FM 10 - i just can't get into it

sorry, I've played many iterations of the game and i just cannot get into this one.

I'm trying to work out whether it's just the time in my life (2 year old and another on the way) or whether it's a) it just takes too long now or b) I've always been a buy the best players and win type of player and now it has become too complex (more a criticism of me rather than the game)

so thanks sigames (and eidos), but my time is up I think

not sure why i felt the need to say anything, but i felt i should

cheers

rich

I think its age,ive played every cm/fm game and the first games i couldnt wait to get home and play,i used to just play cm and no other game,but now with the fms,i only play it maybe 2 or 3 times a week for an hour or so.

Me too. this is the first management game ive bought for years. Just bought a new up 2 date pc and the first game i bought was FM.

I used to lose hours playing these games but cant get into this atol. It just dosnt seem half as good as the old versions. Very disappointed

I think I know what you mean.

I couldnt get into 2009 and started thinking maybe I was getting too old for this at 33 and that was the reason why. Something about that game broke the illusion for me. But I must admit 2010 has reignited my passion for this game. I love it.

I do see where you are coming from, though.

Perhaps the whole idea of this being a game, and that the purpose of a game is to have fun, has been lost.

No computer simulation can ever match the experience of being a real-life football manager. And yet many people on this forum seem to believe--in spite of such problems as repetitive team talks and tactics that don't have any relation to real football--that each new iteration is somehow more 'realistic.' They keep throwing around that word, even though very few people on this forum have ever managed a real-life football team. How do they know it's 'realistic'? It doesn't include drug abuse, drinking, team nutrition, crazy girlfriends and most of the other things real managers deal with. Perhaps the use of that particular word is simply a triumph of marketing.

I've noticed that reviews of each new version of FM, at least those in Four Four Two, don't actually say anything about the game. They just repackage marketing boilerplate. 'Best version ever!' 'Will take up most of your free time!' Etc etc.

I've found a lot of enjoyment with earlier versions of FM. In particular, FM05 and FM06. They give me more of what I want in a football game: the ability to just pretend I'm the manager of my favorite team.

It's too bad that earlier versions did not include an easy-to-use editor that would allow me to add leagues, particularly African ones. I remember asking and asking for such an editor, and being flamed for it. Now the current version has such an editor, and lots of people seem to love it. Funny how life works.

I can live without the team talks and interviews. Its far 2 repetitive and can never really work or resemble realism. It is a step 2 far.

Whats strange is I loved 00/01. But looking back its very basic now. But I loved that more than any of the more advanced ones. So maybe you can go over the top and spoil the fun a little.

For what it's worth I think the FM franchise has become a victim of its own success. Every year people want more stuff added and now the game is a very different animal to what it was even as little as 5 years ago. I started with CM97/98 when I was 13 and 12 years later I still get a lot of enjoyment from the franchise, but FM10 asks an awful lot of its user. Basically the game now requires more time than ever and those of us who started out in the late 90s have less and less to spare. Perhaps more to the point, I play computer games to relax. The massive benefit to FM is that you can be playing it when you're miles away from the computer because you can be mulling over tactics and transfers while you're doing other things (I recently took 24 hours to make a decision on a virtual job offer - as it happens I should have stayed where I was, but didn't), but the big downside is that FM doesn't carry a guarantee of enjoyment. It is quite possible for me to spend 2 hours playing FM 'to relax' and come away more stressed and frustrated than when I started. As a kid this was annoying (especially for my family), but as an adult it carries the double frustration of feeling you've wasted your precious free time. The reason the Wii has proven so popular with older gamers is that it offers simple fun with a very high probability of enjoyment. At its best FM provides all the best elements of a construction sim game (building something of your own devising, seeking perfection) with a good problem solving scenario (tinkering with tactics to make all the pieces work together), but as the games grow more complex both these elements become harder to manipulate because tactics and the ME aren't always intuitive. All this leads to more frustration. That said, every year I find myself wondering whether this will be the last FM I buy and every November I get it in the first week of release (something I couldn't afford when I was 13).

