German Regionalliga

Anyone know if the Regionalliga's will be included in this release?

I'm dying to be able to play as Eintracht Trier without having to build a whole database on my own.

I'm afraid you'll need an edit. I'm sure I read they won't be in, mainly due to insufficient research.

At least it's possible to edit these leagues into the game at last

because you can add as much leagues down you want, i bet there will be a fan data update for the regionalliga, maybe bezirksliga usw.. :-)

There is a big thread on this that came about when people realized the Regionalligen were in in FM08 and cut from FM09 onwards. It seems the only reason they were temporarily added for FM08 was the league restructuring going on that season. Back then Regionalliga Nord and Süd were two leagues that formed the third tier of German footbal, with 2x18 teams trying to qualify for a new third tier the next season, 3. Bundesliga. If you were managing one of the sides that didn't make it, you'd lose your job just cause.

I think if FM was more popular in Germany, there were more researchers around, and it would probably be easier for SI to consider doing this. But with the game not even sold in Germany anymore, that's unlikely to happen for the time being.

There is a big thread on this that came about when people realized the Regionalligen were in in FM08 and cut from FM09 onwards. It seems the only reason they were temporarily added for FM08 was the league restructuring going on that season. Back then Regionalliga Nord and Süd were two leagues that formed the third tier of German footbal, with 2x18 teams trying to qualify for a new third tier the next season, 3. Bundesliga. If you were managing one of the sides that didn't make it, you'd lose your job just cause.

I think if FM was more popular in Germany, there were more researchers around, and it would probably be easier for SI to consider doing this. But with the game not even sold in Germany anymore, that's unlikely to happen for the time being.

Last year it was published there. I remember it being tested on Game Star (getting 10 out of 10 for any management-specific category and crappy ratings for graphics and sound) which afaik only happens for games which are published in Germany.

Nope, it was one of the few cases in which an import title had been reviewed, actually. Editor must have liked the game quite a bit. Shame about the game really, but I can understand Sega's stance on this considering the licensing issues.

Thanks for all of your responses.

Would you believe that FM08 is the only version I don't own and never noticed that they had been added for a brief period

For Svenc and Jayahr in particular - what's the research/database like for regional teams? Is it sufficient/adequate enough to warrant choosing one of the teams?

I'd 100% decided on an edited database with a straight 4 divisions, and to manage one of the existing regional teams in the new 4th division. Will I be disappointed with the existing team information regarding this?

For Svenc and Jayahr in particular - what's the research/database like for regional teams? Is it sufficient/adequate enough to warrant choosing one of the teams?

I'd 100% decided on an edited database with a straight 4 divisions, and to manage one of the existing regional teams in the new 4th division. Will I be disappointed with the existing team information regarding this?

To be honest, even research of many 2nd and 3rd division clubs is far from the standard to which we are used from other nations.

However, that is not to flame the researchers, but about them being too few.

I once was a researcher in Germany for a 3rd div club and got asked the the head reasearcher to also take over a 1st div club whose matches I only saw on TV at times. I did it to help out but surely someone else would have provided way better results than I could.

In the end it works out quite okay, but it's somewhat annoying at times if you possess some real-life knowledge and see players not even having their correct positions.

I'd love to be able to play the Regionalliga. You could manage Magdenburg, if that's not a sleeping giant then I don't know what is!

Won the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup once and just about everything in the old DDR league possible...

OK mate, thanks for the reply. It's surprising though that there's not more demand in Germany.

OK mate, thanks for the reply. It's surprising though that there's not more demand in Germany.

Germans are all mad about football management sims, but: Try selling a game in Germany which has every player in the world, but for the German league.

Also, Germany has a bit of a different football management sims tradition to which On The Ball or FIFA manager are tailored. Germans are used to be coach, manager and chairman at the same time and have a bit of shinier UIs. That's why CM/FM always sold crappy in the past beyond a rather smallish hardcore fanbase (which also knows how to get the real names).

Personally I'm coming from the good ol' German style of football managing myself. I've got to admit it's a bit steep trying to get into FM at first. It just seems very much "detached" from your typical video game. I'm still of the opinion that SI aren't that great at finding a balance of their UI. When I fired up my first ever FM demo I took a peek and was impressed by the numbers, but shut it down again after a couple of minutes. First FM comes with the problem that is inherent with programs as complex as football managers across the board: There are all kinds of options and data cluttered throughout for you to discover - and some of those inevitably in ways not most obvious. When I fired this up this looked like an application running at your office's computer rather than entertainment.

