I know that this will be controversial, but I would just like to point out that things that revolve around football with the likes of stabbings, murders, scadals and stuff warrant that football is just a game, but that is irrelevant. Anyway, here it goes:
I hate it (sometimes) when people say "It's just a game." Not Football Manager, that is obviously just a videogame, but I mean the real game. The actual one where you kick a football and run to chase it. That game. I play football as if it were the World Cup final - all the time. Regardless. Although, on the occassion that it is just a kickabout, that is an exception to the rule, but generally I want to win almost every match I play in.
I have this mentality that, if we don't win the match, then the majority of the fault in the team's loss is rested upon my shoulders. I don't know why. That is especially so if I play in defence. I rarely-ever get to play anywhere other than in the defence. So winning the match, brings a better feel to my day and makes things look a lot brighter and better. But then again,. it does have it's backlashes, as I do tend to want to win more and more games until it is proven that I have done well. Not to others, but to myself personally.
So when people call it just a game, it frustrates me. It makes my blood boil because it's not 'just a game' to me. It's more than that. It's almost life or death sometimes because I take it seriously. Granted it may not be healthy, but there isn't really much for me to do other than live, breath, eat, sleep, watch and generally talk about the game. If I didn't have football, then I probably would be knee-deep in gaming, and be an addict of WoW and RTS's. And that's being truthful.
It has crept it's way into Football Manager, but getting better at it over the years, and using my love of the game to adapt it to the videogame (hence why I have that 'An [Amateur] Tactician's Thread' open) to which then I feel confident in my abilities. If things go sour, I take a deep breath and start again. With football, it's not like that. Every game I play is one that I feel that is a cup game, or a game that has so much on the line, any mistake is costly. I don't know how that would fair if I were to be a professional footballer or coach, but I guess it comes with the job and pressures.
But yes, that is what I hate. Every time I lose, I feel the need to just rage or be extremely critical of my game and how I need to severely improve. Every time I win, I feel the need to win again and again and again - repetitively until I am not physically able to continue. Why? I don't know.
/uselessrant.