For what it's worth I think the FM franchise has become a victim of its own success. Every year people want more stuff added and now the game is a very different animal to what it was even as little as 5 years ago. I started with CM97/98 when I was 13 and 12 years later I still get a lot of enjoyment from the franchise, but FM10 asks an awful lot of its user. Basically the game now requires more time than ever and those of us who started out in the late 90s have less and less to spare. Perhaps more to the point, I play computer games to relax. The massive benefit to FM is that you can be playing it when you're miles away from the computer because you can be mulling over tactics and transfers while you're doing other things (I recently took 24 hours to make a decision on a virtual job offer - as it happens I should have stayed where I was, but didn't), but the big downside is that FM doesn't carry a guarantee of enjoyment. It is quite possible for me to spend 2 hours playing FM 'to relax' and come away more stressed and frustrated than when I started. As a kid this was annoying (especially for my family), but as an adult it carries the double frustration of feeling you've wasted your precious free time. The reason the Wii has proven so popular with older gamers is that it offers simple fun with a very high probability of enjoyment. At its best FM provides all the best elements of a construction sim game (building something of your own devising, seeking perfection) with a good problem solving scenario (tinkering with tactics to make all the pieces work together), but as the games grow more complex both these elements become harder to manipulate because tactics and the ME aren't always intuitive. All this leads to more frustration. That said, every year I find myself wondering whether this will be the last FM I buy and every November I get it in the first week of release (something I couldn't afford when I was 13).

So you already got stressed with FM when you were a kid. If you play games to relax, I wonder if you shouldn't have chosen another franchise to play... Perhaps something like Animal Crossing or My Aquarium for Wii...

FM has made huge improvements with almost every one of its installments. And you can still play the game in many different ways, some (most, actually) of which don't necessarily require 24 hours for you to make up your mind about a simple job offer.

FM 10000 will still have bugs, glitches and 100 patches

incomplete games that have million versions = useless and loose appeal

give it time. its a great game!

yeah - it's a good game, but it's too time-consuming and unrewarding (and like the OP said, age probably has something to do with it) - I don't feel like I'm really learning how to manage a real-life team - I'm just watching to see how often the computer can beat me with players who are not quite as good as mine. I don't think people who do well tactically at this "Simulation" really know how to manage a team like the real managers do, they know how to beat the game. SI has made another very good game, but it's just a little too much for me - most days this game is staying uninstalled.

I second some of the things people have said above.

The game got really repetitive, with team talks and media conferences.

Recently I find myself just waiting for the transfer windows, which are a lot of tun, and holidaying through the rest of the season.

The good thing (or is it?) - FM is a game that does not require your full attention all the time, like RPGs, FPPs and RTSs. I usually play FM in windowed mode and watch a movie in the background. On the other hand...

I still love it, but when i get home from school, espec in year 11, i just am not in a good enough mood to play it atm, when i know another school day is looming, however, i know next year in sixth form i will get tons of time to play it!

To me its the opposite, FM10 is the best so far IMO.

I think i have 3-years cyclus:

FM09 and FM08 has collected dust. FM07 was good. FM06 and Fm05 collected dust but i recall CM03/04 as good.

Stop playing for a while. You'll find the motivation later.

This happens during ones life where you lose motivation for certain things you once enjoyed. This is a transitional thing, which occurs and does have a link to slight depression and mental lethargy etc.

I lost interest in computer games around 2004 and I tried FM in 2005 and did not like it at all. I actually played TCM (lol ) and actually enjoyed that game due to its simplicity and it got me back into management games.

I tried FM in 2007 and 2008 but never played beyond a season.

Tried 2009, only played 4 seasons then quit. I only tried 2009 to test out the new 3D engine.

In 2010 I am totally hooked again and I have the urge to play computer games again. I am 30 years old and I feel silly sometimes playing a lot of games but I am enjoying myself with FM2010, Spore ( lol) and Dragon Age Origins.

I probably play 1-3 hrs a day, and I have a 10 year old son and an 18 month old daughter.

