What FM means to me
Average Rating: 7/10 Hits: 282 Submitted: Mar 7, 2008
I'm late for work, again, I am lying in bed staring at the ceiling as I calculate how much sleep I actually had and how quickly I can wash and get out the door to work; neither sum comes up with anything particularly positive. My wife has already left for work and will be understandably annoyed that I sloped into bed at around 3am and was silently horizontal when she departed this morning. It is my non-liquid drinking problem which pre-empts its very own nauseating and somewhat 'fluffy' hangover. This is what Football Manager means to me.
Accurately described as the 'crack-cocaine of the gaming world' (that was before the World of Warcraft) in its previous guise as Championship Manager back in the 90s this, like any addictive drug, has stalked me since I first attempted to bring success to my real-life local club growing up, Brentford FC. I played several versions in my early teens and enjoyed some success with the likes of Barcelona and Ajax (back then a different European league meant buying a whole new version of the game) as well as what I still regard my biggest FM moment, managing Newcastle United to a domestic treble in a black and white world before Alan Shearer; it was in fact Les Ferdinand and Peter Beardsley who supplied my fire-power. I have enjoyed huge breaks from the game (one stretching five or six years) but it is a game intertwined with me in the same way cigarettes once were and I inevitably leave only to come back as the years role on.
Being a Tottenham fan surely holds some resonance here for I am perpetually following a team that I wish could enjoy more stature. To this end, I always start a new edition as Spurs and win as much as I possibly can before moving onto more interesting clubs; often in the lower league. This, I am sure, is no excuse though as I often read about others playing games as their beloved Arsenal or Manchester United (both clubs I hold endless envy for in real life) so in must just be that we all think there is room for improving our club. The trouble with Football manager is that it is just so damn good. On top of some of the greatest playing software ever attached to a database, this also serves as a vast almanac and catalogue of info that, I think we'd all agree, makes up a large amount of what we know about real life teams and leagues. I am often able to recount vast amounts about players that none of my friends have even heard of down at the pub, not because I have seen them in the flesh but because I know all about their background and possible ability from a game which is often accurate to the point of clairvoyance
Things have, without a doubt, improved since the days I stared at a screen which featured little more than crude text that I hoped and preyed would occasionally flash up with the text GOAL FOR TOTTENHAM On top of the ridiculously vast improvements in the game, in terms of both data and graphics as well as endless interactivity, the explosion of the internet means that their is now a scene to be part of and we are not alone in terms of the insanity surrounding the game or reliant on our friends to turn up to continue our 'shared game'.
This is what the game means to me, insanity. Insanity twinned with a wealth of football knowledge and the charm that comes with using your own tactical guile to assemble and arrange a group of artificial players in a bid to prove what we all already know when we watch Match of the Day; that we can do better than those who are lucky enough to be in charge in the real world.
Socrates once said that the male libido is like being chained to a madman, I'd say Football Manager is like being chained to a madman chained to a laptop.
Being a Tottenham fan surely holds some resonance here for I am perpetually following a team that I wish could enjoy more stature. To this end, I always start a new edition as Spurs and win as much as I possibly can before moving onto more interesting clubs; often in the lower league. This, I am sure, is no excuse though as I often read about others playing games as their beloved Arsenal or Manchester United (both clubs I hold endless envy for in real life) so in must just be that we all think there is room for improving our club. The trouble with Football manager is that it is just so damn good. On top of some of the greatest playing software ever attached to a database, this also serves as a vast almanac and catalogue of info that, I think we'd all agree, makes up a large amount of what we know about real life teams and leagues. I am often able to recount vast amounts about players that none of my friends have even heard of down at the pub, not because I have seen them in the flesh but because I know all about their background and possible ability from a game which is often accurate to the point of clairvoyance
Things have, without a doubt, improved since the days I stared at a screen which featured little more than crude text that I hoped and preyed would occasionally flash up with the text GOAL FOR TOTTENHAM On top of the ridiculously vast improvements in the game, in terms of both data and graphics as well as endless interactivity, the explosion of the internet means that their is now a scene to be part of and we are not alone in terms of the insanity surrounding the game or reliant on our friends to turn up to continue our 'shared game'.
This is what the game means to me, insanity. Insanity twinned with a wealth of football knowledge and the charm that comes with using your own tactical guile to assemble and arrange a group of artificial players in a bid to prove what we all already know when we watch Match of the Day; that we can do better than those who are lucky enough to be in charge in the real world.
Socrates once said that the male libido is like being chained to a madman, I'd say Football Manager is like being chained to a madman chained to a laptop.
