Idea for Next FM - Your Thoughts Please

I'm not content with the fact FM11 hasn't even been released yet, i wont to improve the game further!

My idea is to introduce player "scandals" to the game. Whether it's Ronaldo writing off his Ferrari or Terry,Rooney or A.Cole playing away from home, players these days are often on the front page of papers just as often as they are on the back and this is argueably, now more than ever, an ever growing additional problem that managers have to overcome on their quest for success.

I appreciate that this game appeals to alot of ages and certain "scandals" ala Terry & Rooney, may not be appropriate for younger players to be reading so it could be debated whether they should be included but other scenarios like high speed car collisions, match fixing accusations, bar brawls/assaults could pop up in the game every now and again. Other examples which again could be debated as to whether they should be allowed could be alcoholism, drug problems, gambling problems etc. All of these problems can potentially shatter a players form and confidence and you could perhaps be presented with options such as trying to talk to the player yourself and talk some sense into him or ask some of his favoured personal in the squad to try help him or send him to councilling etc. If left for long enough it could perhaps have adverse effects on the dressing room as a whole with other players becoming affected by seeing the problems their friend is going through etc.

Other things that could happen which wouldn't neccessarily be a scandal, like compassionate leave for illness/death of family members/ birth of child etc could be included also - You could be presented in a private conversion with the problem the affected player has and you then have the choice as to whether you want to allow him some compassionate leave. If you allow him to leave you could end up missing him for an important upcoming match but the player comes back raring to go and looking to repay you for your kindness and understanding but if you don't allow him to leave he would play the match but you risk the player resenting you for it and his performances could be effected.

Personally i really wouldn't see the problem of including "scandals" in the game as kids these days more than ever are more than aware of what is going on around them with easy access to the internet etc. They have read all the stories and all the rumours of what their heroes have alledgedly done so i doubt very much it would come as much of a shock to them.

I'm not sure what attributes that players already have could ultimately determine how often the scandals happen and whether they would even contemplate asking for compassionate leave. It could perhaps be a combination of maybe their personality and maybe their professionalism but again that could be expanded upon by more technical minded individuals!

The only flaw that i can find in this idea is if it would be legally possible to implement this idea. I don't know if there is any kind of clauses in the licence agreements that SI have that forbid them from doing something like this which may effect the image rights of players or whatever but i genuinely believe this would be a quality addition to the game.

Your thoughts please?!

I can gaurentee 100% that scandals won't be introduced into any version of FM.

Release the game every 24/36 months instead of cashing in on loyalty.

Make the 'new features' truly new and groundbreaking.

Pretty sure that SI could get sued if they created an in-game situation where a real person was the subject of a scandal

Release the game every 24/36 months instead of cashing in on loyalty.

Make the 'new features' truly new and groundbreaking.

Less than £30 a year for a game that takes up more of my gametime than all the others put together - seems to be good value to me.

BTW SI have said many times that to be financially viable they need to release every year.

I had suspected there could be legal issues alright with the scandal idea but the compassionate leave option wouldn't really be a libel surely?

Could anyone confirm if there definitely would be legal issues here with either idea?

Probably not a legal issue with the compassionate leave thing, but I doubt that real people would approve of the game suggesting that their relatives have died. As much as this does happen irl, I can't for the life of me see why SI would want to simulate death.

But not a lawyer so can't confirm any legal reasons - it just seems common sense

Why bring personal issues into a game about 'football'. There's no need for it and it justs simply over complicates things. Keep it about stuff on the pitch, thanks.

Imagine the bittching and moaning SI would get if your star player goes off on compassionate leave the day before the Champions League final.

To be honest I think that FM is the most addictive game around. I'm still playing 08 because of a save I have going!

And due to that fact I believe that (as long as my computer can handle it) I will buy it every year.

And this year is no exception

I don't think it's such a bad idea, but, honestly, this is almost exclusively an English thing given the nature of the tabloid press. FM is already way too England-centric.

Imagine the bittching and moaning SI would get if your star player goes off on compassionate leave the day before the Champions League final.

He's suggesting you have the option to grant it, to be fair.

Why bring personal issues into a game about 'football'. There's no need for it and it justs simply over complicates things. Keep it about stuff on the pitch, thanks.

Your perfectly entitled to voice your opinion and if you dont like the idea thats fair enough but im just trying to find additional ways of adding more realism to the game. Whether managers like it or not these rather unwelcome distractions do happen and have to be dealt with because if they aren't dealt with what happens on the pitch is going to ultimately suffer. We all know this is the most in depth football mgmt game by a country mile on the market and despite it being the most in depth SI im sure, find themselves under pressure at times to constantly add new features which immerse you further into the world of a manager.