One game I remember fondly is Star Wars, Knights of the Old Republic. I was told it was a fanatstic game and purchased it, only to hate the game because I was not into Star Wars and I found the game difficult. For two years that game gathered dust, and was hardly played. Then I took my son to watch Star Wars for the first time, he had never seen the series either as he was more into kiddy musical stuff and Spider Man. He really liked it, I started to like the story line and I really got into Star Wars as it made me feel young again.

A few days after the movie, I re-installed Kotor and it became one of my all time favourite games.

These kinds of threads and posts come up every once and a while and it is something normal we all go through. It happens with a lot of things. You lose interest in your friends, in your partner, with your job and then something sparks things a long the way and it re-connects you again.

As stated before, I sometimes think its all related to our life goals, stress, links to depression and other human like things that go through our complex minds.

no offence, but absolute pointless post.

and the endless posts about people complaining that the game is too "complicated" "takes too much time" "not fun anymore" maybe these people should stick to pro and fifa. Its a management game yes with exception of the few bugs(which game hasnt?) its not difficult to use or even succeed in the game.

I mean I dont even put that much effort into my games and I forever keep the board/fans happy.

no offence, but absolute pointless post.

and the endless posts about people complaining that the game is too "complicated" "takes too much time" "not fun anymore" maybe these people should stick to pro and fifa. Its a management game yes with exception of the few bugs(which game hasnt?) its not difficult to use or even succeed in the game.

I mean I dont even put that much effort into my games and I forever keep the board/fans happy.

No offence to you, but that seems like shooting down peoples opinions, on a board that is made for people to discuss their opinions. Your post seems pointless as well to be honest, masked with a tad of bragging. These people did not say they hated the game, they clearly said they bought it and loved it for years and cannot get into it.

How about calming down a little and thinking before you post before resorting to inadvertently insulting everyone.

I know exactly what the OP means and I do agree that as you get older you seem to lose interest slightly as life get's in the way and despite anyones best efforts, I think a little cynism creeps in for how life can grind you down sometimes. You start to second guess things and think that perhaps you shouldnt be wasting time playing a game.

However if you enjoy it then their shouldnt be a problem as long as you make time for other things.

Regarding FM it does seem to have more features with every version and it does reflect real life...but things in real life are not always great.

Take the January transfer window for instance...I'm old enough to remember when you could buy players all year (in real life and thus CM) but there'd be a transfer deadline sometime in Spring and it would be a frenzy of excitement - maybe cause they knew they had all the following season to offload others and not be stuck with em. But these days you can't buy anyone all year and you either get the odd club panic buying because they have a 1 month window or you have the situation that happens to most teams in that they do nothing. It's been proven that most of the time, buying players in January doesent work...there is the odd exception but there's a reason why Arsenal, Man Utd and Chelsea buy no-one then.

So the excitement of always landing players all year round has gone. I remember buying CM Italia in the 90's and finding it boring you couldnt buy anyone apart from in the brief transfer window - never realised it would happen in England. Now a lowly club can't cash in that player who's suddenly found his form and thus face going to the wall.

Another thing is the Bosman ruling...now you have the players holding clubs to ransom and you have teams full of millionaries...how exactly do you motivate someone who has it all? and don't get me started on Foreign ownership...you'll soon have an English Premier League with no English represnetives present - a bit like the Arsenal first team.

Going off on a tangent here but perhaps the reason why we'r struggling to get into every iteration of FM is because it does reflect real life a little too much and thus because machines are so powerful, it can finally be the simulation it always wanted to be whereas before it was always a game.

Here's my brief review of CM/FM's

All of em upto CM01-02 - Loved em all but didnt fully understand with and without ball. Loved the game though, probably my favourite was the CM97/98 on Amiga.

CM01-02 - First CM I couldnt get into. Fact you couldnt see the team play made me quit playing.

CM4 - Despite the bugs I loved it cause you could finally see the game and see what to change.

FM09 - Jittery 2D Match engine - probably my machine? who knows but what about the people with top end systems? Either way the non stop interviews by the press are ridiculous. Sure you can get your assistant to do them but I want to be hands on...but not to the extent as this. Perhaps intermittend interviews would be good.

FM10 - Played the demo and the interface is just...not a fan put it this way. Sure usability studies may suggest it's more helpful but what about the main core of people that have been playing FM since it was CM? (i.e. playing it for years). First FM that tried to appeal to a new breed of fans IMHO and I'm not really one of them.

