Thursday 31 July 2008
Interview with Miles Jacobson...
Over the weekend I caught up with Miles Jacobson, SI Studio Director, for a chat about all things FML, and some other things too. Here's what he had to say...
NIK: A lot of people are now starting to plan ahead for the launch of FML… What’s your master plan for your team in FML?
MILES: I’m still thinking about it – the skills side of things has been kind of easy in the beta, as some have been introduced later than others, and some changes along the way, so this side of the game requires a lot more thought than it did for beta. I know what tactic I’m likely to play, but then that will change if I don’t get the players that I want, but I’ll likely go for the “slow but sure” approach, and build things up slowly.
NIK: In FML, does buying top stars guarantee success or is it slow and steady that wins the race?
MILES: You can’t buy top stars at the start of the game, as people who haven’t restarted during beta will find out when they have to start afresh! Slow and steady, a marathon, not a sprint, the tortoise beat the hare, and all the other clichés that have been used during the beta phase spring to mind. It’s going to be fun watching some of the bigger teams in beta adapt to the full game on release.
NIK: Top flight struggle or a more comfortable existence somewhere down the ladder?
MILES: I play in various gameworlds at the moment, and my teams range from top flight challengers, through top flight struggle and a more comfortable existence lower down. The problem with the latter is that it normally leads to the middle option!
NIK: For you - 5 at the back or 5 in attack?
MILES: 442 or 433. I tend to play more attacking, but you need a very strong defence and keeper to make that work properly.
NIK: Do you think the game suffers by having the real life players in the database, when the challenge perhaps is to take a group of unknowns and make a successful team?
MILES: Not at all – the majority of people want players that they can associate to at the start.
NIK: What were your first impressons when Ov told you about wanting to create FML?
MILES: I’d had a few drinks at the time, so it was probably something along the lines of “You want to come back to the studio and make a new game – cool!”. He’d been off travelling for a year and a bit, and had left us, so I was just really happy that he wanted to come back. Then when he presented the plans, it got even more exciting, and that has lead to the FML that is there today.
NIK: Was there ever an alternative idea to FML in the pipeline for SI or had it always been an aim of the team?
MILES: We’d investigated some stuff whilst with Eidos on how to take our previous game more online, but they got some management consultants involved, and that put us off the idea, as I really didn’t see what 3 items I’d take onto a desert island if I was stranded had to do with making an online football game. Ov’s idea was had when he wasn’t part of the team, so it was very much a new approach, and fitted in perfectly with where we were taking FM, as it’s quite a different direction.
NIK: What are your favourite (and least favourite!) features in FML?
MILES: I don’t have a favourite or least favourite. I had things I like, and things I don’t like as much, but it’s all been debated amongst the whole team and the forums, and great conclusions have been drawn to pretty much everything now. I’m very excited about some of the future plans that we have for the game, with the constant development model meaning new features and changes every couple of months, which will stop things getting stale.
NIK: Are we going to see FML features added to FM09, or FM09 Features added to FML? (*cough* Customize view *cough*)
MILES: There will be lots of idea sharing going on between the games, just like there has been by working on the PSP and console games. No specifics have been decided upon yet,
NIK: Football Manager aside, what other game has influenced the development of FML the most?
MILES: Cluedo. But not the normal version, the Scooby Doo special edition.NIK: Apart from (probably astronomical) server costs, what’s the one main thing that you’ve learnt from FML?
MILES: That Oliver and Paul Collyer, founders of Sports Interactive, and the creators of the football titles we’ve made, are both rubbish at the game.
NIK: SI has always been known for its closeness to its community – has FML taken that to a whole new level? There was something infinitely cool about Marc Vaughan’s keeper scoring with a freak free kick from 80 yards against me.
MILES: Yes, I think so – although not just ingame, as most of us are playing under assumed names in most of the worlds so that we can see how people are really playing the game without them behaving because someone from SI is online! On the forums, certainly, although there are times that we’d wish people had thought before posting – there’s no point ranting or shouting at any time, and even less when something is in beta!
NIK: What kind of hours are you and the team working at the moment and what’s the longest you’ve been at the office for without sleep? Do the team get a buzz from this period where the hours may be crazy but you know the finish line is coming into sight?
MILES: There’ve only been a couple of times during the project where anyone has worked through the night, so we’ve been pretty good at getting sleep. Each team member treats these times differently – some love them, others hate them – but each of the team has been brilliant during the run in, and helping out those that are further behind to ensure that the race is finished at the right time.
MILES: For me personally, my record is 75 hours at the office without sleep, but that wasn’t on this project and was some years ago, and I wouldn’t do it again – I always try and get at least 3 hours sleep a night, even when it’s madness. Which is quite often!
NIK: Following on from that, we’ve heard rumblings from Duffy that the forums are changing soon – can you spill any beans on what’s coming there?
MILES: New forum software, new rules, more mods and a super mod, if all goes to plan. We will be trying to reclaim the main forums from the anti-social behaviour mess that they’ve become. Not everyone will like the new rules, but the forums have become a place where the SI team don’t like going any more, which completely defeats the point of having them.
NIK: Do SI have any plans for something fun in the beta a few days before the beta ends? For example another MMO made everybody regarding of top level, level to the top and give them ultra powerful gear. Maybe you could boost every players stats to 20 for a laugh or dish out loads of cash?
MILES: No, we won’t be doing that. A few teams had that during the end phase of the alpha, and it was very funny for some of us, whereas others didn’t like it at all, so the safe approach is to not change anything.
NIK: Actually I was one of those that didn’t find it so funny… Anyway...!
NIK: How much mileage do you think there is in FML? Do you think we’ll be still playing in 5 years? 10 years?MILES: If someone had asked us back when we first started making games, I don’t think either Ov nor Paul thought it would last long, yet 15 years later, the FM series goes from strength to strength, continuing to smash sales records and being more popular than ever.MILES: I don’t see FML to be any different – the current skills set will take 4 years plus to get, and we’ll be adding more, so we see this as a very long term project. Unless no one enjoys it and wants to play it, in which case it’ll be very short term!
NIK: Someone had a more general question about careers in the industry as well - What advice do you have for people that want to be a games designer and have great innovative ideas, however find it hard to convince others (I’m guessing we’re talking about parents here!) that their life is actually going anywhere in this type of industry?
MILES: (cue lots of complaints from parents) Don’t listen to them. Pursue your dream. But do it whilst you have another job too and/or other qualifications, so that you’re still able to pay the rent! However, the games industry is just as competitive as any other entertainment industry, and very very few succeed in these dreams.
NIK: Now the key question - you must be pretty delighted with the standard of moderating that the game has seen so far? ;-P
MILES: Fishing for compliments isn’t a good trait, Nik. But we do appreciate all the work the mods have done. Apart from the one who cheated although, we actually appreciate that too, as it showed us some holes that needed to be plugged.
NIK: It was worth a try! What do you say for all people out there who want to be a mod? Where do they signup or who do they speak to? Are there any restrictions or limitations?
MILES: If they are helpful in the gameworlds, they’ll soon get noticed. Mods will be picked up via recommendations from other mods, in the main.
NIK: I’m going to avoid asking the obvious, but have you any word on what sort of timescale there is before we get ‘the big announcement(s)’? on the release of FML?
MILES: It could be weeks, it could be months – the beauty and the beast of an MMO is that we can be very flexible with decisions. If everything is perfect in the next few weeks, then the announcement will be weeks away. If not, it’ll be months. Either way, the right decision will be made about launch, at the right time.Well, thanks for that Miles!
Interview by Nik Reeves MOD.
This was earlier posted on http://fmlmod.blogspot.com/
NEWS
Gameworld 7 Round Up
30th July, 2008
Welcome to the first edition of the weeks GW7 Newspaper and what better way to start off with announcing the name as voted by GW7.Drum Roll Please... Choice #9 : 'The Weekly Fry' - 10 votes (22.2%)Voting was very close with 2 other main contenders getting 9 votes each for the name but majority votes count... so welcome readers to The Weekly Fry.The Weekly FryTo this weeks news! Firstly a big Congratulations to our Team and Mover of the Week. English manager Paul Jackson's dazzling Ewell Saints have won the 'Team of the Week' award after climbing 4 to the top of GW7.English manager Mary Thompson's seasoned Pink Squad have won 'Mover Of The Week' award after climbing four hundred and fifty-five places to 281st. Both claim a prize of £100,000.Also well done to this week's Senior Goal of the Week winner:Nomination 4 - Deco Shotton FC Vs Oddjob City with 8 votes.Well it’s been a week of FAs ending and here is the round up of results. Be sure to cast your votes for managers and players of the season so see your FA Organiser for any vote details.Season 5 Premiership winners: (Alphabetical order as to not argue who has best fed!)
AFF Premiership: Mos Eisley FCAEFF Premiership: Manchester United
CWA Premiership: Middleton Town FCDFA Super League: Finnantastic
MFA Premier League: Carter FCNFA Premiere League: Plushenko Ice Team
PFA Premiership: FC BecksSFA Premiership: Dream Raiders
FCWCA Premiership: Blackburn Town FCXFA Premier League: The Hairy NosepickersCongratulations!
