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Series Does Football Manager Handheld make smarter football fans?

Dec

By Dec,
in Series & Older Games

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Does Football Manager Handheld make smarter football fans?

 

It may be an odd question but it is one that isn't just posed about Football Manager Handheld but Football Manager in general. You remember that kid you were raving about 2 years ago? Yes the one that is now being tipped for glory after signing for Inter Milan. Was he worth £10m, in your eyes yes but why? While you may be an avid fan of Dinamo Zagreb in the world renowned Croatian league it is more than likely you have snapped him up for only a few thousand on Football Manager only for him to turn out to be a stunning playmaker with the best passing ability the world has ever seen.

"So what it is one player?" I hear you ask, but is it? Romelu Lukaku appeared in the game back in 2010 and immediately grew to be a rival for the golden boot in every league you could get him on and then he signed for Chelsea making Champions League appearances as well as a lot more money per week, he's currently lighting up West Brom's squad on loan with his goals. Onto the future and Ganso is still in Brazil but is constantly tipped with Arsenal despite leaving Santos for Sao Paulo last summer, the playmaker was being undermined by superstar Neymar yet still crazy money is being thrown around in the newspapers that Arsenal are going to pay for this supposed wonderkid but is he? Football Manager says yes and any Arsenal fan who plays the game will be able to sit in the stands one Saturday afternoon at The Emirates Stadium and tell his fellow fans all about what he will bring to the squad like he has watched him 100 times. Newcastle fans all but know about how it is like to sign unknown players that turn out amazing, just listen to how they praise Cabaye yet how many had heard about the French midfielder before? Well if you played Football Manager odds are you have. He was solid in midfield with a passing range that matches Alonso he was a cheap version to Schweinstieger back in 2008-2010.

While it is true not every player who has been tipped for greatness on the game has seen it happen; yes I am looking at you Freddy Adu, Kerlon and Lulinha, but the success ratio of this great game has not only inspired the next set of managers and meant clubs use the database but is having an effect on regular players too. It is testament to the great staff team at Sports Interactive and in particular the scouts that now Everton have an official deal with the company to use the database in their scouting system. With all this it is hard to say that a Football Manager fan doesn't have an advantage over a regular football fan, thousands of hours go into the scouting and shaping of the database and that is just for one or two leagues, the wide range of players available with a near perfect analysis of each one had led to many giants being predicted way before their time to shine. This in my opinion leads to a massive advantage of playing Football Manager, the attributes allows you to analyse a player's abilities like you've seen him so much over the past few years when really you are reading the results of someone who has.

 

Yet it doesn't end there, oh no.  While I have proved that yes, the average Football Manager player is perhaps a smarter football fan in terms of scouting, this isn't the end. What about clubs and leagues? How many understand the MLS draft system? Different leagues have many different formats and while standing on the sidelines (pun intended) watching everyone else deal with it may be fun for a while it isn't as productive as actually being involved in it and having to make the draft picks or being involved in a league with special rules and systems. Not only does it allow you as the player to understand them by being involved but also seeing the pros and cons and exploring a new region with different styles and players than what  you may be used to your country.

Has your team ever played another and you've been able to name their key threats despite never seeing a game of theirs? I know I have when Corinthians played Chelsea in the Club World Cup final, this cannot be a coincidence it is subconscious state of learning by playing Football Manager.

So yet again Football Manager creates a smarter fan in this aspect with pundits included in this due to sheer lack of research on their part a lot of the British media and Television commentators lack any depth in opinion when it comes to the Champions League and Europa League games when the teams are not well known like Barcelona and this was indicated in the commentary given against Basel when they lacked any facts beyond a quick Google and knew none of the players' abilities beyond the odd mention that Degen used to play for Liverpool. This just shows how Football Manager can help create a better and wider field of view leading fans to talk and follow more unknown leagues due to their enhanced knowledge that they probably wouldn't have acquired if they didn't go "let's play in Switzerland."

 

Now while I have highlighted the research and general football side of things Football Manager is very different to FIFA or any other game where you control the team. With Football Manager it is a lot more in depth and you have to think like a manager constructing a squad and arranging them, you get to know what makes a team tick and this requires more knowledge than passing, shooting and tackling that most football games require. Without Football Manager would you be able to realise how teams are put together and recognise certain shapes and styles of a team and a player. Many football fans think that their manager could improve and they're always the first to point the blame for one thing or another such as a bad result, but do they really know what they are talking about? Would that inclusion of Ryan Giggs in the 70th minute really have helped the defence? You know he isn't a box to box midfielder but Mr Know It All down the pub doesn't even know what a box to box midfielder is! The aim of Football Manager is to be realistic and this has been proved with the success story of Andre Villas-Boas who claims he learnt all he could about football management from the game. Ole Gunnar Soljskaer also claimed he spent months on the game before his first managerial job and he lifted the title at the end of his first season! This just proves  further the validity of Football Manager as not only a fun game but also it helps shape a new breed of football fans, a smarter breed that can hold their own in a football debate but also take it to the next level all down to one game with hours of dedication invested into it.

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I think it can be a double edged sword but all in all what a fantastic read, great work Dec.

It reminds me of the link i posted ages ago in English football thread off the Football Ramble, talking about some of us have three images of players

IRL

FM

Fifa

But what makes our opinion on the player? Food for thought indeed.

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Posted

Great article Dec :)

 

I certainly know much more about football thanks to FMH, my dads always asking me if I know about some fairly obscure player and most of the time I have.

