One Season in One Season - Football Manager 2014 in Real Time

[marcMCFC1986]

Hi All

Not sure if this has been done before, so apologies if this is unoriginal...

I have decided that when my copy of FM14 arrives I am going to start a season, with whichever club I end up selecting, and play it in real time.

In the past I have been guilty of not playing the game 'properly'...rather I simply download a good tactic from a website such as this, join my beloved Manchester City :wub:, employ a World Class Assistant Manager (and leave all training/match preparation etc. to him) and simply scout & buy the best players! Though I enjoy this, as it helps me chill out, I feel I am missing out on the deeper aspects of the game! Tweaking that tactic for each individual opponent, actually reading the stats that my scout prepares for my upcoming opponent and seeing where I can beat them, and just generally getting more involved in what FM has to offer!

So, as I said, I will be playing one season in real time. Each day I will switch on my laptop, fire up FM and click "Continue". I will ensure that the game only progresses one day at a time. Whether I am waiting for an important transfer to be finalised, spend hours adjusting the tactics and match preparation for my upcoming match, conduct a press conference, hold a team meeting, or whether I simply click save and switch it back off - I will only progress the game by one game day, per real day!

I feel this will be possibly one of the most detailed games of FM ever, and of course I will give regular updates on a thread on here!

Obviously I will play another save at my usual pace as well, which may give me a slightly unfair advantage as I will know which players turn out good - but since the save will only last one season anyway there will be no point investing in youth!

Anyway, I would like everybodies opinion on what team to be? Should I go big with Man City? Or go for a Conference or League Two club? Or even lower? Or try to get out of possibly the toughest league in the world...the Championship!?

What are your thoughts? And has anyone done this before?

 

[magicaces]

This is something ive always wanted to do but never did...so im gonna try this as well. Will you try and catch up during the first season to the date the game is released?
Im thinking of a challenge to try and return my local team Reading back to the Prem in a season...wont be easy especially as they havent bought well at all during the transfer window.

 

[marcMCFC1986]

Yeah I guess I'll have to hammer it for a day or two, but once I'm up to date then it'll be real time!

I want to be City, obviously, but reckon an experiment to show what a difference playing the game in huge detail can make, it would be better to play with a smaller team!

 

[Fanty111]

play as southampton...great youth facilities + luke shaw, ward-prowse Ramierez etc

great team

 

[apvmoreira]

You should play every monday, using the same players and tactic as IRL!

 

[Felley]

I'll be truly impressed if you manage to stick to this mate!

I'm just wondering how you would present it? Are you going to do it as a story type thing with daily updates? I could see that getting pretty dull, no offence. There must be a way to spice it up a bit...

 

[TheBetterHalf]

I tried this in FM10 and 11 and for me, it became a catch 22. As one has to play about 2 months in the save to catch up for the release date, it lead to the folowing scenario.

- I enjoyed the save during those first months ( July - Release date) hence I could not stop playing it like a "real save"

- I did not enjoy thoe first months, so I quit ;D

Best of luck to you though !

 

[AldoKemp-1]

Great idea, considered doing it myself before but as said if you get too attached to the game you just want to keep playing. It would be good if you could either do a story on it or make it a Network game and try get everyone to play on say the Monday and it would only take about 1hr out of everyone's time.

 

[marcMCFC1986]

Thanks for your replies!

Yeah I think writing a story every day/few days/week would get tiresome for everyone to read and for me to type.

I'll probably either bulletpoint the key things I have done each day, and then maybe write a full report after each match??

The other thing I was thinking of doing (or asking someone to do) is use the editor to get the game up to date with what is happening IRL, and then just play it from the date of release day, rather than rushing through the first few months to catch up?

 

[TheFalse9]

This is a fantastic idea, granted, but it'll take a lot of self-control and resilience to stick with it. And that's not to mention, on some days, you may be busy. But good luck!