Playing Without Real Players

I'm just looking into this for the first time. A quick scan through a few squads is throwing up some concerns for me. Namely the weird nationalitied superstars. Is this normal?

Would the new players of a club be of the same or similar quality to the real players at a club or have say similar nationalities? Or are all teams now at a different level to real life? E.g. Could Villa be better than Arsenal?

I think all playing with fake players does is change the names and nationalities of the players. Not the stats or anything that affects quality.

it changes nothing but the names, its quite disappointing really, it would probably be ok if you were playing as a national team manager, but playing as a club manager is pretty much as waste of time as the players stats and personalities remain exactly the same, so once you have worked out exactly who everyone is by their favoured personnel then it just becomes like a regular game.

General feeling is quite pointless then? Imo it should give you a squad of the nationality of the team with their skill level being level with your reputation. That would be fun.

agreed, i was hoping more so for random player stats as well as random names, so it would be possible for Bolton to have a 19yr old English Torres for example, instead of a Mauritian Kevin Davies.

To play the game this way, you need a willing suspension of disbelief.

I play without real players all the time, makes the game interesting; not looking for the same old faces every time.

But they are there regardless....

I have just bought a 17 year old 'wonderkid' MRC from LA Galaxy who has an achievements list going back to the early/mid 90's of trophies won at some team called 'Manchester United' and then a La Liga title with Real Madrid in 2007. Not a bad CV considering he wouldn't have been able to walk when he won his first trophy.

He likes to have '23' as his squad number, but is from Finland.

Not bad, getting Arno 'Beckham' Jalo as the finished article (attributes-wise he is mustard) with another 14-15 years ahead of him.

Kind of makes it pointless though.

So all the prices and everything is the same apart from nationality and name. BORING

So all the prices and everything is the same apart from nationality and name. BORING

Just pretend!

So all the prices and everything is the same apart from nationality and name. BORING

I think the challenge is that you cant see well known players as easily as before. Not that id want it. PLay long enough and its fake names anyway.

I think all playing with fake players does is change the names and nationalities of the players. Not the stats or anything that affects quality.

it changes nothing but the names, its quite disappointing really, it would probably be ok if you were playing as a national team manager, but playing as a club manager is pretty much as waste of time as the players stats and personalities remain exactly the same, so once you have worked out exactly who everyone is by their favoured personnel then it just becomes like a regular game.

Is this true? I used to play the occasional game on FM09 with fake players. I'm certain that the game created an entire database of fake players - names, abilities, nationalities, personalities and so on. The staff just had names changed which was a bit daft but it was still good. I've yet to try it on FM10 though and now I don't think I'll bother.

Bad form SI. You lazy gits.

Is this true? I used to play the occasional game on FM09 with fake players. I'm certain that the game created an entire database of fake players - names, abilities, nationalities, personalities and so on. The staff just had names changed which was a bit daft but it was still good. I've yet to try it on FM10 though and now I don't think I'll bother.

Bad form SI. You lazy gits.

Several people have stated (on this thread and others) that running a game with fake players merely changes the name and nationality of all players loaded. One post in this thread mentioned that age could also be changed, but I can't confirm this.

Nah, but CAs/PAs are adjusted, so about 2 months in it becomes impossible to distinguish who each player is really by stats as they change loads.

Some nationalities seem the same too, if there is a striker from Angola in your real squad it is likely you will have a defender/midfielder/keeper from Angola in your fake squad.

Why is it not possible to generate a world of genuinely brand-new players when you select this option? Would someone from SI be able to explain the reason? I would really like to play this way if it was done properly.

Is this true? I used to play the occasional game on FM09 with fake players. I'm certain that the game created an entire database of fake players - names, abilities, nationalities, personalities and so on. The staff just had names changed which was a bit daft but it was still good. I've yet to try it on FM10 though and now I don't think I'll bother.

Bad form SI. You lazy gits.

its been the same since the feature came in i think, i always start a new game with fake players whenever a new version comes out, and its always the same. the closest it got to being actually enjoyable was last season when you could free transfer all players in the editor, as it was always a challenge to get the best team of randoms possible before the AI snapped them all up!

I once did this on an earlier version of FM (Can't remember which, may have been 07?) but I found that a lot of the players started setting retirement dates at the end of the first season no matter what their ages. That just put me off completely and I couldn't even bother trying again

I dont see the point to playing with fake players. Surely the reason you bought FM was to have real players?

You could just start a new game. Holiday for about 10-15 years or so and voila a game full of fake players that bear no resemblance to any real players

It's much more interesting with fake players. You get a brand-new world every time you start a new game.

I dont see the point to playing with fake players. Surely the reason you bought FM was to have real players?

Are you serious? Starting a game with fake players (if they were all truly fake) would be like going to sleep for 25 years. Then you join a team as manager and the entire world consists of totally new players; there is a Messi out there, but he's not Argentinian, nor does he play for Barcelona. You have no idea who the superstars are and you have no idea what sort of player your chosen team needs until you study them.

I get bored of starting the game and knowing exactly who to buy each time. In a game with 250,000 players (or whatever), it's quite an achievement to know every time.

I have only done this once and it was FM09 (total bordom resorted to fake players) and I found it really fun

Just had a bit of a mes around with it and it does seem to be very random. For celtic I did have a GK who lists Legia as a favoured team and has 20 for Eccentricity (Boruc) but he was second choice, and Scottish, and called Smith.

Celtic only have three out and out strikers and they appear on this game mode with three strikers. They have varying nationalities and names of course but all three have different ages to RL and are absolutely excellent!

I'm going to start a proper game in this game mode I think, may go to Scandanavia or somewhere like that. Don't know but it seems appropriate. Quick question; why can you not see any player regardless of which leagues you run/ your database size? They are basically generating players for your leagues already and what they seem to do for the less well known clubs is to randomly generate players. So why can't you sign them?