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Really good read mate. Very true in every aspect of the article. I remember the first time I "discovered" Fredy Gaurin now he's at inter and features in my current PSG team

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Amazing Dec I started playing FM on the PSP about 2009 and it changed evreything I knew about football management Amazing Read Buddy It s preety interesting that Ole Gunnar Soljskaer and AVB learned so much from FM and I mean they are good managers i haven t seen Ole Gunnar manage anyone yet but AVB has done a wonderful job at spurs and Porto and he would ave done at Chelsea too if they would have given him a chance (about 3-5 years) well done buddy exellent post young chap

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What a load of waffle. You could have just said 'Playing f.m., you learn about players and tactics. Some current managers have said this is what they did'. Honestly, too many words, shocking structure, missing punctuation. Inane premise. It was NOT a good read; those of you who think it is, please try reading some books or something.

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Please can you elaborate. I am open to feedback but not slander. You say too many words but I don't agree, I would rather write an informative piece talking about examples in depth than saying just what you put, it isn't much of an article then. Plus as someone who did very well in a games development course focusing on things like this (highest grade for critical approaches to interactive media) I believe this is the correct way to do it for academia and beyond. I'd love to hear more constructive criticism though from you in order to improve my piece.

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@ Jonny,

Let me put it simply, Dec's format (constructive criticism?) isn't exactly easy to the eye- it doesn't change the content though, nor is there an easy way to format or construct it.

If he had split it up more you'd be saying "what a load of waffle, he put so many gaps to make it look like more text than it was".

Dec's piece is far from perfect but it's a good read- far better than your criticism which came from reading 2 or 3 lines and a couple of words that popped out to you as you probably skimmed it to come to such a conclusion.

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Ok, I'll elaborate (even though my points are self explanatory). Firstly, slander is oral defamation of another person's character. I have not done this. With regards my criticisms, I contend that your article is no more "informative" than my summary. Everybody on an fmh board will know what the game involves. There is no need to explain it. Hence, I used the word "waffle". Perhaps more importantly, as you introduced the term 'academia', you fail to prove your assertion that an fmh player is more knowledgable than another football fan. You make unfounded claims, for example, most fans do not know what a box to box midfielder is. Where is the research on this? You use speculation and conjecture as fact throughout. In no way is this suitable for academia and beyond (whatever that is). Morever, your conversational writing style, in the realms of academia, would be rejected instantly.

I'll be honest, I'm now feeling a little cruel. Part of my original post was fuelled by the sycophantic nature of those who were commenting. I also saw the exact same post on a Sports Interactive forum, and your response when nobody was impressed which revealed, I believe, your motivation for writing it in the first place. As I have said repeatedly, I am trolling. The response I have gotten has amused me. I am bored now, though.

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So which response amused you, cos if any of these replies actually brought you amusement then I suggest you find a ball, a cup and attach them with a piece of string. That will bring you 100x more amusement.

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Ok, I'll elaborate (even though my points are self explanatory). Firstly, slander is oral defamation of another person's character. I have not done this. With regards my criticisms, I contend that your article is no more "informative" than my summary. Everybody on an fmh board will know what the game involves. There is no need to explain it.

There are different levels to the game someone may know a lot where as others may know little. This is expected in many things in life and when writing a factual piece you have to write in the assumption the reader knows nothing (which I did).

Hence, I used the word "waffle". Perhaps more importantly, as you introduced the term 'academia', you fail to prove your assertion that an fmh player is more knowledgable than another football fan. You make unfounded claims, for example, most fans do not know what a box to box midfielder is. Where is the research on this? You use speculation and conjecture as fact throughout. In no way is this suitable for academia and beyond (whatever that is). Morever, your conversational writing style, in the realms of academia, would be rejected instantly.

1) Academia is higher education.

2) I passed my College courses and got the highest grade possible on written pieces. Therefore it wasn't rejected at all.

3) I did research it, it is based on the past 6 years of my life. I have spoken to many football fans both FMH players and not as well as introducing a few to FMH and then having to explain the box to box midfielder and other tactical principles to them so they don't struggle. I think 6 years of being on forums and being around football fans is good enough ground for this article.

I'll be honest, I'm now feeling a little cruel. Part of my original post was fuelled by the sycophantic nature of those who were commenting. I also saw the exact same post on a Sports Interactive forum, and your response when nobody was impressed which revealed, I believe, your motivation for writing it in the first place. As I have said repeatedly, I am trolling. The response I have gotten has amused me. I am bored now, though.

I didn't say that at all. I was upset nobody commented on it in terms of the old SI forums which has nothing to do with you, I spoke to a few people who used to be on the boards and they said the same thing about the posts and lack of quality on them boards compared to the PSP days.

You openly admit you are trolling? It is nice to know you have such valuable time that you willingly waited 2 days to post this as you were banned. Can you not find something productive to do instead of trying to bring people down and waste time as you cannot fulfil your own satisfaction through your life?

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Fair enough, Dec. Honestly, well done for posing the question (no sarcasm intended). I disagree with your points but hey, so what? I see people get very upset when challenged. Clearly, this isn't the forum for me. Any chance of cancelling my account? Thanks and good luck.

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To be honest people don't get upset when challenged. I have given a lot of advice and people have taken it on board a lot of the time there is just a way of doing it, admitting you are trolling and ripping to shreds a piece with no grounds to your argument and taking a moral podium for yourself isn't the way people will respect your opinions. Put yourself in their shoes while what you are saying may be true (not this time but that is your opinion) there is a manner in which you must conduct yourself. Generally acting like a dick, throwing insults and posting sham articles to waste our time and try and prove a point isn't going to get you anywhere here.

We don't cancel or delete accounts, sorry.

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Hmmmm... Nice way to close there. It's a shame that you don't cancel accounts. I'll just not post again. Once again, sincerely, good luck in all that you do.

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I must say this is entertaining lol...

Jonny, you really should buy the full version of FM if you're this bored or go outside and get some sunshine :P

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