers wouldn't play their games which left you frustrated waiting to finish fixtures and then you had to play against the computer which was like going head to head with a robot Alex Ferguson.

I'm only a casual management fan, so I don't think I could justify the expenditure when Hattrick is free and gives me everything I want from a football management game.

Still looks nice though, but it's too much for my tastes.

Wow.. I was going to ask if this is out on Mac but then I saw the subscription price.. Not interested!

I love football, its our national sport, etc, etc.

But...

fans of the game should walk away from the sport completely and let the money train derail. Our clubs will always survive but I would never pay current ticket prices to watch some of the richest people in the country swanning about on a football pitch.

Most of them couldn't give a toss anyway.

Also, monthly fees for a game? Piss off. Seriously. Piss off.

I was in the beta and while it was fun, it did require a lot of time which kinda put me off. And the pricing is the final straw, just WAY too expensive.

Looks like the pricing has put everyone off, myself included. I just can't justify that kind of expenditure.

What a bunch of whiny buggers you are. "Can't justify" bla bla. I bet you've been paying for WoW or any other MMO for months or even years without as much as a twitch, and now you can't "justify" this? Fair enough if you don't enjoy football, but otherwise this is probably the best that has happened to the current MMO circus.

I started on the beta last February... I've been playing pretty much every night since then for nearly a year.

If that's not an endorsement I don't know what is. I don't think I've ever played a game so much.

This review only scratches the surface.

It's an ever evolving world, that is refreshed by the people who play and the way players are regenerated. There's no set way to play. You can go for the top of the rankings by trying to buy loads of overpaid prima donnas, you can concentrate on youth development... you can have a team of Daves.

And the game is constantly being updated. For example, stadium building is being added (possibly this week) and each club now has fans.

The only thing I would say is that you have to be in it for the long haul. There's no automatically taking your favourite team to back to back Champions League titles after a week... they joy is in the gradual building of a team from scratch. I found it OK I always play FM with a crappy team in the scottsih lower divisions... but some people do struggle with the lack of quick success.

Overall I honestly couldn't recommend the game more.

(The 'hard working' KC Milan of Clough gameworld)

People keep talking about the price, it's in line with other MMOs if you pay full whack from SEGA, but if you buy the boxed copy from Play for 17.99 for 4 months subscription, that's £4.50 per month, and a years gameplay for £54. When you compare that to a console game for 39.99 which will give you 10 hours single player and 50 hours multiplayer I think it's good value.

The RPG style of learning skills IS the correct thing for the game.

It makes you make a decision as a player. Learn coaching skills and not bother with tactics, or learn Scouting skills and not bother with coaching. I could learn Financial skills to earn more money but I really need to learn coaching to improve my players.

Its the factor that creates the difference between players. I have spent the last 23 days Leaning Level 5 Scouting which will now give me access to Judging Potential so that I can see which players have the potential to make it big and which players aren't worth bothering with. During that 23 days other players have been learning other skills and are better than me at those.

Soon when the existing household name players are gone and regenerated players start appearing, I think my Judging Potential skill will come into its own.

i enjoyed the beta when i started on it, I took a good hour picking my first squad, enjoyed some initial success for the first 4 weeks... but then I went on holiday. when I cam back, my sqaud had been crippled by vultures picking off those players i couldnt protect (last i knew u could auto resign a set number of players at the end of their contracts) ...i really did try to put in the time to rebuild the squad, but I started spending less and less time playing... and my team slowly dropped down the rankings...

personally, i dont have the time to play this game. it's good... but maybe not for me :P

@Ikari2001
Yeah, the losing players thing is a pain (lost my keeper, who had also scored 7 goals for me via free kicks). But it works like it does for a reason.

You can protect 5 players in your squad, that is you give them an auto-extension to their contract and no other team can poach them. All other players are available to the team who is willing to pay them the highest wages.

It stops teams hoarding all the best players and it also stops managers hoarding their money in order to have a big splurge and buy all the best players and in effect "buy" the league title.

Its an attempt at keeping the playing field fairly level.

With regards to the price, as mentioned near the top the boxed version onsale this Friday comes with 4 months included so if you are concerned at our pricing strategy perhaps buying this will be a perfect starting point and the game will suck you in to carry on subscribing. There are some retailers offering the game for around £15 at the moment.

What a bunch of whiny buggers you are. "Can't justify" bla bla. I bet you've been paying for WoW or any other MMO for months or even years without as much as a twitch, and now you can't "justify" this? Fair enough if you don't enjoy football, but otherwise this is probably the best that has happened to the current MMO circus.

Kind of the opposite for me - I've never played MMOs, partly because of the monthly fee. I'm a big football fan, and play Fantasy Football and Pro Evo regularly, but even this isn't enough for me to accept getting a monthly bill for my gaming like I do with my mobile phone or electricity.

To be honest though, I'm just a tight-arse and I don't begrudge anyone who feels this is decent value for money ;)

X201 : We're also adding new skills all the time with our 'constant development' model. In a few weeks time we're introducing stadiums to the game and you'll be able to construct a work of art for your club to cater for your prawn sandwich brigade ... or you could satisfy the demands of the hard core fans and put in some terracing.

skillian : Why not give the box copy a go and take us up on the 4 months and see if you like it then?

@marcduffy

That's a good plan, and I might well do that.