FAFA in turmoil?Life wasn't made the easiest though for one of our FA Orgs, Matt "SFA & FAFA" Fletcher. After all his work with FAFA we had some issues brought up with activity. Matt has spent a good few hours working on FAFA and with the Mods reviewing it; it has all been good with the odd small thing here and there.There was an issue to do with how a FAFA Entry league was set up as the easiest way to get names of who wants to be in FAFA this season and basically allowed all the active users to enter over a short space of time rather than just inviting the top teams.Matt was quick to comment on the matter: “At the end of the day there are so many spaces and FAFA had a lot of inactive users last season as it wasn’t started. Due to JJ being away (as he was the person above me and ultimately in charge of FAFA), I spent all morning and some of the afternoon sorting it out. I made the entry league as the easiest way to get active users into the league and cup. It is unfortunate that not everyone is involved but there has to be a cut off point.”Rich was also quick to make a stance on the time and effort put in from Mods and Fed Orgs: “An official comp is not like any of the others as individuals need to be manually added to each league and each league needs to be manually created.Whilst doing this you cannot play any games nor do anything else.To allocate 128 players and create the individual leagues would take approximately 2 hours. On top of this Matt would also have had to sort out his fed to make sure everything was set for Monday. The Mods and FA Organisers only do this for the player’s enjoyment however sometimes when this so called feedback appears do I think, why do we bother?”The best manager in FML?The undoubted number one in GW7 Richard"XFA" Hainsworth of The Hairy Nosepickers had the honour of being discussed to be the best manager in the whole of FML.Matt "SFA & FAFA" Fletcher has made a topic on the FML BETA Tester’s Forum (click here) where managers can give their opinion whether they agree or disagree with this statement.I quote: "Reasons why, His key for good and great players to play in positions is crazily good. His tactics are annoyingly good and can change them depending on the opponent! He went over a 100 games unbeaten."Richard already had the privilege to be mentioned on the FML front page so this might just be a true statement.Nick "Gone [but not forgotten]" Brooke was a bit sad no one had made a topic about him however Matt made a good point stating he never made it to the number 1 spot in GW7.Transfer NewsIt’s been a mad week in GW7 with players available in the wage auctions. Barry Blues FC managed to sign one of the best so far in Lorenzo De Silvestri on a very cheap £5k wage and only £600k AF Paid. Undoubtedly the biggest buy this week was by Spennymoor Utd. with the £15.5mil signing of Lionel Messi.We saw a few big transfers made this week and another huge deal was seen between The Hairy Nosepickers getting Obafemi Martins for £5mil with Amauri going the other way to Kentucky FC.Both Rich and Joe were out to make money where Rich sold Franck Ribéry for £6mil to West Bromwich Brazil FC as well as selling Edison Cavani for £3.75mil. He also made a deal with Franks Army and sold Iker Casillas and Diego Souza for £3mil each with Juan Pablo Carrizo costing him £5mil. Finally Rafael van der Vaart was bought from Queluz FC for £5mil plus Bastian Schweinsteiger.Joe on the other hand was busy selling Gonzalo Higuaín who was set on Auto Accept of £6mil and bought by Spennymoor Utd. Joe also sold Alex for £5mil to Carter FC and Andrés D'Alessandro left for £4mil to join Fc Zoetermeer.Joes biggest buy this week was Freddy Adu for a cool £6.5mil Instant Buy from Donington Rovers North End. Joe also forked out £4mil to buy Oscar Ustari from Mokum Magpies.As you can see Queluz FC are mentioned a lot and as a top team with a lot of money Filipe was in the market for a new keep signing José Manuel Reina from rank rivals Finnantastic. Filipe also sold Lucho González to Cottingley FC.New Mod Tony 'Multi-Millionaire Moderator' McCall's outstanding Dingle Stars AFC signing flamboyant Brazilian forward Carlos Eduardo for £7,750,012 from Romanian manager Francisc Romano's dazzling Manchester United on a 2 season contract.Stephenage A.F.C. signed 4.5* Rep Striker Tiago Gomes for Instant buy of £5.5mil from Inver Football Club after selling Stefan Kießling for £4mil to Area 51 FC.Yadi Bong FC sign Afonso Alves for £5,750,000 from Fleetwood Town.And finally Greek manager George Zebis’ irresolute A.O.Karistou won the race to sign commanding English centre-back Rio Ferdinand with their bid of £3,000,001. However this may look cheap but with a wage of £75k we know why Ahmad Balfagih's glitzy Al-Hilal FC wanted to sell.Wage Auction NewsWayne Rooney was also up for auction and his £150k original wage was lowered, only buy a small margin though with Chesterfield Town FC bidding £110k.Rooney wasn't alone though as we saw Team Obodai sign legendary Brazilian attacking midfielder Ronaldinho for £125k on a 1 season contract. An AF of £1.98mil was paid.And for the experience Sumo Ninjas FC signed 34 year old Frank Lampard for a wage of £87,500! Also 35 year old Raúl joins Stokes City on £100k! Big signings for both teams.Also:Classic Cooks United sign Spanish midfield playmaker Andrés Iniesta for £110,888 on a 1 season contract with £1,615mil AF paid.Fleetwood Town sign Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic for £110k on a 2 season contract with £2.16mil AF paid.Truekopite FC sign Scottish wing back Alan Hutton for £100k on a 2 season contract with £373,750 AF paid.Kentucky FC sign world class Chilean attacking midfielder Matías Fernández for £96,556 on a 2 season contract with £1.6mil AF paid.Queluz FC sign Dutch midfield and forward Ryan Babel for £67,777 on a 2 season contract with £700k AF paid.Little Baddow FC sign 19 year old cultured Dutch attacking midfielder Jason Mason for £35k on a 2 season contract.Welcome to the Anthony Murray corner...our GW7 most hated user and one of the best wheeler and dealers in GW7.This week due to wage auctions AM (as we like to call him), hasn't made many transfers but he has sold one of the best players in GW7.Best Buy: Zlatan Ibrahimovic, for £2.16mil in wage auction, £110k Wage Offered.Worst Buy: Ashley Cole, for £3mil from Chesterfield Town FC.Biggest Profit: Lionel Messi, for £15.5mil to Spennymoor Utd making a £7.5mil Profit.Worst Profit: Philippe Senderos, for £5mil to Firefly United losing £500k.AM was quick to comment after logging in to see he'd won the Zlatan Ibrahimovic wage auction:“Hi guys memo to self, never bid for anyone when drunk! 110k for Zlatan, I don’t even remember doing it!”While writing this AM sold Ashley Cole £3.5mil to Legion of the Dark Knight and in return bought Ewerthon for £2.6mil and Juan Carlos de la Barrera for £1.9mil.What happens when you don’t play with a keeper?Well the simple answer is you’ll most likely lose, and it’s actually what Craig Murray suffered with such losses as 13-1 Home to Jacko United FC, 12-1 Home to Spennymoor Utd, 9-0 Home to Midland reds and 2 7-0 Away losses to West Bromwich Brazil FC and Chicken Balti Pie FC. He's since made sure to have a keeper in his first team tab and had some better results since. We wish him all the best in GW7.UFFA Champions LeagueWelcome back ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls on this historic evening. We've just witnessed one of the greatest battles in the history of football. Sunday the 21st of July, the day Francisco Romano's Manchester United won the UFFA Champions League after two close matches.
Let's go back in time a little bit, to be precise three days ago, when the first round of this of this two-off final was played.We're off. Let's see what both managers strategy for this first leg is. It might all depend on Hainsworth's team here. They are the ones playing at home. Will the supporters give them the drive to attack with their hearts, or will they defend their territory, just to not concede a goal at home. Manchester United is eager to take the initiative, but the Nosepickers defence, leaded by Gabriel Milito, are not likely to be put under pressure early on. Sixteen minutes underway when United gets an direct free-kick at about 30 yards from the Nosepicker goal. Free-kick specialist Nei comes forward to take, he has quite a bit of a reputation with these sorts of possibilities. He curls it at goal... Only a few inches wide.Not even two minutes later Kim Källstrom can take a free-kick at the other side off the pitch. The United living wall stands, Källstrom takes it short... There's Van der Vaart... GOAL! The Nosepickers take the lead here. I think the shot was deflected by Nei, poor guy. Renan didn’t stand a chance after that deflection. Hainsworth's boys don't look like giving this lead away. Their defence looks very decent tonight and it seems like they are going for tea with a 1-0 lead. Manchester defender Cesar Arzo has a hard time defending Kevin Monnet-Paquet's pace and Rafael van der Vaart has been the free man for the Nosepickers all night.The tempo has slowed down in the second half. Even though Manchester United will need a goal here, they don't look like dominating like they did in the first fifteen minutes of the match. Pato hasn't been seen all night and that might be a big concern for Romano.Looks like the danger has to come from set-pieces for Manchester tonight. They get yet another corner. Swung in by Kuzmanovic, but easily headed away. But Lucas is all free outside the area, he's surely gonna shoot from here. Takes too long, Micah Richards is closing him down... Lucas puts in an effort anyway. Oh he finds Pato, all free, this has to be a GOAL! It's all even now! Lucas with a brilliant pass towards Pato who was all free and had an easy chance.We're at the hour-mark here. It seems like both teams have decided to postpone this battle until Saturday, when the second leg is played in Manchester. Oh, this doesn't look good for Gabriel Milito, it seems like he has to go off. This might put The Hairy Nosepickers in big trouble, losing their leader at the back like this.Neither of the teams could make a difference after the equalizer. It all ends square here. It wasn't the best of matches, but the tension made it worth to watch. This battle of giants hasn't been decided tonight. It will be decided in three days, when Old Trafford is the battlefield.So that's what happened three days ago. Back then we didn't know who was going to win the Champions League. But now we do after the 2nd leg 1-0 win from Manchester United.Joe Keizer (JK) to Alexandre Pato (AP), UFFA Champions League match-winner
© Sports Interactive Ltd 2008. SEGA and the SEGA logo are either registered trade marks or trade marks of SEGA Corporation.Football Manager, Football Manager Live, Sports Interactive and the Sports Interactive logo are either registered trade marks or trade marksof Sports Interactive Limited. All rights reserved.
