GillsMan's Media Module Suggestions for Future FMs!

The media module is one of the most bemoaned features of FM, even though it has the potential to be one element that really helps people get drawn in to the game world. One of the biggest criticisms is the repetitive nature of press conferences and, while it's better this year (and the new way of answering questions, i.e. clicking one button rather than two is a massive improvement), it still gets a bit repetitive after a while. So here are my suggestions for improving the media side of FM.

Community-Supplied Questions

To be truly incapsulating, the press conferences need to have a massive bank of questions to offer us a diverse range of Q&As that we could be asked. I'd like SI to set up a thread on these very forums and each user here could submit a question and five answers that a manager could choose from. There would be no limit to the number of questions you can post, and any posts which are not a submission of a Q & 5 As would be deleted. Then SI could go through the thread and put in as many questions as they can. Of course, some of the questions will require quite a bit of extra coding (e.g. I might suggest a question which identifies the potential for a youth teamer to be involved - this would require a lof of extra coding and testing), but I think it would be worth it.

I'm sure between us all we can come up with a diverse list of questions, even if it means asking the same question in different ways, that would be great.

Press Conference Frequency

OK, I think that even at the smallest clubs in England, you can generally expect to be asked questions on a more or less weekly basis, even if it's only the press officer who's asking you so that he can hawk your opinions out to the club website, the local rag, etc. I just don't feel there's a massive difference between press conferences at the lower end of the football pyramid to the upper end.

If you're managing in the Blue Square South, you could be approached by the club's press officer before/after games (usually after rather than before I'd assume) and asked if you could answer a few questions, and that would really be three or four questions maximum.

If you're managing in the top flight, you'll be pestered by the press more frequently. Signed a player? Can you answer a few questions? Fined a player? Can you comment? Player made their national squad? What do you think? You can ignore these as much as you like. However, if you decline to attend the press conferences around a Premier League game and a Champions League game, you should be warned that you/the club will be fined (if, indeed, that's the case in real life, which I believe it is but I could be wrong).

The above is tailored for the English leagues, and I guess it would be different from country-to-country, with different obligations.

Press Speculation

We all know that the press just make up stuff to fill their papers. I like that the press will sometimes link you with a player out of nowhere. I'd like this to be expanded upon. IRL, we've had the press convinced that Avram Grant, Mancini, and even Roy Hodgson will be out of their jobs if they don't turn things around. We've even had Chris Hughton linked with the sack, which is even more ludicrous given how well they're doing. I'd like to see much more speculation about your position at the club, particularly when managing in the country's top division, e.g. the Premier League.

Speculation about players playing/being dropped and tactical changes should be more commonplace. Sometimes their could be merit in their opinions, e.g. you promote a youngster to your first team, and a journo asks if you're considering putting your young 16 year old striker in the squad. Or if you concentrate on a new formation in training, and you're a top club, journos might have gotten wind of this and could ask you about this (and you might want to bluff them if you don't want your opponent to know).

What about injuries? Currently, when asked I am always officially ruling them out, because they're always at about 60-70% fitness when I'm asked. I'd like to be asked on a player's likelihood and have the option to rule him out for a futher month, then spring a surprise next week when he's back in the starting line-up. Of course, this would make the press trust me less, which leads me on to my next point...

Press Relationships

I realise there's an element of this already in FM, but I'd like to build on this. If you have a good relationship with a particular journo, I would like to see him write visibly more posisitve stuff about you and your club if he's a decent sort. It'd be nice if you could contact one particular journo to give him a scoop, e.g. I'm about to sign this player, or whatever, and in return you find that he is more positive about you. If you're managing Gillingham and you contact Shaun Custis of the Sun, you're more likely to get a response that he's not interested in the story, but if you do the same as manager of Chelsea, he'll be all over you like a rash.

Press Confidence

OK, we have board confidence and fan confidence. Now let's introduce press confidence. The press confidence is likely to be fairly volatile (e.g. it'll change more quickly), but it could have an affect on fan confidence and, ultimately, board confidence (e.g. the board are concerned that the fans and press appear to have little faith in you). Again, if you're managing in the top flight, or managing a big club, this is far more important, than if you're managing in the lower echelons.

So, if you're managing Havant & Waterlooville, the Press Confidence summary might say "<JOURNO NAME" of <LOCAL RAG> generally thinks you're doing a decent job." Whereas if you're managing Chelsea it might say "The national press are generally in agreement that you're the man for the job, although some newspapers think you're too outspoken. You appeaar to have upset the broadcast press with your refusal to attend press conferences". As the pressure mounts, "<JOURNO NAME" of <NATIONAL PAPER> has written an article slating your recent performances as manager".