Out of the FM's my fave has been FM2008...still playing it infact. Great regens and great long term games.

So you already got stressed with FM when you were a kid. If you play games to relax, I wonder if you shouldn't have chosen another franchise to play... Perhaps something like Animal Crossing or My Aquarium for Wii...

FM has made huge improvements with almost every one of its installments. And you can still play the game in many different ways, some (most, actually) of which don't necessarily require 24 hours for you to make up your mind about a simple job offer.

I consider myself flamed. Seems a bit unnecessary when, as other posters have already said, this is a forum for discussion of ideas, but sadly there are always a few who resort to childish name-calling.

Perhaps I should restate my views: FM10 is a very good game which offers an engrossing experience and a real challenge. Sometimes it is a real joy to play, sometimes it isn't. Perhaps as people get older they find they don't have the time or the patience to pick over minor details of tactics or perhaps as Ezequiel Lavezzi says it's a matter of life-phases. I'm pretty sure I never said that the franchise wasn't getting better with time, but perhaps I should have made that more clear.

Oddly for me i bought FM10, having bought every previous version from CM whatever on the Atari ST and i couldn't get into it.

Then after watching some naff footy match at the pub i thought "why not reinstall 10 and see where i go". Couldn't get into it again but got sidetracked and ended up spending a bit of time learning how to "fix" the logos / German Team / Facepacks etc etc and suddenly it looked and felt much much more fun to me.

I still think it's gotten a bit too complicated and as someone else has mentioned above it's probably a victim of it's own success and sometimes i feel a little redundant and i'll quote:

I'm just watching to see how often the computer can beat me with players who are not quite as good as mine

Still fun, an excellent game (especially as i've finally kicked the WoW addiction) but for me the realism / fun balance has gone a little too real. That said thank the Lord for the Ass Man who can handle some of the more tedious aspects of it.

A lot of people seem to talk about the increasing complexity etc., and how it has slowed the game down. I think that I certainly found this to be true on FM09. However, FM10 is one of the quickest and most accessible versions ever from my point of view. The processing is quick, the new advice in the game makes things that little bit quicker and the tactics creator and shouts (a masterpiece in my opinion) means that you can put all of your efforts into getting the best from your team, rather than fiddling with sliders and building new tactics from scratch.

For these reasons, FM10 is probably my favourite ever version of the series. I can quickly pick up a save, play a couple of matches and then put it away again. The accessibility is great and what is best about it is that none of the complexity has been sacrificed. Just my opinion of course.

A lot of people seem to talk about the increasing complexity etc., and how it has slowed the game down. I think that I certainly found this to be true on FM09. However, FM10 is one of the quickest and most accessible versions ever from my point of view. The processing is quick, the new advice in the game makes things that little bit quicker and the tactics creator and shouts (a masterpiece in my opinion) means that you can put all of your efforts into getting the best from your team, rather than fiddling with sliders and building new tactics from scratch.

For these reasons, FM10 is probably my favourite ever version of the series. I can quickly pick up a save, play a couple of matches and then put it away again. The accessibility is great and what is best about it is that none of the complexity has been sacrificed. Just my opinion of course.

I agree. This has been the fastest one for ages. I've even got more nations running than last years and the one before. I probably could have added more but I was worried about that star system at the start.

the tactics creator and shouts (a masterpiece in my opinion) means that you can put all of your efforts into getting the best from your team, rather than fiddling with sliders and building new tactics from scratch.

I absolutely agree with this point. The tactics creator and shouts system have been a huge step in the right direction in my opinion. It's made the whole thing more transparent for more casual users and also improved the realism a bit too.

gotta agree with peeps,ive found this fm10 a struggle to get into.but im blaming that on my fml experience.ive never got by 5 seasons on any cm/fm.i take toooo damn long.i managed 7 seasons on gw7 and 10 seasons on the beautiful blissett.so im gonna struggle along on fm10.would like to make it to season 11.only just got to a season and a half so far.could do with a wealthy investor but i dont think anyone would want to invest in the blue brasil(mighty leicester).give it time......