Gameworld 7 Round Up
30th July, 2008
Welcome to the first edition of the weeks GW7 Newspaper and what better way to start off with announcing the name as voted by GW7.Drum Roll Please... Choice #9 : 'The Weekly Fry' - 10 votes (22.2%)Voting was very close with 2 other main contenders getting 9 votes each for the name but majority votes count... so welcome readers to The Weekly Fry.The Weekly FryTo this weeks news! Firstly a big Congratulations to our Team and Mover of the Week. English manager Paul Jackson's dazzling Ewell Saints have won the 'Team of the Week' award after climbing 4 to the top of GW7.English manager Mary Thompson's seasoned Pink Squad have won 'Mover Of The Week' award after climbing four hundred and fifty-five places to 281st. Both claim a prize of £100,000.Also well done to this week's Senior Goal of the Week winner:Nomination 4 - Deco Shotton FC Vs Oddjob City with 8 votes.Well it’s been a week of FAs ending and here is the round up of results. Be sure to cast your votes for managers and players of the season so see your FA Organiser for any vote details.Season 5 Premiership winners: (Alphabetical order as to not argue who has best fed!)
AFF Premiership: Mos Eisley FCAEFF Premiership: Manchester United
CWA Premiership: Middleton Town FCDFA Super League: Finnantastic
MFA Premier League: Carter FCNFA Premiere League: Plushenko Ice Team
PFA Premiership: FC BecksSFA Premiership: Dream Raiders
FCWCA Premiership: Blackburn Town FCXFA Premier League: The Hairy NosepickersCongratulations!
FAFA in turmoil?Life wasn't made the easiest though for one of our FA Orgs, Matt "SFA & FAFA" Fletcher. After all his work with FAFA we had some issues brought up with activity. Matt has spent a good few hours working on FAFA and with the Mods reviewing it; it has all been good with the odd small thing here and there.There was an issue to do with how a FAFA Entry league was set up as the easiest way to get names of who wants to be in FAFA this season and basically allowed all the active users to enter over a short space of time rather than just inviting the top teams.Matt was quick to comment on the matter: “At the end of the day there are so many spaces and FAFA had a lot of inactive users last season as it wasn’t started. Due to JJ being away (as he was the person above me and ultimately in charge of FAFA), I spent all morning and some of the afternoon sorting it out. I made the entry league as the easiest way to get active users into the league and cup. It is unfortunate that not everyone is involved but there has to be a cut off point.”Rich was also quick to make a stance on the time and effort put in from Mods and Fed Orgs: “An official comp is not like any of the others as individuals need to be manually added to each league and each league needs to be manually created.Whilst doing this you cannot play any games nor do anything else.To allocate 128 players and create the individual leagues would take approximately 2 hours. On top of this Matt would also have had to sort out his fed to make sure everything was set for Monday. The Mods and FA Organisers only do this for the player’s enjoyment however sometimes when this so called feedback appears do I think, why do we bother?”The best manager in FML?The undoubted number one in GW7 Richard"XFA" Hainsworth of The Hairy Nosepickers had the honour of being discussed to be the best manager in the whole of FML.Matt "SFA & FAFA" Fletcher has made a topic on the FML BETA Tester’s Forum (click here) where managers can give their opinion whether they agree or disagree with this statement.I quote: "Reasons why, His key for good and great players to play in positions is crazily good. His tactics are annoyingly good and can change them depending on the opponent! He went over a 100 games unbeaten."Richard already had the privilege to be mentioned on the FML front page so this might just be a true statement.Nick "Gone [but not forgotten]" Brooke was a bit sad no one had made a topic about him however Matt made a good point stating he never made it to the number 1 spot in GW7.Transfer NewsIt’s been a mad week in GW7 with players available in the wage auctions. Barry Blues FC managed to sign one of the best so far in Lorenzo De Silvestri on a very cheap £5k wage and only £600k AF Paid. Undoubtedly the biggest buy this week was by Spennymoor Utd. with the £15.5mil signing of Lionel Messi.We saw a few big transfers made this week and another huge deal was seen between The Hairy Nosepickers getting Obafemi Martins for £5mil with Amauri going the other way to Kentucky FC.Both Rich and Joe were out to make money where Rich sold Franck Ribéry for £6mil to West Bromwich Brazil FC as well as selling Edison Cavani for £3.75mil. He also made a deal with Franks Army and sold Iker Casillas and Diego Souza for £3mil each with Juan Pablo Carrizo costing him £5mil. Finally Rafael van der Vaart was bought from Queluz FC for £5mil plus Bastian Schweinsteiger.Joe on the other hand was busy selling Gonzalo Higuaín who was set on Auto Accept of £6mil and bought by Spennymoor Utd. Joe also sold Alex for £5mil to Carter FC and Andrés D'Alessandro left for £4mil to join Fc Zoetermeer.Joes biggest buy this week was Freddy Adu for a cool £6.5mil Instant Buy from Donington Rovers North End. Joe also forked out £4mil to buy Oscar Ustari from Mokum Magpies.As you can see Queluz FC are mentioned a lot and as a top team with a lot of money Filipe was in the market for a new keep signing José Manuel Reina from rank rivals Finnantastic. Filipe also sold Lucho González to Cottingley FC.New Mod Tony 'Multi-Millionaire Moderator' McCall's outstanding Dingle Stars AFC signing flamboyant Brazilian forward Carlos Eduardo for £7,750,012 from Romanian manager Francisc Romano's dazzling Manchester United on a 2 season contract.Stephenage A.F.C. signed 4.5* Rep Striker Tiago Gomes for Instant buy of £5.5mil from Inver Football Club after selling Stefan Kießling for £4mil to Area 51 FC.Yadi Bong FC sign Afonso Alves for £5,750,000 from Fleetwood Town.And finally Greek manager George Zebis’ irresolute A.O.Karistou won the race to sign commanding English centre-back Rio Ferdinand with their bid of £3,000,001. However this may look cheap but with a wage of £75k we know why Ahmad Balfagih's glitzy Al-Hilal FC wanted to sell.Wage Auction NewsWayne Rooney was also up for auction and his £150k original wage was lowered, only buy a small margin though with Chesterfield Town FC bidding £110k.Rooney wasn't alone though as we saw Team Obodai sign legendary Brazilian attacking midfielder Ronaldinho for £125k on a 1 season contract. An AF of £1.98mil was paid.And for the experience Sumo Ninjas FC signed 34 year old Frank Lampard for a wage of £87,500! Also 35 year old Raúl joins Stokes City on £100k! Big signings for both teams.Also:Classic Cooks United sign Spanish midfield playmaker Andrés Iniesta for £110,888 on a 1 season contract with £1,615mil AF paid.Fleetwood Town sign Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic for £110k on a 2 season contract with £2.16mil AF paid.Truekopite FC sign Scottish wing back Alan Hutton for £100k on a 2 season contract with £373,750 AF paid.Kentucky FC sign world class Chilean attacking midfielder Matías Fernández for £96,556 on a 2 season contract with £1.6mil AF paid.Queluz FC sign Dutch midfield and forward Ryan Babel for £67,777 on a 2 season contract with £700k AF paid.Little Baddow FC sign 19 year old cultured Dutch attacking midfielder Jason Mason for £35k on a 2 season contract.Welcome to the Anthony Murray corner...our GW7 most hated user and one of the best wheeler and dealers in GW7.This week due to wage auctions AM (as we like to call him), hasn't made many transfers but he has sold one of the best players in GW7.Best Buy: Zlatan Ibrahimovic, for £2.16mil in wage auction, £110k Wage Offered.Worst Buy: Ashley Cole, for £3mil from Chesterfield Town FC.Biggest Profit: Lionel Messi, for £15.5mil to Spennymoor Utd making a £7.5mil Profit.Worst Profit: Philippe Senderos, for £5mil to Firefly United losing £500k.AM was quick to comment after logging in to see he'd won the Zlatan Ibrahimovic wage auction:“Hi guys memo to self, never bid for anyone when drunk! 110k for Zlatan, I don’t even remember doing it!”While writing this AM sold Ashley Cole £3.5mil to Legion of the Dark Knight and in return bought Ewerthon for £2.6mil and Juan Carlos de la Barrera for £1.9mil.What happens when you don’t play with a keeper?Well the simple answer is you’ll most likely lose, and it’s actually what Craig Murray suffered with such losses as 13-1 Home to Jacko United FC, 12-1 Home to Spennymoor Utd, 9-0 Home to Midland reds and 2 7-0 Away losses to West Bromwich Brazil FC and Chicken Balti Pie FC. He's since made sure to have a keeper in his first team tab and had some better results since. We wish him all the best in GW7.UFFA Champions LeagueWelcome back ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls on this historic evening. We've just witnessed one of the greatest battles in the history of football. Sunday the 21st of July, the day Francisco Romano's Manchester United won the UFFA Champions League after two close matches.
