A rant on this piece of W*** (A MikeB Article)

Football Manager Live. A game which impresses thousands. Why? because of it's interactivity with hundreds of other people, and the fact you can build your very own club from scratch.

But there's a darker side to the game which you don't see, unless you experience it.

Are you someone with no life whatsoever? Someone who wants to spend 10 hours a day playing a game on the computer? Go and buy FML! If you have a life, don't!

Since the launch of the latest gameworld, a few weeks ago, everyone from the old GW 3,5,6,10 and 11 got chucked into one, and it's been utter wank, if I'm honest with you.

I just don't get the same feeling that I used to when playing the game. The following is a little rank which I need, as I feel I'm on a period I'm so stressed because of this heap of crap.


Basically, you need to play around 60 games a day, ATLEAST if you want to get into the top 300 teams in the world. fact is, I play about 10 maximum, and where has it got me? Oh yeah, no where. 250k in debt, really good players with high Acquisition fees and Market values, yet I'm ranked 598th, and that's my highest so far.

Why is this? I hear you ask. Well, I look through the top teams in the world, I look at a player and it says: "Senior Record this season: Games 567 (23)" That's just sad, and pathetic. This world has only been going UNDER 2 weeks, so thats around 50 games a day, and he hasn't even had that particular player since Day 1 anyway!

When you think, a match lasts atleast 20 minutes, and you have to do alot of other stuff between matches on the game, that's a ridiculous amount of time spent on the game every day of your sad and pathetic life.

Fact is, you can't get good at FML, unless you play the game a ridiculous amount. Sure, there's football associations like the Casual weekend one, and the Casual Week day Association etc, but you'll still end up in the bottom 200.

I'm sorry, but I can't commit more than an hour or two's play a day. What with Sixth form, two younger brothers to look after most of the day, cooking, work at the weekends and to think I've wasted 35 pounds on a year subscription of this thing - an awful lot of money to someone like me.

I won't be withdrawing my payment, as I shall give the game one more try when the Full release gameworlds go live - I've made to much commitment to a Shearer GW Website to quit now, so I'll have to give it another chance, but as far as the BETA goes, Im out.

No, this isn't an article really, it's a cheap rant, to let off steam at this utter Toss Candle of a game. Well, okay the game isn't bad itself, as I love the concept, as it's right up my street, but the amount of time you need to commit is ridiculous. Granted, I could still play, but I hate failure, and seeing me ranked 600th the majority of the time is just depressing, as is this post, but heh.

I think that's a good point you've made, having to many games in one day frustrates the player being you, and quite easily the opponent because the opponent doesn't pay (xx) amount of money a month to play the FM LIVE AI. I think FM LIVE should strongly consider the schedules and make it more relaxing for all the players.

Ok, firstly, nobody has played that many games. Its them Super Lots of game things where the AI plays 116 games for you in three days.

I'd say 50% of the gameworld have entered at least one of those, i myself have entered three as it helps boost my younger players stats and experience.

And 60 games a day to get into the Top 300? Thats quite a bit of exagerration. But i do think to be in top 10 you need to play quite alot of games a day.

iirc for live SI are gonna implement 'hidden' FA rankings, whic will determine your daily income etc. As they understand that some people just play loads and loads of games and get to/around the top. I do believe they are working on something to help the more 'casual' players in the game.

I was hooked onto this until my brother pointed out that it was going to be a waste when it actually comes out. After reading this, i think he was right (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mellow.gif)

I think this is a poor title, seeming as you will be playing this still guaranteed.

?

It is a piece of wank, but 35 pounds worth is a lot of money, so I'll give it another chance... problem? And sicne when was the title that important?

I think a title is very important, just my opinion.

Mike, I think your frustration has really shown a lack of logic behind your presumptions. While you could point out that several of the top teams have players with X amount of games, it doesn't actually prove anything. The key is figuring out why those managers have been able to attain & hold on to those rankings... and that variable you're using is purely coincidental. It's like saying Derby County were crap last year because most of their games were on Saturday...

In 6-7 months of playing on GW2, it has been proven without a shadow of a doubt that casual users can indeed succeed in the game. While a bulk of the top 25-50 are everyday types of players, a good 30% or so were those that only signed in from time to time and at one point had 3 Casual Fed teams in the top 10.

The only benefit hardcore users have in FML is their ability to micro-manage their team much better than others. For the most part though, FML really comes down to player quality, match fitness & tactical synergy. As long as you assemble a squad with complimenting attributes in a tactic system that highlights their strength, you'll win more often than not against those with weaker squads. While it may appear that playing in a zillion comps benefits your team, it's not neccessary whatsoever - just make sure you're in seveal friendly comps that have X number of games over the course of a season to keep your team match fit at all times even when you're offline.

I think the last aspect is much more important than people realize... if you only stick to fed games, they're way too sparse by AI dates to be played predominatly by players with "green boots" giving your a significant disadvantage to those that do not. The easiest way to accomplish this is to join every comp under the sun and run up hundreds of AI games, but with a little more thought, only 4-5 would do for your senior team. I go with this approach for the most part and join several low-entry "mega" leagues with 60+ games each over 21-28 days. Although I might get a few more injuries than most, I'm virtually guaranteed to have a 100 condition squad every time I sign in or have the AI resolve games.

While I admit this is a bit of a flaw in the system... with the exception of the pre-season, your fed games should be able to keep your side match fit for 3 weeks straight, it simply does not. Trust me, I've brought this issue up with Ov and SI a while back and the consensus was to give users more reasons to play games and join in on other's friendly comps. I personally think those that want to strictly stick to fed games shouldn't be "punished" in this weird type of way, but whatever SI wants the direction of the game to be, I respect their opinion.

All in all, there will always be a resentment towards hardcore users as they will inevitably be higher ranked than their casual counterparts... but understand that a casual user that is indeed GOOD at the game can easily trump everyone else if he/she has the skills to do so.

Thats the 'problem' with online games, most of them need to tailor to the 'hardcore' players as they will be their core player base. Obviously it makes it difficult for those of us that cannot spend every waking moment on the game.

I haven't been able to play much since the end of the 'first season' on GW 13 because I've restarted uni but up untill that point I was able to comfortably hold my own and stay in the top 200-300 with about 5 games a day. The AI auto resolution is there for a reason as well. I ended up having to play the CPU alot come the end of the first season as lots of people were simply never on.

None the less its an addictive game that if I had the time, I could probably throw alot of hours away playing it. I agree its a bit bitter sweet with the group of people(unemployed/kids?) that choose to stay online all day. I think even with the discounts offered to the beta testers its a lot of money and I most lkely won't fork out for it. Online games have always needed lots of time to dedicate and its pretty hard to tailor a game to the casual user.

I said this before and I will say it again, this game expect you to do to much as a human, and sooner or later people will stop playing and AI will kick in ALL the time. Which really defeats the point of the game.

As said above, and from others I've heard from people can't pay that much and don't have the time to dedicate.

I used it for a little while and didn't think it was particularly great. I definitely wouldn't pay for for it.

The novelty is creating your own team, then after that its just not very fun.