Perhaps try an Unemployed Journey, worked for me in a very similar situation

If you are 37 and not in to it because your to old then why am I still playing it at 40?!?

I can't get off it. It's either this or Assassins Creed 2 on my xbox...the mrs loves me at the moment! lol

I think i'm having some of the same trouble this post describes. I have played since CM 99/00, and have always been much more interested in team building and long-term games than match tactics. I've posted similar thoughts on the last three versions, but it seems like despite what we hear from the SI guys about how the new version will be better, more accessible and more fun for everybody, every new version makes fiddling with tactics before and during every match more and more important not just to getting 100% out of your team instead of 90%, but to getting anything above 30%. I'm sure my problem is that I just really don't care at all about tactics and I need to "get with the program and fix my tactics" but the mere thought of doing that is so boring compared to team management I just can't be bothered.

Disagree that the tactics creator has helped, though. Even with it, I still can't design an "away" tactic that doesn't result in me giving up 30+ total shots, 20+ on target with 10 clear-cut chances. Frustrating doesn't begin to describe it. Like many others, while I appreciate the desire for a simulation, getting played off the park every away game and some home games really just does nothing for me. Nor does spending even 10-15 minutes preparing for each match and watching it full-screen really appeal, either. If I have to watch the whole match full-screen, i'd rather be playing something like FIFA or PES.

I figured i'd give this version a try because of the tactics creator, but I think this'll be the last time I play the game. No hard feelings - for those of you that really love messing with tactics, i'm sure it's a great game. It just doesn't have anything to offer me any more. I can accept getting 80-90% out of my players rather than 100% as a cost of not wanting to fuss too much with tactics, but that's not what the game allows.

I have a few comments to make about the game, this is how i view FM2010

The games complexity: The game can be as complex or as easy as you want it to be (to a degree anyway). If you don't want to deal with press conferences, half-time talks and so on you can just set it so your assistant manager will handle all that stuff and you'll have a simpler gamplay. If however you want to get more invovled and you enjoy all the small things you can do then you can chose to do alot more yourself and have a more complex gamplay experience.

Motivation to play the game: Myself i don't start FM for weeks sometimes, then i'll get the urge to play again and i'll start it up and it will be fun again. If you try to force it though then you won't have fun obviously (i've done this myself before i learned not to play when i felt that way). Please note though that i'm a long career type of a guy, i'll load up a bunch of leagues and coach a bunch of teams in different countries (i usually start at the bottom in a small team, working myself up the career ladder)

I can get into the last three games. i still play FM07. FM10 is too much complex and without any fun in the game.

To all honest and respect to Crouchaldinho, i don't agree. FM07 is faster as FM10, in some cases is faster then FM10. FM10 is only faster then FM07 is when loading and saving a game, the rest is same speed or Fm07 is faster.

The game shifted from building you team to success into how not to be beaten and cheated by the AI, with less strong teams.

Personally I think the challenge that the game can be provided to the players of this game is improving the AI in the transfer market and to buy players that the other clubs really need, instead of buying dead wood just because the clubs have the money to buy them.

Personally what is the freaking point with loans, specially when you have players on the reserve teams? I mean I tried to get a loan of good players that are on the reserves yet, they will not loan the player because of commitments to the club. Yet this so called players can stay for the entire season on the reserves. This little things irritate me like hell.

It is like. You are the player, so you are the enemy, we don't want anything to do with you freaking human.

If you are 37 and not in to it because your to old then why am I still playing it at 40?!?

this more or less echoes my opinion, im 34 and have played every version cm/cmitalia/all the fm's but to me every year it get's better i buy the game on release date every year but can not get into it until jan/feb !!. every night after work i play at least 3/4 hours.

my ideal game is to download all badges/kits/players faces/cup/competittion logos and a good skin (glass at the mo) this to me make's the game so much better cosmetically.

it also helps being a notts county supporter too!!

but by all means give the above a go there's no way i could play the game out the box i'd say try 2/3 games at once im managing notts/roma and my local non league team hucknall town at the mo and each one is a different challenge.

good luck.