Let's go back in time a little bit, to be precise three days ago, when the first round of this of this two-off final was played.We're off. Let's see what both managers strategy for this first leg is. It might all depend on Hainsworth's team here. They are the ones playing at home. Will the supporters give them the drive to attack with their hearts, or will they defend their territory, just to not concede a goal at home. Manchester United is eager to take the initiative, but the Nosepickers defence, leaded by Gabriel Milito, are not likely to be put under pressure early on. Sixteen minutes underway when United gets an direct free-kick at about 30 yards from the Nosepicker goal. Free-kick specialist Nei comes forward to take, he has quite a bit of a reputation with these sorts of possibilities. He curls it at goal... Only a few inches wide.Not even two minutes later Kim Källstrom can take a free-kick at the other side off the pitch. The United living wall stands, Källstrom takes it short... There's Van der Vaart... GOAL! The Nosepickers take the lead here. I think the shot was deflected by Nei, poor guy. Renan didn’t stand a chance after that deflection. Hainsworth's boys don't look like giving this lead away. Their defence looks very decent tonight and it seems like they are going for tea with a 1-0 lead. Manchester defender Cesar Arzo has a hard time defending Kevin Monnet-Paquet's pace and Rafael van der Vaart has been the free man for the Nosepickers all night.The tempo has slowed down in the second half. Even though Manchester United will need a goal here, they don't look like dominating like they did in the first fifteen minutes of the match. Pato hasn't been seen all night and that might be a big concern for Romano.Looks like the danger has to come from set-pieces for Manchester tonight. They get yet another corner. Swung in by Kuzmanovic, but easily headed away. But Lucas is all free outside the area, he's surely gonna shoot from here. Takes too long, Micah Richards is closing him down... Lucas puts in an effort anyway. Oh he finds Pato, all free, this has to be a GOAL! It's all even now! Lucas with a brilliant pass towards Pato who was all free and had an easy chance.We're at the hour-mark here. It seems like both teams have decided to postpone this battle until Saturday, when the second leg is played in Manchester. Oh, this doesn't look good for Gabriel Milito, it seems like he has to go off. This might put The Hairy Nosepickers in big trouble, losing their leader at the back like this.Neither of the teams could make a difference after the equalizer. It all ends square here. It wasn't the best of matches, but the tension made it worth to watch. This battle of giants hasn't been decided tonight. It will be decided in three days, when Old Trafford is the battlefield.So that's what happened three days ago. Back then we didn't know who was going to win the Champions League. But now we do after the 2nd leg 1-0 win from Manchester United.Joe Keizer (JK) to Alexandre Pato (AP), UFFA Champions League match-winner
© Sports Interactive Ltd 2008. SEGA and the SEGA logo are either registered trade marks or trade marks of SEGA Corporation.Football Manager, Football Manager Live, Sports Interactive and the Sports Interactive logo are either registered trade marks or trade marksof Sports Interactive Limited. All rights reserved.
Wednesday 30 July 2008
Our very first FML poem! 23rd July, 2008
We’re proud to present to you our very first
Football Manager Live poem.
Thanks to Trevor Taylor for his entertaining piece on the tension a manager feels in a tight match.Trevor Taylor is the 27 year old manager of the Wiltshire Wizards. Perennial runners up in the AFA, they have constantly been one of the top 50 teams in gameworld 8. As of writing they are 5th in the senior and 4th in the youth rankings. Even the top teams have days when nothing seems to go their way.
I hate this game!I hate this game, I'm just giving up.I either can't score, or I can't shut up.
I remember the day, it was easy to win.My keepers would save and my strikers would grin.
The midfield was strong, the center-backs mighty.Now they're pushed over like girls in a nightie.
Then just when you think this poor draw is the worst.Along comes the horrible corner goal curse.
They think it's all over, it is for my team.Winning my league is now just a dream.
I'm closing the doors, the fans giving in.No wait I just scored, let's go for the win.
My captain is cruising, the team's on a roll.This season's not over, I still have the ball.
Chance after chance, save after save.They can't stop me now; it's time to be brave.
It's now 3 up top, all play in their half.He was never offside ref, you're having a laugh.
He's blown for fulltime, my last chance has gone.It's really unfair, but good game and well done.
I'm really quitting now, that's it, game over.I once loved this game, but now I just loath her.
I should've won easy; it's the code that's to blame.Oh, who am I kidding, let's play one more game.
Published on http://www.footballmanagerlive.co.uk/
Written by Trevor Taylor
We’re proud to present to you our very first
Football Manager Live poem.
Thanks to Trevor Taylor for his entertaining piece on the tension a manager feels in a tight match.Trevor Taylor is the 27 year old manager of the Wiltshire Wizards. Perennial runners up in the AFA, they have constantly been one of the top 50 teams in gameworld 8. As of writing they are 5th in the senior and 4th in the youth rankings. Even the top teams have days when nothing seems to go their way.
I hate this game!I hate this game, I'm just giving up.I either can't score, or I can't shut up.
I remember the day, it was easy to win.My keepers would save and my strikers would grin.
The midfield was strong, the center-backs mighty.Now they're pushed over like girls in a nightie.
Then just when you think this poor draw is the worst.Along comes the horrible corner goal curse.
They think it's all over, it is for my team.Winning my league is now just a dream.
I'm closing the doors, the fans giving in.No wait I just scored, let's go for the win.
My captain is cruising, the team's on a roll.This season's not over, I still have the ball.
Chance after chance, save after save.They can't stop me now; it's time to be brave.
It's now 3 up top, all play in their half.He was never offside ref, you're having a laugh.
He's blown for fulltime, my last chance has gone.It's really unfair, but good game and well done.
I'm really quitting now, that's it, game over.I once loved this game, but now I just loath her.
I should've won easy; it's the code that's to blame.Oh, who am I kidding, let's play one more game.
Published on http://www.footballmanagerlive.co.uk/
Written by Trevor Taylor
Monday 28 July 2008
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Friday 25 July 2008
http://www.football-manager-live.co.uk/
Four hours. Four bloody hours! That's how long it took to bloody download! I seriously hope it was worth it. Having given it a little run out, here are my first impressions...
The very first change you notice is the brand new skin. When i first saw the screenshots, i thought it looked quite snazzy. Almost like a young Britney Spears. (admit it, before the head-shave, you would!) Having played it for a couple of days now, it actually seems like an older version of Anne Widdecombe. For those of you still thinking 'I would', ewww!!! The new skin wasn't too bad at first, but I've slowly grown to hate it. It's just far too bright for my liking. Staring at all the white on the screen for more than ten minutes makes me want to turn the damn screen off, so how am i meant to play an enjoyable game of FM? Then there is the change of colour for player attributes. What was wrong with the red, orange and yellow? All these blues are just annoying. Too much change and the problems soon mount up. That is the case here for me. I think they should have released it with the new skin, and a Flexion 08 skin. I know a lot of people who dislike this new skin, so it's not just me! If we're being balanced, I'll admit there are people who like the new skin. But these are the same people who found Anne Widdecombe attractive, so their opinion becomes void!
Whilst we're discussing graphics, what the hell is with the new default kits? I loved the default style on Football Manager 2007, but they've taken a huge step back with these new ones. I'd rather be seen in the dreaded jumper my nan gets me for Christmas each year! I'm thinking SI should get some of The Scene's wonderful GFX'ers to help out on future releases. I'm sure people would love to help. They wouldn't need paying, just seeing their work being officially included on the game they love would be more than enough recognition.
Those two niggling bad points aside, I'm actually quite impressed. With Football Manager 2007, it took me months to get hooked like i was with the previous versions. With Football Manager 2008, i already want to play it all the time, and this is only the demo version! When the new features were announced for 07, i was genuinely excited. I couldn't wait to get to grips with additions such as feeder clubs and the new player interaction facilities. Needless to say, i was disappointed. The new features just didn't seem to 'feature' that much in the game. I'm more than pleased to say that this is not the case with Football Manager 2008. Almost everywhere you go, you can't help but notice a new feature here or a nice little addition there. Be it the nifty little 'landmark' feature when you play each match, or the great addition of the 'create a shortlist from this player' feature. The new additions on 08 actually come looking for you, not the other way around. This enables you to enjoy these features more. You know you are playing Football Manager, yet it seems as if you are playing a whole new game. You feel yourself getting hooked all over again. And it's a good hook as well. Luckily, SI don't use the same hand doctor as Abu Al-Hamza!
This 'mini-review' is obviously based on my own experience with the demo. If the full game is as good as initial impressions suggest, I'll be more than happy. If there are still new things to find out on the full version, I'll be happier than the man with the longest tongue in the world's wife!
COPYRIGHT KIERAN TURNER / HASTINGS TOWN
Four hours. Four bloody hours! That's how long it took to bloody download! I seriously hope it was worth it. Having given it a little run out, here are my first impressions...
