Straw Poll
It seems to me asking around around (I admit this is a straw poll) that a lot of FM08 players fall into three categories:-1) I'll edit the database and win everything with Man Utd
2) I'll take over Torquay and lead them over 20 seasons to European glory
3) I'll play as Blackburn / Torquay finish 10th every season and just experience the game and enjoy it for that
I'm not for one second saying there is a right way to play it but those three category's roughly cover the appeal. You could be a little bit of one and two or three and one but the mates I know in real life generally fall into one of those category's.
From my straw poll most enjoy taking Swansea to European glory, the area, size of club, etc makes it attractive and possible.
They all love FM and will be buying FM09. The all love the idea of FM Live yet when they get there they end up disappointed. In the beta invites I got five mates (actually three were mates of mates) and the all played it to varying degree's.
The first to pack in was Brian who is type (1). When I asked him he went off on a rant, didn't like this or that, I just felt the bottom line was he liked to escape to with FM and Fm Live wasn't going to allow him to do it.
The other guys were types (2) and type (3)'s sort of middle of the road between the two and they liked it, but in the GW6 crash were on holiday and never got their beta places back. They didn't rave about it but they enjoyed it.
Now I'd hazard a guess that type (1)'s are a lost cause to FM Live it's never going to work out, in fact I'd so far as to say they'd actually be quite passionate in their dislike of the game. Type (3)'s now their the boy's who'll suck it up and type (2)'s in between.
The Football Manager Political Compass
How about that, a political compass for Football Manager! (1)'s are the right, (2)'s are middle and (3)'s are the lefties.How bizarre is it that Si design a MMORPG that is designed to appeal to the left, if it was me I'd design it for the middle. Aim for the middle even if you miss and hit the left you've still hit something, right?
Let's throw another crazy thing out there, MMORPG wow no piracy worries and if you get it right you've got them hooked, it's bound to be a commercial success. The biggest one is WOW, I've not played it but it seems to me the games design is that you start level 1 and end up level 60, if your good you'll get level 60 fast if not slow. Progress, you will and once you start you won't want to stop.
So base Fm Live on that principle, lets have five levels and unless your brain dead you can easy make level 3, so effectively three levels. Lets design it that it's actually quite hard to be level 4 and really hard to be level 5, in fact lets design it so that unless your really really good or really really patient you'll never get to level 5.
It's a drag
Also lets design it so that the progression, such as it is, is so slow it's barely noticeable. I mean lets make it take six months or even longer. In WOW terms everyone starts at level 30 and the chances are in six monthes you'll still be level 30 in fact there is a decent chance you'll be level 20. If WOW were deisgned like this chances are it would have failed.
Was there a meeting in Si towers at some point where these ideas were tossed around and this was put forward and someone chipped up 'lets think outside the box'. Hey, your aiming for the box!
Ok next blog I may look at problems and solutions.
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