Recession proof gaming?

Hi all,

I have a thought which I think could fit very well into Football manager and would add an extra dimension to the game. It’s not a new idea and has been in other game titles before but would make the game more challenging in terms of finances which are the lifeblood of modern day football.

For those of you who have played the Railroad Tycoon series (3 and lower) you will be aware that during the game there is series of world economic status fluctuations. In a recession debt is more expensive and revenues decrease where as in boom times the opposite is true. The idea is to put into Football manager this extra uncontrollable variable.

Like Railroad Tycoon you could have a random sequence of world economic status which can change every 3 months up/down a level or remain the same.

I see the levels being as follows:

Boom times

Prosperity

Growth

Stagnancy

Decline

Recession

Depression

The maximum length of time in one level being 9 months and the probability of being in a level for 9 months decreasing as you move away from stagnancy. For example you would be least likely for the level to remain unchanged for 9 months in boom times or depression.

All this would then have an affect on the financial variables in the game such as:

Club values

Debt repayments and size of debt

Ticket prices & attendances

Sponsors

Takeover offers (less likely to get a billionaire during a depression)

It would also make things even more challenging if in times of depression as debts are called in. Hence forcing clubs into takeover procedures and putting them into receivership to avoid collapse. It shouldn’t have an affect on player values but marked effects on budgets.

I feel this should be in the game as it is billed as a simulation and should attempt to recreate the environment surrounding football in addition to the football itself. For those who wouldn’t want to play with these conditions I would suggest that there is the option to turn it off.

I think it would be very interesting because you would then have to really decide whether signing X player is really worth it when in say 6 months you could be in depression and your gate receipts drop significantly.

Good idea or not?

I've suggested variable exchange rates before, and been told it would be too complicated. This would have the same problem tbh.

I wouldn't have a problem with it but I can see a lot of people being put off by it. A lot of people play just for the football side of things and some people might be put off by another layer of complexity in the game.

I love the idea, but as SCIAG mentioned the complexity of implementing it would probably be very difficult, similar to other suggestions like currency fluctuations, varying inflation, and demographic changes.

Although realistic and perhaps more important to football in the medium term than we might currently think, it does sound like a lot of effort to provide a realistic influence with negligable impact.

And can you imagine the complaint threads when someone fails to take into account exchange rates, inflation and tax and so ends up bankrupting their club?

Personally I think that with the yearly release of new games that simple changes to the balance and finances of clubs on a yearly basis would suffice for a similar effect.

Absolutely 100% against this idea tbh. I really cba to work out whether £15m for a promising right winger is good value or not in 2018 in the game. That said, I do applaud the OP for a very well put together argument which, while it doesn't persuade me in the slightest, was at least an interesting read. Extra kudos, too, for referring to an absolutely great series of games in Railroad Tycoon.

Absolutely 100% against this idea tbh. I really cba to work out whether £15m for a promising right winger is good value or not in 2018 in the game. That said, I do applaud the OP for a very well put together argument which, while it doesn't persuade me in the slightest, was at least an interesting read. Extra kudos, too, for referring to an absolutely great series of games in Railroad Tycoon.

^ whs! gone all nostalgic for a blast on railroad tycoon now...

^ whs! gone all nostalgic for a blast on railroad tycoon now...

Tell me about it. 10 years later and my Girlfriend has an insatiable lust for The Sims.

It's quite worrying.

Although realistic and perhaps more important to football in the medium term than we might currently think, it does sound like a lot of effort to provide a realistic influence with negligable impact.

And can you imagine the complaint threads when someone fails to take into account exchange rates, inflation and tax and so ends up bankrupting their club?

Personally I think that with the yearly release of new games that simple changes to the balance and finances of clubs on a yearly basis would suffice for a similar effect.

I agree with this

Tell me about it. 10 years later and my Girlfriend has an insatiable lust for The Sims.

It's quite worrying.

lol i feel much better about the fact i just spent the last 4 hours playing transport tycoon now

Good idea, well presented, and a very interesting concept.

That said, how much do managers get involved in this stuff?

Would every player want to have that external influence affecting a largely team focused game?

I like this, maybe the responsibility / impact could be less on the user and more in-built into the game.

Maybe your chairman says to you "sorry the budget for this year is only xxx, this is because of the current global downturn. We'll review the situation again in 6 months" or "due to the current economic boom, the board has increased the transfer budget from xxx to xxx"

Could be managed with a hidden attribute against the club / chairman - "impact of economic downturn". That way Man City / Real Madrid would be unaffected.

To be honest its too complicated. afterall this is Football Manager so lets stick to improving the football side of it

The problem is have attendances dropped in real life? I think they have at least stayed the same during this recession. Also debts of the sort that football clubs carry will be on longer term fixed price deals and will therefore be protected against such volatile rises and falls. Merchandising may suffer though tbf.

What we re talking about here is a realistic world wide economy system which must be extremely complicated to fit in and make it seem natural. Considering that recessions don't happen that often and also considering the unpredictability of it in real life it would be difficult to implement.

I mean, would we get amessage saying the bank has started quantitive easing? And how would the game calculate the effect?