The very first change you notice is the brand new skin. When i first saw the screenshots, i thought it looked quite snazzy. Almost like a young Britney Spears. (admit it, before the head-shave, you would!) Having played it for a couple of days now, it actually seems like an older version of Anne Widdecombe. For those of you still thinking 'I would', ewww!!! The new skin wasn't too bad at first, but I've slowly grown to hate it. It's just far too bright for my liking. Staring at all the white on the screen for more than ten minutes makes me want to turn the damn screen off, so how am i meant to play an enjoyable game of FM? Then there is the change of colour for player attributes. What was wrong with the red, orange and yellow? All these blues are just annoying. Too much change and the problems soon mount up. That is the case here for me. I think they should have released it with the new skin, and a Flexion 08 skin. I know a lot of people who dislike this new skin, so it's not just me! If we're being balanced, I'll admit there are people who like the new skin. But these are the same people who found Anne Widdecombe attractive, so their opinion becomes void!
Whilst we're discussing graphics, what the hell is with the new default kits? I loved the default style on Football Manager 2007, but they've taken a huge step back with these new ones. I'd rather be seen in the dreaded jumper my nan gets me for Christmas each year! I'm thinking SI should get some of The Scene's wonderful GFX'ers to help out on future releases. I'm sure people would love to help. They wouldn't need paying, just seeing their work being officially included on the game they love would be more than enough recognition.
Those two niggling bad points aside, I'm actually quite impressed. With Football Manager 2007, it took me months to get hooked like i was with the previous versions. With Football Manager 2008, i already want to play it all the time, and this is only the demo version! When the new features were announced for 07, i was genuinely excited. I couldn't wait to get to grips with additions such as feeder clubs and the new player interaction facilities. Needless to say, i was disappointed. The new features just didn't seem to 'feature' that much in the game. I'm more than pleased to say that this is not the case with Football Manager 2008. Almost everywhere you go, you can't help but notice a new feature here or a nice little addition there. Be it the nifty little 'landmark' feature when you play each match, or the great addition of the 'create a shortlist from this player' feature. The new additions on 08 actually come looking for you, not the other way around. This enables you to enjoy these features more. You know you are playing Football Manager, yet it seems as if you are playing a whole new game. You feel yourself getting hooked all over again. And it's a good hook as well. Luckily, SI don't use the same hand doctor as Abu Al-Hamza!
This 'mini-review' is obviously based on my own experience with the demo. If the full game is as good as initial impressions suggest, I'll be more than happy. If there are still new things to find out on the full version, I'll be happier than the man with the longest tongue in the world's wife!
COPYRIGHT KIERAN TURNER / HASTINGS TOWN
Monday 21 July 2008
Gameworld 4 Round Up26th , The GW4 UFFA Champions League Final saw DFA Steve Williams' Ash Wonders (Daytime FA) take on Phil Sinkins' Frootloops FC (Primetime FA). Phil bravely threw down the challenge within the DFA playtime, so the game drew a large and quite partisan crowd!The game burst into life straight away, with Frootloops surging ahead in the 7th min, when the Ash defence disintegrated and allowed Bonnet to power home a header from a corner. The lead was to last only seconds, however; in the 9th minute a weak pass from Djourou gifted the ball to Sergio Mota, who smashed home the equaliser.One of the defining moments of the game came when Nkoulou was sent off in the 14th minute for a late two-footed challenge. Frootloops had to reshuffle, switching to a 4-4-1, with a wide diamond in midfield, bravely keeping Santiago Lucio in his favoured attacking midfield role. Eto'o ran much of the rest of the first half, holding up play well but with Ash failing to capitalise on possession.The tension continued to mount, with Ash dominating possession and territory, but the Fruitloops always looking dangerous on the counter and at set-pieces, and it was this Wonders weakness that led to Bonnet’s second goal in the 59th minute – a powerful header from six yards to convert from Pavan’s free kick.As the end drew closer, the Wonders sought to get level and pressure mounted, with Eto'o forcing a terrific safe in the 82nd from point blank range.It was the referee that was to deliver a crushing blow to the Loops though, awarding an 83rd minute penalty to the Wonders after an innocuous-looking tug on Belluschi's shirt by Ramirez. Eto'o stepped up to coolly convert, and the game was tied at 2-2.Eventually it became apparent that the game was drifting on to penalties, and the managers exchanged pleasantries as quiet fell across the watching crowd. Loops went first, with Bonnet smashing home before Eto'o proved he could finish just as well. It would be Thapelo Mtshali who would be the fall guy for the Wonders, hitting the woodwork with their 3rd penalty, and the result never looked in doubt when Vincent Kompany, cool as a cucumber, eventually stepped up to smash home the winning penalty for Fruitloops FC. Final score: Ash Wonders 2 Fruitloops FC 2 AET (Fruitloops win 5-3 on penalties)PFAThe race for the Primetime FA Premiership title was fascinating in the end; with a few games to go there were still 6 teams who could triumph. In the end, perhaps the Champions League campaign took too much out of the Frootloops players’ legs; their form dropped off as they finished a disappointing 4th. The title was sneaked by triple winners Daz Morgan’s Watchyerback United, whose consistent form saw them through to the end while other sides dropped away. In the DFA, Ash Wonderers have managed to achieve their pre-season goal of being the first side to lift the DFA Premiership trophy twice since its creation. Despite a woeful start to the season losing their first 3 games, Steve Williams managed to bring things together and go on an amazing run culminating in only 2 other defeats in their next 39 games in what can be described as the world's greatest league. Samuel Eto'o led the way for Steve’s side by banging in 35 goals in his 40 appearances finishing top of the goalscoring charts and amazingly the only Ash Wonderers player in the top 32 goalscorers. This may not have been achieved however without the excellent supply from Sergio Mota who laid on 16 goals for his team mates finishing 3rd in the Assist Rankings. Special mention also goes to Juan Ojeda – Steve’s number one GK who managed to secure 14 clean sheets and concede a mere 40 goals - the second best in the division.A special mention goes out to two other DFA members for their achievements this season: firstly, Brian Reynolds, whose surprisingly excellent Leeds United won the UFFA Cup, after beating Wayne Thomas’ Bridgwater Town FC 1984 in the final. Also, Chris Thomson’s awesome youth side at Equipe Ecosse stormed to a second consecutive UFFA World Youth Cup Final victory over moderator Henrik Björkman’s Uppsala Gunners!This season was particularly noted for being the first where members of the public, rather than the moderators, ran the GW4 Football Associations – and a very good job they made of it too!
Nik Reeves(DFA news from David Hamill)
Nik Reeves(DFA news from David Hamill)
Thursday 17 July 2008
The GW4 UFFA Champions League Final
saw DFA Steve Williams' Ash Wonders (Daytime FA) take on Phil Sinkins' Frootloops FC (Primetime FA). Phil bravely threw down the challenge within the DFA playtime, so the game drew a large and quite partisan crowd!The game burst into life straight away, with Frootloops surging ahead in the 7th min, when the Ash defence disintegrated and allowed Bonnet to power home a header from a corner.
The lead was to last only seconds, however; in the 9th minute a weak pass from Djourou gifted the ball to Sergio Mota, who smashed home the equaliser.One of the defining moments of the game came when Nkoulou was sent off in the 14th minute for a late two-footed challenge. Frootloops had to reshuffle, switching to a 4-4-1, with a wide diamond in midfield, bravely keeping Santiago Lucio in his favoured attacking midfield role.
Eto'o ran much of the rest of the first half, holding up play well but with Ash failing to capitalise on possession.The tension continued to mount, with Ash dominating possession and territory, but the Fruitloops always looking dangerous on the counter and at set-pieces, and it was this Wonders weakness that led to Bonnet’s second goal in the 59th minute – a powerful header from six yards to convert from Pavan’s free kick.
As the end drew closer, the Wonders sought to get level and pressure mounted, with Eto'o forcing a terrific safe in the 82nd from point blank range.It was the referee that was to deliver a crushing blow to the Loops though, awarding an 83rd minute penalty to the Wonders after an innocuous-looking tug on Belluschi's shirt by Ramirez. Eto'o stepped up to coolly convert, and the game was tied at 2-2.Eventually it became apparent that the game was drifting on to penalties, and the managers exchanged pleasantries as quiet fell across the watching crowd. Loops went first, with Bonnet smashing home before Eto'o proved he could finish just as well. It would be Thapelo Mtshali who would be the fall guy for the Wonders, hitting the woodwork with their 3rd penalty, and the result never looked in doubt when Vincent Kompany, cool as a cucumber, eventually stepped up to smash home the winning penalty for Fruitloops FC.
Final score: Ash Wonders 2 Fruitloops FC 2 AET (Fruitloops win 5-3 on penalties)
PFAThe race for the Primetime FA Premiership title was fascinating in the end; with a few games to go there were still 6 teams who could triumph. In the end, perhaps the Champions League campaign took too much out of the Frootloops players’ legs; their form dropped off as they finished a disappointing 4th. The title was sneaked by triple winners Daz Morgan’s Watchyerback United, whose consistent form saw them through to the end while other sides dropped away. In the DFA, Ash Wonderers have managed to achieve their pre-season goal of being the first side to lift the DFA Premiership trophy twice since its creation. Despite a woeful start to the season losing their first 3 games, Steve Williams managed to bring things together and go on an amazing run culminating in only 2 other defeats in their next 39 games in what can be described as the world's greatest league. Samuel Eto'o led the way for Steve’s side by banging in 35 goals in his 40 appearances finishing top of the goalscoring charts and amazingly the only Ash Wonderers player in the top 32 goalscorers.
