Do you ever not use real players ??

Hi, just wondering if you have ever played a game without real players, I never do. If you have could you please write about your experience and whether it is any good. Thanks

I could never.

I did try, i thought it would be good as there would be no names to go for but after about a season, i realised it was just the same. All the teams had the same ability but with different players.

I have done, but it's still pretty easy to work out who's who. It could be pretty effective lower down the leagues, mind.

I did it once to have a go and looking for a different challenge. I liked it at the beginning until I realise it took a few time to find talents, good players and so on, while AI managers find them straight away and buy all of the good players from the first transfer window. Well could still add some difficulty and realism by letting good players go to the higher teams, so why not but you have to accept it would take more than usual time to win a league I think.

I've done it a few times before, but mostly with older versions. It adds a bit of difficulty, but not too much. Chelsea still have a tall, talented keeper, Man Utd still have a tempermental midget, Liverpool still have a dominant midfielder, and so on. Sometimes you do have some interesting changes, though-- star players lose certain attributes that make them exceptional and become rather ordinary, and so on. I had one on FM07 where "John Terry" had single-digit Jumping. I had another on CM 03/04 where "Fabien Barthez" ended up getting created as a teenager, as opposed to his real age. Made things kinda interesting. A lot of times, players will often change nationalities, which can lead to some interesting national team dynamics.

I prefer to start the game without real players (although I think Im in the minority here) - I found in previous versions of FM whenever I started a new game I would end up signing the same players or see spoilers on forums (or from mates) and sign players knowing they will develop into stars.

When I find a team and league I want to play in I use the editor to remove all favoured personal etc from the club so when I progress in the game all the favourite personal are players or coaches that have been around when I have been there - rather than just have random names that dont really mean anything.

I enjoy creating my own unique alternate football universe. Currently in about 2024 in my FM10 save with FC Kobnhaven.

I have thought about it a few times because I actually find I enjoy the game more when i get into later years and the newgen players become stars but i find myself also liking the fact that there are recognisable names around. For example I generally play as lower league clubs and I enjoy signing real players as they get older to go along with my batch of young players, most recently I signed a 34 year old Berbatov and was really happy with it being a massive coup for my Bath City side I had worked so hard on getting up the leagues.

I'm happy enough with real players as my games are usually long term so I end up with a nice mix of real players and names I don't recognise in the form of newgens

I think I would only use that option if all of the players are newgens and not just renamed real players.

You would lose the player history, but at least the players will be totally random but with their attributes and ability set to be suitable for the clubs level and reputation.

The last time I really played without real players was in CM93/94 where you could pick the league your club started at and all of the players would be random. So I took Watford from the lowest league up into winning the EPL, League Cup, FA Cup and European Cup all in the same season. I think it took 14 seasons including 5 or 6 in the EPL.

Most of my saves don't use real players, but that's my preference.

If your want to read some people's experiences about it, check out the LLM forum.