I have a couple of friends who already have the game pre-ordered and I'll likely get their opinion on it first, as with a game like this I wouldn't rely on just this website's view (sorry EG).

As it's available for a fair price, the game seems good value even if I only end up playing for four months.

skillian : I think at that price it would be wrong not to give the game a try :) Good luck!

Check out http://manual.footballmanagerlive.com for a very comprehensive look at the game.

@marcduffy
I know. I've been been playing it (badly) for the last month and a half.
You're selling to the converted :)

Level 5 Scouting finally finishes at 13:43 this afternoon \o/

Kind of the opposite for me - I've never played MMOs, partly because of the monthly fee. I'm a big football fan, and play Fantasy Football and Pro Evo regularly, but even this isn't enough for me to accept getting a monthly bill for my gaming like I do with my mobile phone or electricity.

To be honest though, I'm just a tight-arse and I don't begrudge anyone who feels this is decent value for money ;)

Fair enough. As marcduffy said, you can get the boxed copy of the game very cheap (play.com has a good offer) and you have four months to try it out. If you feel that you won't be resubbing it after that time then at least you've given it a go. I don't go to the pub every weekend, so I'll have enough money every month when I've switched to FML. I've already pre-ordered it. Will ditch WoW as well.

Damn - OK, you, marcduffy and the review convinced me.

Ordered from Play. Hope it goes better for me than Fantasy Football (Darren fricking Bent).

Ordered from Play. Hope it goes better for me than Fantasy Football (Darren fricking Bent).

Cool. Maybe I'll see you in game then. :)

skillian : Why not try to pick Bent up in-game? We've just added Mrs Redknapp to the database, she's a bargain striker with a keen eye for goal. Heading = 20.

We've just added Mrs Redknapp to the database

Haha..oh. If I wasn't a Spurs fan that would be funny ;)

One thing that isn't clear to me: do seasons restart everything? I mean, having to select a team of noobs again, having to learn skills again and so on. Otherwise I don't see how a new player can compete with the old ones.

marilena : No, a new season (in the case of FML it's every 28 days) sees you get promoted or relegated within your chosen Football Association (you can move Associations each season to one that mirrors your playtimes).

Your skills remain (you can only continue to learn, you'll never forget a skill), your players remain unless their contracts are expiring and you let them go to auction or you decide to sell them.

@marilena
It doesn't restart every season.
You keep the players you have purchased (unless their contract is up or another manager offers them more money)
You keep all the skills that you have learned.
Your players age.

The game is just like any other MMO, designed for the long game instead of short term victory.

I see. I've had a look on the website and I understand there are different Game Worlds, I guess you can join a new one so that you don't get twatted by old timers. Still, you are obviously pressured to play a lot in order to do well, which puts me off. Even Travian servers get restarted from time to time, and that's an extremely demanding game time-wise.

Yes, new worlds spawn as soon as they become around 75% full. You can join a new GW with lots of other newbies or if you feel like a challenge you can join an existing GW and take on the more experienced players.

There are 11 worlds available now. St John is the next to start tomorrow (http://www.footballmanagerlive.com/gamew...

@marcduffy:

The thing with Associations is genius. Are you able to join more than one, if you play evening/nights for example?

"The game is just like any other MMO, designed for the long game instead of short term victory."

Not really true. In most MMOs, you don't compete with the others. You can all get the top level gear and can even work together to get it. In this one, you're competing with the other players for the 'gear' i.e. players and this can be vexing if you aren't prepared to invest a lot of time in it on an indefinite term.

As a Travian addict coming out of the addiction, this puts me off completely.

If I find one of them cheap packs with included subscription I may give it a whirl to see it for myself, otherwise I'll just stay away.

@marilena
You can play it as much or as little as you want. And not every night. You can pop in and out, and let the AI play your games for you if you want. Various associations are available, (Social, Weekends, late night, Early evening, Xtreme) just choose the one that suits your playing time/style.


Skills are learnt around the clock without you having to actually be online.

If I find one of them cheap packs with included subscription I may give it a whirl to see it for myself, otherwise I'll just stay away.

As I mentioned before, Play has a really good offer for the boxed copy and it includes 4 months subscription. That's mainly what got me hooked. If I lose interest and get bored after 2 months then there's no harm done. But I'm quitting WoW and WAR for this.

levitate : You can only be assigned to one associated per season. Based on your teams ability and your performance you will be initially assigned to a division within that association (each association runs it's own pyramid system and each association has it's own internal cup competitions). After the first season which division you are in will largely be based on performance (ie top 3 might go up and bottom 3 will go down etc).

The associations are named and have playtimes to suit a variety of scenarios however with everything in FML if you and another manager are online you can get down to business at anytime.

i've been in beta for 18 months, i must tell you its bloody addictive.
But due to no job and modding fml 24 hours a day i had to let it go for the minute :(

Also just to let you all know i started a group for fml on eurogamer.
if anyone wants to join and chat about the game, players, stadiums, new updates :)

http://gamers.eurogamer.net/groups.php?g...

I've joined the group but the Mod is a right slow coach when it comes to approving new members ;)

made it public now :)

I might have to give this a go if i can pick up a cheap FM09 for the pc. Marc and the other chaps (2?) at SI Games are complete gents at spending the time to contribute to forum chat not only on their own forum but places like EG. That speaks loads about them.

@coastal

FM09 is a different game.