I just can't stop going on about this, hehe. I'm just so convinced I'm right and I'm pretty certain that FM Live is actually going to fail. Some time back someone commented on my pyramid, rags to riches, theory and they said 'no one wants to play lower league manager'.
I'd agree actually with that statement. I think FM08 managers play as follows:
1) Galacticos - One of the big clubs winning lots of things
2) Rags to riches - Taking a team from the bottom to the top, it's not easy but still popular
3) Simulation - Managing a team without actually getting glory every season, be it low league or even Premiership/Championship sides chugging away mid table.
I'd guess that maybe as much as 60% play Galactiocos, 25% Rags to riches and then finally Simulation. So it's a good point call it lower league manager or simulation it amounts to the same thing.
So I think what SI has tried to do is deliver a Galacticos experience, in terms of football everyone is as big as Fulham and if you spend cash on the stadium Tottenham. Very admirable
Cool, the reality though is for the vast majority the don't get a Man Utd experience they get a Fulham one.
So in effect the game is designed to appeal to the Simulation crowd, that's not the right word more an accident of the design. That is why I think the game will fail.
I do hope I'm wrong.
3 comments:
Jak, I definitely agree with you... but this wouldn't be a problem if SI actually designed this game to be an MMO!
In the past year, I've heard the quote "oh, FML is not like FM at all, it's a whole new concept!" Really? Is it? Other than playing as fictional teams/leagues, I don't think it's much different at all. To me, FML is just FM Lite with online human functions.
The fact that Ov stated on the GameworldOne podcast that he never played MMOs before designing the game is essentially a part of the main problem. SI has been quoted as saying "FML is not like a traditional MMO" as if they don't want their product be seen aligned with WoW, Eve Online, WHO, etc. But there's a reason why those MMO's are absurdly successful - the game design is set up for long-term level-based play with a *heavy* mix of PvE with PvP elements on the higher levels, vast worlds with many things to do, missions to accomplish, people to meet, etc.
Instead of sneering at a game design that attracts 30m+ players regularly and rising or staying on your high horse with a sentiment of "this is football, not orcs & elves", SI needed to design FML into more of a game that fits the standard MMO mold - even if it makes the overall gameplay wholly different to FM altogether. Trying to make a "simulation" model work in an MMO environment that relies on high activity to be achieved is just a recipe for disaster.
Although I never though FML would be a "fail" - I've always believed that over the course of 4-5 years, it wouldn't see more than 100k subscribers and remain a small cult-like game in the shadow of FMxx. Is that good enough for Sega/SI? I don't know.
Interesting a few months back one the Sega guys wanted a tagline for marketing.
I tongue in cheek suggested 'Rags to richs', I was told in no uncertain terms that was never the point or theme of FM Live.
Still it's a good game and I do enjoy it. I just hope they can keep the numbers up and make it a success.
I loved FM Live when I first entered it (Shearer gameworld, we played against each other Jak :-)
I loved the ridicolous transfer market of the beginning: it was fast, furious, plenty of money going all around, and it was fun. Yes, it was VERY fun. There was a compelling reason to come back to login every day, just to check all the movement around the transfer market. I loved it when someone bid 100k on a youngster, or 120k for Benzema, or payed 6M+ for Agbonlahor.
Then the patch came, stadiums came. The first pro gameworld opened, and plenty of managers left to start again.
I believe the first big patch had such a huge impact that took away the fun from the game. Stadiums and taxes changed the way the players behaved. I didn't like the changes (and I guess there were plenty of managers that felt the same way), and since then I've been stumbling around different gameworlds (now in Nicholson), and have not have fun since then. I have been playing plenty of FM 2009, but have not been able to regain the fun I had during the first two seasons in Shearer.
I don't have solutions, but I know for sure that this game needs a change. Changes are needed in order to keep a steady population on the different gameworlds, and changes are needed to keep managers playing on the long run.
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