It took me an evening that allowed me to take a closer look at key points of the game, the AI, transfer market and most of all the match engine that I was convinced to give this thing a shot. I suspect most gamers never got that far, unfortunately. Let's not forget that when SI were still published in Germany their games consisted of pretty much pure text, some basic graphics and later on the 2d dots. I guess the reputation of this being this weird thing of numbers and statistics only the English for some odd reason go boolahoo about (PERVS!) caught on quickly with the gaming crowd and press alike. Which in part was due to the start of this series. I'm a Bundesliga Manager on Commodore 64 onward kind of guy, and after having taken a look at SI's baby steps I'm of the opinion that these early "German" programs are vastly superior and more fun to what little SI were doing at that time.

But Football Manager is a rather unique game as is now, it's doing things by default that FIFA Manager will never be able to do, as they're trying to shoehorn real-world football into ten minutes of FIFA action, for instance. If given a proper chance to fight there is definately a fan base for a game like this. Hell, this is a football sim - with seven million active members the German FA is the biggest sporting federation in the world. That is seven million people actively involved in association football, you do the rest of the Maths. It speaks volumes that there is a dedicated community of people who are doing a fan-translation into German year in year out. I also think Sega never really tried to hit the right catch phrase to sell this thing, I've rarely ever heard anyone writing our talking about this series when it was still published in Germany.

Svenc: What are the biggest football management games in Germany at the moment then? Do you know anywhere we can look at screenshot etc? I'd be very interested to have a wee look

Historically it had always been a battle of two, with a couple minor titles interfering every now and then. Early 90s onwards it was Bundesliga Manager (The Manager / Total Football Management) and Anstoss (On The Ball) competing against each other. Before FIFA Manager there was what I think is called FIFA Club Manager or Total Club Manager - at this point in time this was a manager done completely by an in-house team at EA, but it was still playing catch up the the big two. By the turn of the century the company behind the series of Bundesliga Manager of games went bust, and the chief designers of On The Ball left their former employe and teamed up with EA on making a better manager game. Eventually that partnership would lead to the founding of Bright Future Studios, the independent company responible for making what is called the FIFA Manager series of games. For most of this decade, it was On The Ball versus this series then.

To behonest, I don't know what Bright Future's relationship to EA still is in particular at this time beyond publishing and technology deals - by the time the series was known as Total Club Manager it was a collaboration between internal teams at EA Sports in North America and these guys at Germany. But Bright Future describe themselves as an independent studio now, doing pretty much all of the design itself. A lot of former On The Ball players have been playing EA managers for years, which is no surprise, considering that the chief designer was once responsible for designing On The Ball. The signs of this are all over the game.

But as of now, On The Ball is put in hiatus for the time being, and there's only Fußball Manager (FIFA Manager) left. No minnors, no On The Ball, no Bundesliga Manager, no nothing. There is no other choice. Well, safe for heading to the import shop next town.

Moby has a couple of entries on each of these, I'm sure you're familiar with FIFA Manager anyways.

http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/on-the-ballanstoss-series

http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/bundesliga-manager-series

http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/director-of-football (one of the more popular "minnor" titles designed by the founders of the Bundesliga Manager series of games)

edit: Thanks for making me relive some memories by taking a look at some cover art of old. When I saw this I realized I've got this disc, actually had it in my hands a couple of days ago when assigning nick names to balls of dust on the shelves. It is a CD published with a gaming make in 1998ish or something. Which means I've actually got a copy of Championship Manager 2! Dear Lord! Gonna take a look what SI did after they had grown out of baby fat then.

edit: Thanks for making me relive some memories by taking a look at some cover art of old. When I saw this I realized I've got this disc, actually had it in my hands a couple of days ago when assigning nick names to balls of dust on the shelves. It is a CD published with a gaming make in 1998ish or something. Which means I've actually got a copy of Championship Manager 2! Dear Lord! Gonna take a look what SI did after they had grown out of baby fat then.

Thanks to you too

Have played through all of those as well.

On CM2 make sure to get Uwe Rösler. Excellent on that game