This may not have been achieved however without the excellent supply from Sergio Mota who laid on 16 goals for his team mates finishing 3rd in the Assist Rankings. Special mention also goes to Juan Ojeda – Steve’s number one GK who managed to secure 14 clean sheets and concede a mere 40 goals - the second best in the division.
A special mention goes out to two other DFA members for their achievements this season: firstly, Brian Reynolds, whose surprisingly excellent Leeds United won the UFFA Cup, after beating Wayne Thomas’ Bridgwater Town FC 1984 in the final.
Also, Chris Thomson’s awesome youth side at Equipe Ecosse stormed to a second consecutive UFFA World Youth Cup Final victory over moderator Henrik Björkman’s Uppsala Gunners!This season was particularly noted for being the first where members of the public, rather than the moderators, ran the GW4 Football Associations – and a very good job they made of it too! Nik Reeves(DFA news from David Hamill)
saw DFA Steve Williams' Ash Wonders (Daytime FA) take on Phil Sinkins' Frootloops FC (Primetime FA). Phil bravely threw down the challenge within the DFA playtime, so the game drew a large and quite partisan crowd!The game burst into life straight away, with Frootloops surging ahead in the 7th min, when the Ash defence disintegrated and allowed Bonnet to power home a header from a corner.
The lead was to last only seconds, however; in the 9th minute a weak pass from Djourou gifted the ball to Sergio Mota, who smashed home the equaliser.One of the defining moments of the game came when Nkoulou was sent off in the 14th minute for a late two-footed challenge. Frootloops had to reshuffle, switching to a 4-4-1, with a wide diamond in midfield, bravely keeping Santiago Lucio in his favoured attacking midfield role.
Eto'o ran much of the rest of the first half, holding up play well but with Ash failing to capitalise on possession.The tension continued to mount, with Ash dominating possession and territory, but the Fruitloops always looking dangerous on the counter and at set-pieces, and it was this Wonders weakness that led to Bonnet’s second goal in the 59th minute – a powerful header from six yards to convert from Pavan’s free kick.
As the end drew closer, the Wonders sought to get level and pressure mounted, with Eto'o forcing a terrific safe in the 82nd from point blank range.It was the referee that was to deliver a crushing blow to the Loops though, awarding an 83rd minute penalty to the Wonders after an innocuous-looking tug on Belluschi's shirt by Ramirez. Eto'o stepped up to coolly convert, and the game was tied at 2-2.Eventually it became apparent that the game was drifting on to penalties, and the managers exchanged pleasantries as quiet fell across the watching crowd. Loops went first, with Bonnet smashing home before Eto'o proved he could finish just as well. It would be Thapelo Mtshali who would be the fall guy for the Wonders, hitting the woodwork with their 3rd penalty, and the result never looked in doubt when Vincent Kompany, cool as a cucumber, eventually stepped up to smash home the winning penalty for Fruitloops FC.
Final score: Ash Wonders 2 Fruitloops FC 2 AET (Fruitloops win 5-3 on penalties)
PFAThe race for the Primetime FA Premiership title was fascinating in the end; with a few games to go there were still 6 teams who could triumph. In the end, perhaps the Champions League campaign took too much out of the Frootloops players’ legs; their form dropped off as they finished a disappointing 4th. The title was sneaked by triple winners Daz Morgan’s Watchyerback United, whose consistent form saw them through to the end while other sides dropped away. In the DFA, Ash Wonderers have managed to achieve their pre-season goal of being the first side to lift the DFA Premiership trophy twice since its creation. Despite a woeful start to the season losing their first 3 games, Steve Williams managed to bring things together and go on an amazing run culminating in only 2 other defeats in their next 39 games in what can be described as the world's greatest league. Samuel Eto'o led the way for Steve’s side by banging in 35 goals in his 40 appearances finishing top of the goalscoring charts and amazingly the only Ash Wonderers player in the top 32 goalscorers.
This may not have been achieved however without the excellent supply from Sergio Mota who laid on 16 goals for his team mates finishing 3rd in the Assist Rankings. Special mention also goes to Juan Ojeda – Steve’s number one GK who managed to secure 14 clean sheets and concede a mere 40 goals - the second best in the division.
A special mention goes out to two other DFA members for their achievements this season: firstly, Brian Reynolds, whose surprisingly excellent Leeds United won the UFFA Cup, after beating Wayne Thomas’ Bridgwater Town FC 1984 in the final.
Also, Chris Thomson’s awesome youth side at Equipe Ecosse stormed to a second consecutive UFFA World Youth Cup Final victory over moderator Henrik Björkman’s Uppsala Gunners!This season was particularly noted for being the first where members of the public, rather than the moderators, ran the GW4 Football Associations – and a very good job they made of it too! Nik Reeves(DFA news from David Hamill)
Wednesday 16 July 2008
3-6-1 and apologies
The 3-6-1 tactics is working pretty well - with new signing Jack Rodwell shoring up the defence pretty well, it's proving hard for teams to break down, while still allowing me to get enough bodies forward to join in in attack. I still need more tweaks, and I'm undecided as to whether I should play Bigalke or Hofs in right central midfield, but I'm now unbeaten in 11 days.Unfortunately, I've only played 13 games in that time - with so many guys inviting friends/family/themselves into the beta, there's been a lot of moderating to do.It's been nice to see all the new guys and get to know them - some are doing very well indeed. One guy managed to get to 44th in the rankings in two days - I managed to squeak a 2-1 win over him, but it wasn't easy by any means.It's been nice getting the helpful mod shoes back on as well, doing what the job is all about. Unfortunately, a lot of new guys haven't read the rules, and have been a wee bit naughty in the transfer market. Some of these I'm sure are multiple accounts held by the same person, but the majority are just people who want to help out their friend/brother/housemate/dad/cat by selling them a spare player on the cheap.Part of me thinks that isn't so bad, but again - it's against the rules, as it undermines the transfer market. And where do we draw the line? It's a toughie, but in the end we have to clamp down. It proves that the new transfer system Ov has been discussing on the beta forum can't come soon enough. If we put an end to sub-acquisition fee private transfers at code level, I wouldn't have to have spent all of the past two days online chasing these deals. And that's why we've not had more blog updates ;)
Posted by Nik the MOD.
Buy to Sell .
There has been a lot of discussion regarding teams buying players in wage auctions just to sell on in a transfer 7 days later in the forums at the moment. For those of you that have been so far not been lucky enough to partake in the beta test let me explain
A wage auction is one where you state how much you are willing to pay a players wages in a blind auction, if you win you sign that player on either a 1 or 2 season contract and pay his acquisition fee which is in his profile either to the GW if he is a free agent or to his existing club. How ever after 7 days of signing a player in a wage auction you are then free to sell him either in a private transfer of a transfer auction. A private transfer being one where you and another manager negotiate how much he or she is willing to pay you for that player, and a wage auction being very similar to how an ebay auction works(i.e. you state how much you are willing to bid for said player, but only ever pay 2nd highest bid+£1 if you are the highest bidder). The prices that players sell for in this auction can far exceed the players acquisition fee so some (in my opinion) unscrupulous managers are signing a lot of players in wage auctions and then selling them on 7 days later for a large profit.
Well there is 2 ways of looking the first being if some one is willing to pay you x amount of money more then they could have picked him up for 7 days earlier then who am I or anyone else for that matter to argue. On the other hand buying players with the sole intention of selling them 7 days later is an exploit which needs closing. It is one thing to buy a player, play him a few matches, decide he doesn't fit into your side, then stick him in an auction and let the market dictate his value, and if you make a profit out of him lucky you!! BUT if you are solely buying players with no intention of playing them, and then heavily marketing them 7 days later and selling for a massive profit then this is another thing.
Me I am sat on the fence, torn between two very different view points that I agree with equally
The debate continues
Published on : GW7 MOD
There has been a lot of discussion regarding teams buying players in wage auctions just to sell on in a transfer 7 days later in the forums at the moment. For those of you that have been so far not been lucky enough to partake in the beta test let me explain
A wage auction is one where you state how much you are willing to pay a players wages in a blind auction, if you win you sign that player on either a 1 or 2 season contract and pay his acquisition fee which is in his profile either to the GW if he is a free agent or to his existing club. How ever after 7 days of signing a player in a wage auction you are then free to sell him either in a private transfer of a transfer auction. A private transfer being one where you and another manager negotiate how much he or she is willing to pay you for that player, and a wage auction being very similar to how an ebay auction works(i.e. you state how much you are willing to bid for said player, but only ever pay 2nd highest bid+£1 if you are the highest bidder). The prices that players sell for in this auction can far exceed the players acquisition fee so some (in my opinion) unscrupulous managers are signing a lot of players in wage auctions and then selling them on 7 days later for a large profit.
Well there is 2 ways of looking the first being if some one is willing to pay you x amount of money more then they could have picked him up for 7 days earlier then who am I or anyone else for that matter to argue. On the other hand buying players with the sole intention of selling them 7 days later is an exploit which needs closing. It is one thing to buy a player, play him a few matches, decide he doesn't fit into your side, then stick him in an auction and let the market dictate his value, and if you make a profit out of him lucky you!! BUT if you are solely buying players with no intention of playing them, and then heavily marketing them 7 days later and selling for a massive profit then this is another thing.
