Choosing A Team & Lesson 1
Choosing a Team & Lesson 1;
So while waiting for the 12.2 update I had a little play with Wolves and Russian team Krasnodar to help get used to the game.
The question was, who would I be when I started for real? As a kid I was an Arsenal fan and traditionally started with them. Regretfully I'd read a post on the best young players when I had a play with Wolves and it sapped some of my enjoyment out of the game. With Arsenal it would be easier to buy them. Also my opinion of the players there are quite particular and I'd read for example that RVP declines quite quickly and I knew that would be a bug bearer for me as my opinion of him in real life is quite different.
Better to start a few rungs lower down or a different country. I had a look on the challenge board
Challenges & Scenarios and got inspired by this;
http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/challenges-scenarios/94007-preston-north-end-challenge.html
In a former life I'd cross paths with Preston North End (PNE) and was familar with a few of their youth players and coaches. I'd also had a great admiration for England & PNE Legend Tommy Finney;
I'm not very taking aback by celebrity, I've been fortunate to meet a lot of high profile players but I actually saw Tom once and my heart literally skipped a beat! (On a side note, interestingly some of the training methods the likes of Finney and Stanley Matthews used are now seen as the cutting edge methods of today. e.g. short sprints, plyometrics, yoga/stretching, breathing exercises, lighter football boots etc)
(N.B. If your not sure who he is; Stanley Matthews was the other big player in England at the time and in his early 40s was the first ever European Player of the year!)
The Team is Chosen!
Lesson 1 - There's No Room For Sentiment
"Realism" Vs Fun
Once I started the game I wanted to make a little list of staff that I could bring in. I also started to search for coaches I knew in real life. Many were on the game! Woo!
But..... lots of the ones I rated highly had rubbish stats and others I felt were actually rubbish were rated really good. This nearly annoyed so much as to stop playing there and then!
A mental commentry began
"how can they get the stats so wrong? he's rubbish in real life.....oh my, he's so underated on the game" etc - We've all probably been there at some point or another. It's important not to forget just what a hard job the makers of Football Manager have in trying to balance so many variables and make an enjoyable game.
I realised there and then I had 2 choices;
1) I could use the likes of in game editors and such to change all my real life favourite coaches and hire them.
2) I accepted that this is a
game and
not real life. There would be things I wouldn't agree with and not get overly sentimental about some stats of people I admired.
I had made some minor editor changes before starting my game, (such as preventing Stuart Pearce becoming England coach and re-appointing John Terry as captain!), but unless there are defined parameters and reasons for using them I shy away from editing things as I'm a bit old school I guess.
I realised if I started editing them, where would I draw the line? It would become easier to start editing other things aswell. As the game develops maybe RVP starts decling & is available for cheap - it could be easy for me to then say "why not buy him" and edit his CA back up. Although in my view it could be more "realistic" to his ability, the challenge and fun of playing the game "clean" would be tainted.
I hadn't played the game for many years and just playing the game as it's given would certainly be enough for me... I just have to remember it's not real life and not get overly sentimental!
(By the way does anybody know how to resize images somehow?)