The point about deaths is a fair one, a possible way around this could be to just simply use wording such as "I would really appreciate some time off for urgent family matters" or something along the lines, it doesn't neccesarily have to say "Player X has come to you asking for time off because his mother is dead".

The point about the idea being exclusively English isn't really a point that i'd agree with to be fair. Players can require compassionate leave anywhere in the world regardless of what country they play in. Granted the examples i came up with in my original post where all incidents that happened to players while they played in England but that is purely because i dont follow other leagues with the same level of interest as i do the premier league. I'd be extremely surprised if these sort of things aren't reported in countries across the world about their celebrities. The only difference is we may never hear about it as the stories probably wouldnt generate any interest over here. The allegations about Ribery is one that only sprang to mind just now which proves it isn't just an exclusively english problem.

No new groundbreaking ideas just keep improving on what they have got

Well thats a constructive comment.....

Technically there's something in the game like that. Players can ask for a leave of absence to deal with personal issues. Only happens with newgens though. And there's the nightclub one for newgens.

SI have not and will not have scandals for real players. Do you really want SI to spend time settling Defamation lawsuits with footballers and staff members?

And Andy, I hope you realize Miles and everyone who works at SI have to feed their families too. They have to release a game every year. Whether you want to buy the game every year is your personal decision.

sort out the effing press conferences (again!), the one that really gets my goat is the new singing one, the answers make no sense sometimes

if you do decided to re-word them you can have this one for free

"no im not signing anymore players. Its not due to finances theres plenty, its down to the fact I feel my squad is good enough for now"

Quality assurance.

I suggest they try to ship a finished, polished game, where obvious bugs are all squashed. Test your games, please! The experience and first impressions of your FM series would sky-rocket if you just had more testers, or more qualified testers.

Well thats a constructive comment.....

Well what else should i write? Bleat on about new things they should put in the game or ask that they actually give us a polished game and work on making the best oif what we already have?

Quality assurance.

I suggest they try to ship a finished, polished game, where obvious bugs are all squashed. Test your games, please! The experience and first impressions of your FM series would sky-rocket if you just had more testers, or more qualified testers.

you point out one complete game then? - and i bet a quick google search will give me pages and pages of bugs

EVERY game has bugs in it

obvious bugs - yes the tyyyypiiiing bug was an issue in 09? and the game crashing on a certian day if you've loaded up a certain league (tell me one person who is going to sit and holiday a game to 3000 with all leagues just to tell if the game crashes = not to mention the power of the PC that's needed there)

personally, i quite like the idea of compassionate leave for players, makes them seem humanlike rather than robots

although tbh (picturing the scenario)

Fabregas - I need compassionate leave becasue my wife is expecting a baby (though tbh, they never get parental leave...)

You - Normally, I would grant this, but due to the impending Champions League final... i cannot allow this

Fabregas - I am fairly upset with your decision

You - I understand the circumstances, and am willing to take you off at half-time if you like... you can then have as much time as you need

Fabregas - I see, I think I'd better leave now before I say something I regret.

It could also lead to being tapped up by other teams, Fabregas then leaves and is spotted talking to BArcelona officials on the day of the champions league final (also controversy will never be allowed in an FM game, for real players anyways)

I also think that the interviewing needs improvemnt - but until FM understands english (and other languages) then this will be impossible to recreate (as well as some spanner typing like this - Yes, I beleeve zat our tranzpher bizniz iz dun = gosh, that's hard to type)

sort out the effing press conferences (again!), the one that really gets my goat is the new singing one, the answers make no sense sometimes

if you do decided to re-word them you can have this one for free

"no im not signing anymore players. Its not due to finances theres plenty, its down to the fact I feel my squad is good enough for now"

I think you need to re-word that.

"No I'm not signing any more players. I feel that the current squad is capable of competing for titles and trophies."

Quality assurance.

I suggest they try to ship a finished, polished game, where obvious bugs are all squashed. Test your games, please! The experience and first impressions of your FM series would sky-rocket if you just had more testers, or more qualified testers.

I hope you realize that SI don't have enough budget to employ 1000s of testers. There's so many different computer spec combinations that it's impossible to test them all. And if you try and fix one thing in the code, might mean that another part of the code is buggy, which means another bug...there will be a patch on the release date. And At least they have patches, some companies won't even care after they take your money.