Me I am sat on the fence, torn between two very different view points that I agree with equally
The debate continues
Published on : GW7 MOD
Thursday 10 July 2008
Q&A with Football Manager Live product manager Marc Duffy
SEGA caught up with Marc Duffy, product manager at Sports Interactive, to quiz him about the much anticipated Football Manager Live.
So Marc, what everyone wants to know is when the playing public will finally get to join the action in FML.
I’m afraid at this stage I’m not really able to say except for the fact that it won’t be out in March. Everyone is working pretty hard now implementing new features and fixing bugs. We’re into the final straight now that’s for sure.
Things must be getting pretty frantic, making sure everything is fine-tuned for launch?
It’s everything you might expect with such a big and innovative project and such a small and focused development team. There are never enough hours in the day to do everything that we really want to do. We decided very early on to adopt a constant development module and we’re being as reactive as we can to feedback from the current batch of beta testers. This means that even though we might not fit everything into the launch version we’ll be able to get code updates out hopefully every 4-6 weeks and pack in lots of new features.
The beta phase of FML started 9 months ago. How have things changed since then?
I think in reality for some of us it started a lot longer. The game that Oliver (Ov Collyer, co-founder of Sports Interactive) arrived back from Australia wanting to make has evolved so much. When we first got the game up and running it was a frantic race to join the game world as quickly as possible and snap up the best talent within the 100k a day wage budget. This led to problems and imbalance, it felt like it was all about the strikers you signed (Henry was a popular choice).
With this in mind, we added in acquisition fees along with wages meaning when you start the game you have 500k to spend on acquisition fees and 100k a day in wages. There is a balance to be struck and no one can afford any of the superstars in the first season at least.
How are your team, ‘The Carpet Burners’ doing? Still flying high with their youth policy? Why on earth are they called that, anyway?
The best thing about the game is that you can be whatever type of manager you want to be. I love the fact that I can assemble a squad full of youngsters at the start and nurture them through the ranks and at some point sell them on for a massive profit. For me, I get a lot of enjoyment out of the game this way. I also love the fact that I have total control of MY club. I can set the name (I don’t really know where The Carpet Burners came from), I can set the kit design and I can even set the pitch size which due to my tactic I tend to ensure is quite narrow to allow my fast tempo pressing game to flourish.
Because of my youth policy, we really struggled in the first couple of seasons and at times it wasn’t much fun. The catalyst for me was when I’d saved enough money up to buy Kaka and he seemed to galvanise my little babies into a team of superstars. It’s little touches like this that make this a special game.
Has your team been affected by periods where you have had either much more or much less time to play?
Generally I suffer from a lack of time… When we started the official beta testing phase last summer I joined the Extreme Football Association thinking that I was a hardcore player and would be able to be there every day and play out all my matches. In reality it’s been nothing of the sort so I’ve had to change federation to suit my playing style (we even added a wizard to help a person like me pick one that’s right for us). In a way, that’s the beauty of the game in that you can play as little or as much of the game as you like. We’ve got people online almost 24/7 and we’ve got people that login 2 or 3 times per week.
With so many human players competing, have there been any controversies that SI have had to resolve? Match fixing scandals or fishy transfers, perhaps?
The beta phase has been a real eye opener in terms of what lengths people will go to in order to win (or do better). We’ve had SI staff working in tandem to take advantages of some code “loopholes”. We’ve had moderators with two accounts in the same game world and transferring players between the teams. In fact, that seems to be the most common trick of all.
We’ve had to remove probably in the region of 30 users either for foul and abusive language or some form of cheating. Every time something is discovered we make sure we sit down and either code the game to remove the problem or discuss other ideas to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
This game will have a long, long lifespan. Can you share with us any exciting additions FML fans can potentially look forward to as the game evolves?
You’ll hear this a lot over the coming months but constant development or reactive development. A lot of what is going to go into future monthly versions of the game will be driven by the community. All that said, we’re looking into a lot of community based features which put the emphasis on working with other human managers and not always necessarily against each other. Things like charging a fee to scout on behalf of another team are the types of thing we really want to work on.
When I’m away from my game because of work or school or something, is there going to be a way I can make sure I don’t lose out on that key player and know the scores?
Yes, this is going to be the icing on the cake for the game. I’m imagining that there will be a large number of people who can’t play when at work due to various policies in their IT department. The brand new FML website will allow you to view important information about not only your team and gameworld but every gameworld in existence. I can’t promise that it will update in real time but it should update fairly frequently for you to never miss a single result or piece of transfer news!
Does that mean I’ll be able to access game data from my phone, or get sms updates?
Eventually yes. We’ve had SMS enabled during beta and it meant I was able to get auction updates when I was in Tesco’s. We’ve looked at and have the code in place to allow you to reply to messages and have the servers process the messages so if I were shopping and I was outbid in an auction or had to negotiate a transfer deal I could very quickly and very simply.
Some of the team are very excited with some of the new phone technology coming out as well so maybe one day we’ll have a cut down version for things like the iPhone.
Well, it looks like we’ll have a fascinating summer getting to grips with FML whilst watching the Euros! Which of the two will capture football fans’ attentions more?
It’s got to be FML. Without any home nation participating it’s going to make for some lonely summer nights. No better way to drown your sorrows than playing FML and chatting with other like minded footie fans.
Earlier published on http://www.fmlmod.blogspot.com/
SEGA caught up with Marc Duffy, product manager at Sports Interactive, to quiz him about the much anticipated Football Manager Live.
So Marc, what everyone wants to know is when the playing public will finally get to join the action in FML.
I’m afraid at this stage I’m not really able to say except for the fact that it won’t be out in March. Everyone is working pretty hard now implementing new features and fixing bugs. We’re into the final straight now that’s for sure.
Things must be getting pretty frantic, making sure everything is fine-tuned for launch?
It’s everything you might expect with such a big and innovative project and such a small and focused development team. There are never enough hours in the day to do everything that we really want to do. We decided very early on to adopt a constant development module and we’re being as reactive as we can to feedback from the current batch of beta testers. This means that even though we might not fit everything into the launch version we’ll be able to get code updates out hopefully every 4-6 weeks and pack in lots of new features.
The beta phase of FML started 9 months ago. How have things changed since then?
I think in reality for some of us it started a lot longer. The game that Oliver (Ov Collyer, co-founder of Sports Interactive) arrived back from Australia wanting to make has evolved so much. When we first got the game up and running it was a frantic race to join the game world as quickly as possible and snap up the best talent within the 100k a day wage budget. This led to problems and imbalance, it felt like it was all about the strikers you signed (Henry was a popular choice).
With this in mind, we added in acquisition fees along with wages meaning when you start the game you have 500k to spend on acquisition fees and 100k a day in wages. There is a balance to be struck and no one can afford any of the superstars in the first season at least.
How are your team, ‘The Carpet Burners’ doing? Still flying high with their youth policy? Why on earth are they called that, anyway?
The best thing about the game is that you can be whatever type of manager you want to be. I love the fact that I can assemble a squad full of youngsters at the start and nurture them through the ranks and at some point sell them on for a massive profit. For me, I get a lot of enjoyment out of the game this way. I also love the fact that I have total control of MY club. I can set the name (I don’t really know where The Carpet Burners came from), I can set the kit design and I can even set the pitch size which due to my tactic I tend to ensure is quite narrow to allow my fast tempo pressing game to flourish.
Because of my youth policy, we really struggled in the first couple of seasons and at times it wasn’t much fun. The catalyst for me was when I’d saved enough money up to buy Kaka and he seemed to galvanise my little babies into a team of superstars. It’s little touches like this that make this a special game.
Has your team been affected by periods where you have had either much more or much less time to play?
Generally I suffer from a lack of time… When we started the official beta testing phase last summer I joined the Extreme Football Association thinking that I was a hardcore player and would be able to be there every day and play out all my matches. In reality it’s been nothing of the sort so I’ve had to change federation to suit my playing style (we even added a wizard to help a person like me pick one that’s right for us). In a way, that’s the beauty of the game in that you can play as little or as much of the game as you like. We’ve got people online almost 24/7 and we’ve got people that login 2 or 3 times per week.
With so many human players competing, have there been any controversies that SI have had to resolve? Match fixing scandals or fishy transfers, perhaps?
The beta phase has been a real eye opener in terms of what lengths people will go to in order to win (or do better). We’ve had SI staff working in tandem to take advantages of some code “loopholes”. We’ve had moderators with two accounts in the same game world and transferring players between the teams. In fact, that seems to be the most common trick of all.
We’ve had to remove probably in the region of 30 users either for foul and abusive language or some form of cheating. Every time something is discovered we make sure we sit down and either code the game to remove the problem or discuss other ideas to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
This game will have a long, long lifespan. Can you share with us any exciting additions FML fans can potentially look forward to as the game evolves?
You’ll hear this a lot over the coming months but constant development or reactive development. A lot of what is going to go into future monthly versions of the game will be driven by the community. All that said, we’re looking into a lot of community based features which put the emphasis on working with other human managers and not always necessarily against each other. Things like charging a fee to scout on behalf of another team are the types of thing we really want to work on.
When I’m away from my game because of work or school or something, is there going to be a way I can make sure I don’t lose out on that key player and know the scores?
Yes, this is going to be the icing on the cake for the game. I’m imagining that there will be a large number of people who can’t play when at work due to various policies in their IT department. The brand new FML website will allow you to view important information about not only your team and gameworld but every gameworld in existence. I can’t promise that it will update in real time but it should update fairly frequently for you to never miss a single result or piece of transfer news!
Does that mean I’ll be able to access game data from my phone, or get sms updates?
Eventually yes. We’ve had SMS enabled during beta and it meant I was able to get auction updates when I was in Tesco’s. We’ve looked at and have the code in place to allow you to reply to messages and have the servers process the messages so if I were shopping and I was outbid in an auction or had to negotiate a transfer deal I could very quickly and very simply.
Some of the team are very excited with some of the new phone technology coming out as well so maybe one day we’ll have a cut down version for things like the iPhone.
Well, it looks like we’ll have a fascinating summer getting to grips with FML whilst watching the Euros! Which of the two will capture football fans’ attentions more?
It’s got to be FML. Without any home nation participating it’s going to make for some lonely summer nights. No better way to drown your sorrows than playing FML and chatting with other like minded footie fans.
Earlier published on http://www.fmlmod.blogspot.com/
In first, league, stage all clubs played each other once.
Until last game it was not clear who will meet Ash Wonders in a final. Mr. Williams's team lost their first match against Watchyerback, but then had a great run of 4 consecutive wins and ended at 1st place.
Mr. Sinkins and Mr. Morgan were fighting for the 2nd place. In the end, despite FrootLoops beating Watcheyrback 1:0 and having same point balance, the latter advanced on better goal difference.
FinalAsh Wonders had greater stats in almost every element of a match. With 15 shots (7 on), 52% possession and 9 corners (in comparison to 5 shots (3 on) and 0 corners at oppoisit side) they could not lose that game.
But this is football.
In 4th minute, after great Sergio Mota's run and precise crossing, Samuel Eto'o had only to put his head in the right place. 1:0 for DFA Premiership side.
Ash Wonders were attacking still and still but Carlos Kameni had a good day in Watchyerback goal.
In 61st minute great pass from own penalty area made by Nedum Onuoha put English Theo Walcott one on one with opposit keeper. It was 1:1.
While Mr. Williams's team was still attacking to score a winning goal, poor Juan Ojeda goal kick led the ball for Callum Reynolds header. He passed it through opponent's defence again to fast Walcott who scored from a long range. 2:1 for PFA side.
Two world class savings made by Kameni in the last 15 minutes led Watchyerback United to UFFA Super Cup trophy.
Congratulations to the best teams of UFFA Super Cup and to Daz Morgan for being a Winner.
Until last game it was not clear who will meet Ash Wonders in a final. Mr. Williams's team lost their first match against Watchyerback, but then had a great run of 4 consecutive wins and ended at 1st place.
Mr. Sinkins and Mr. Morgan were fighting for the 2nd place. In the end, despite FrootLoops beating Watcheyrback 1:0 and having same point balance, the latter advanced on better goal difference.
Final
But this is football.
In 4th minute, after great Sergio Mota's run and precise crossing, Samuel Eto'o had only to put his head in the right place. 1:0 for DFA Premiership side.
Ash Wonders were attacking still and still but Carlos Kameni had a good day in Watchyerback goal.
In 61st minute great pass from own penalty area made by Nedum Onuoha put English Theo Walcott one on one with opposit keeper. It was 1:1.
While Mr. Williams's team was still attacking to score a winning goal, poor Juan Ojeda goal kick led the ball for Callum Reynolds header. He passed it through opponent's defence again to fast Walcott who scored from a long range. 2:1 for PFA side.
Two world class savings made by Kameni in the last 15 minutes led Watchyerback United to UFFA Super Cup trophy.
Congratulations to the best teams of UFFA Super Cup and to Daz Morgan for being a Winner.
Wednesday 9 July 2008
Want to know what's it's all about? Here's the link to the FML/SEGA website:
http://www.footballmanagerlive.co.uk/index.php
http://www.footballmanagerlive.co.uk/index.php
Tuesday 8 July 2008
There are some new developments in the story we brought you about Kate Bush vs Icarus FC. Again a well known source could confirm that the new shirt sponsor for Icarus is.....BARBY. The well known puppet makers are next season on the front of the new shirts.
Another, much greater news is, that they have found a financial injection abroad. The new chairman is gonna be Mr. Robert Mugabe the president of Zimbabwe. His comment was that he really didn't know what to do with all the money laying in the safe of his country home. Starting the new season he is going financial aid to Icarus FC.
To prove what a really fantastic guy he is, and so common, all the Zimbabwe people get free tickets for the whole season ! Ex flying tickets off course. Is the man generous or not !
Well I thought this news couldn't wait so I brought it directly to you, your own correspondent.
PS: All the above is not official yet, so minor things can change in the first edition.
Another, much greater news is, that they have found a financial injection abroad. The new chairman is gonna be Mr. Robert Mugabe the president of Zimbabwe. His comment was that he really didn't know what to do with all the money laying in the safe of his country home. Starting the new season he is going financial aid to Icarus FC.
To prove what a really fantastic guy he is, and so common, all the Zimbabwe people get free tickets for the whole season ! Ex flying tickets off course. Is the man generous or not !
Well I thought this news couldn't wait so I brought it directly to you, your own correspondent.
PS: All the above is not official yet, so minor things can change in the first edition.
GUYS, YOU DIDNT HEAR IT FROM ME, BUT THE STRUGLING TEAM MANAGER FROM WELL KNOWED ICARUS FC WAS SET ON THE PICTURE LEAVING THE HOME OF KATE BUSH !
FOR ALL YOU WHO DONT KNOW KATE, SHE WAS A HUGE STAR IN THE SEVENTEES AND WAS SUSPECTED OF WITCH PRACTICE IN THOSE PERIOD. KATE, WHO IS RARELY SEEN THE LAST YEARS IN PUBLIC, WAS OFFCOURSE DIRECT CONFRONTED WITH THE MICROPHONE OF OR REPORTER, BUT REFUSED TO GIVE ANY COMMENTS. SHE WAS IN A HURRY BECAUSE THEY WHERE WAITING FOR HERE ON WUTHERING HEIGHTS.
ONE OF THE PLAYERS FROM ICARUS FC WAS FRIENDLY ENOUGH TO PHONE OUR PAPER AND TOLD OUR NEWSDESK THAT ALL THE PLAYERS HAS THERE OWN LITTLE PUPPET NOW. WITH A BAG OFF PINS. THE INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE MANAGER, IM STILL QUOTING THE ICARUS PLAYER, WAS TO SEEK FOR THE STRONGEST LEG FROM THE OPPONENT AND TAKE YOUR PUPPET TO PUT A NEEDLE IN THAT LEG. THE MANAGER SAID THAT HE HAS SPOKEN TO A WELL KNOWN PROFESSIONAL ABOUT THIS, AND THEY ASURE HIM THAT THE OPPONENT AT LEAST WOULDNT HIT A BALL OUR WITH SOME LUCK, HE DID BROKE THE LEG. HE ALSO SAID THAT 45 MINUTES MUST BE ENOUGH TO WIN THIS GAME BECAUSE THE OTHER TEAM HAD THEN USED UP THEIR PLAYERS.
AGAIN THIS IS ALL FROM A WELL KNOWN SOURCE, SO IF YOUR A BETTING MAN I SHOULD KEEP SOME POUNDS FOR THR ICARUS FC GAMES.
PS:NO RIGHTS RESERVED WHEN YOU DONT WIN THE LOTTERY.
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT)
FOR ALL YOU WHO DONT KNOW KATE, SHE WAS A HUGE STAR IN THE SEVENTEES AND WAS SUSPECTED OF WITCH PRACTICE IN THOSE PERIOD. KATE, WHO IS RARELY SEEN THE LAST YEARS IN PUBLIC, WAS OFFCOURSE DIRECT CONFRONTED WITH THE MICROPHONE OF OR REPORTER, BUT REFUSED TO GIVE ANY COMMENTS. SHE WAS IN A HURRY BECAUSE THEY WHERE WAITING FOR HERE ON WUTHERING HEIGHTS.
ONE OF THE PLAYERS FROM ICARUS FC WAS FRIENDLY ENOUGH TO PHONE OUR PAPER AND TOLD OUR NEWSDESK THAT ALL THE PLAYERS HAS THERE OWN LITTLE PUPPET NOW. WITH A BAG OFF PINS. THE INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE MANAGER, IM STILL QUOTING THE ICARUS PLAYER, WAS TO SEEK FOR THE STRONGEST LEG FROM THE OPPONENT AND TAKE YOUR PUPPET TO PUT A NEEDLE IN THAT LEG. THE MANAGER SAID THAT HE HAS SPOKEN TO A WELL KNOWN PROFESSIONAL ABOUT THIS, AND THEY ASURE HIM THAT THE OPPONENT AT LEAST WOULDNT HIT A BALL OUR WITH SOME LUCK, HE DID BROKE THE LEG. HE ALSO SAID THAT 45 MINUTES MUST BE ENOUGH TO WIN THIS GAME BECAUSE THE OTHER TEAM HAD THEN USED UP THEIR PLAYERS.
AGAIN THIS IS ALL FROM A WELL KNOWN SOURCE, SO IF YOUR A BETTING MAN I SHOULD KEEP SOME POUNDS FOR THR ICARUS FC GAMES.
PS:NO RIGHTS RESERVED WHEN YOU DONT WIN THE LOTTERY.
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT)
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Sunday 6 July 2008
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