Again, this has to be weighted properly so that the press has a negligable affect at a small rep club in a small rep league, but the opposite at a big time club in the big time leagues.

Media Types

Different media types lead to different interactions. I'd like to see the following:

Podcasts: Different podcasts added, with a scope and an option to include guests. That way, you could be asked questions on a podcast that includes guests, and a news item might say "<MANAGER> told the nPower Football League podcast that he was happy with his team's performances in the league and agreed that promotion looked a real possibility." Higher rep managers/clubs won't appear on podcasts generally.

Twitter: Some players are on Twitter. Twitter is now on FM. Let's combine the two. You're managing, say, Man City, you could have a news item that says "<PRIMA DONA PLAYER> has left comments on Twitter stating that he is unhappy with being dropped from the side." This could be positive as well. As far as I can see, players of all levels could find themselevs on Twitter, but no idea how common this is in non-English speaking countries.

Club website: The bastion of truth about a club. A news item might pop up telling you that "<RIVAL CLUB> has announced via the club website that they are releasing nine players ..." or "<RIVAL CLUB> has announced that <STAR PLAYER> is injured for six months with a broken foot." But transfer speculation, and such like won't appear there.

Phone-ins: It always looked weird when I saw a news item telling me that Arsene Wenger had rung a phone-in to defend his tenure. Let's make it more intelligent so only managers of a certain rep will phone into phone-ins.

Pundits:

And finally... I'd like to see some players want to pursue a career in punditry when their career has finished. Players with a good relationship with you will naturally be more favourable about you, but that might be a nice touch to the game.

Phew, that's all for now!

Bravo Sir

I like all these ideas. I'm not sure what else to add. It's a +1 from me.

Excellent post. I certainly agree that the media aspect of FM could be greatly improved to enhance the fun and realism element of the real life football world for the human manager.

I particularly liked your idea of press conference frequency and a better representation of media depending on the level you manage at. You made a great point when you said that media interaction feels exactly the same no matter what level you are at.

+1 from me, particularly like the idea of expanding on press speculation

Wish we could have more productive threads lie this, instead of the constant rants that pop up every hour

+1 from me, particularly like the idea of expanding on press speculation

Wish we could have more productive threads lie this, instead of the constant rants that pop up every hour

Love FM. Hate Press Conferences.

Basically, it's about taking an element of FM you don't like and suggesting how it could be made better, and that's what I tried to do here. In fairness, I don't really hate press conferences, and they really are vastly improved this year IMO, but these ideas would really add to this area which is, after all, an important part of football at the top level these days.

Glad you guys like it!

I've sort of worked out how to use press conferences this year, which means I have to actually go to them but I'm just starting my third season and I get the impression that I've pretty much seen everything they have to offer. Probably until FM2012.

I like the idea that they could evolve as my team or career moved up the scale.

Some great ideas up there, really hope SI take a look

Some cracking ideas there, i would definitely love to see all you suggested make it into the game one day, fingers crossed SI like these ideas too.

Really good ideas there. And asking us to generate questions, what a simple and effective method - can't believe that its not been thought of before! kudos

Community-Supplied Questions

(...) I'd like SI to set up a thread on these very forums and each user here could submit a question and five answers that a manager could choose from. There would be no limit to the number of questions you can post, and any posts which are not a submission of a Q & 5 As would be deleted. Then SI could go through the thread and put in as many questions as they can. Of course, some of the questions will require quite a bit of extra coding (e.g. I might suggest a question which identifies the potential for a youth teamer to be involved - this would require a lof of extra coding and testing), but I think it would be worth it.

I'm sure between us all we can come up with a diverse list of questions, even if it means asking the same question in different ways, that would be great.

(...)

I opened a thread like these some years ago when the press conferences were introduced because there were people dubbing them as too repetitive, so I encouraged people to post in there and I posted a question myself.

The result was that even a moderator told me the the 4 questions posted in there were already in the game and the thread wasn't much useful

Thats a very well thought out and creative idea, it would certainly improve press conferences. I personally set Assistant Manager to attend Press conferences, this is only because I have answered pretty much every question the press throws at you.

Would be good to see some of these idea implemented in the game...

Part of the "problem" is that a game of FM goes a lot faster than a week of real life football and press events. For most people anyway.

I can do 1 season a day or so, if I chose to commit an evening. In this period, I would see about 70 press conferences pass. No matter how varied the amount of questions, just the action of attending and doing multiple choice quizes to increase / decrease moral will become a drag after a while. Because of this, I'm happy they have the "send assistant" option.

Players being linked / job insecurity is already in the game, and quite frankly, it may be nice in the beginning, but again, if you play an entire season in 1 evening, and see 100 of these items, you simply click em away without even reading them.

Press confidence could be nice, but I don't see how it would add much to your actual job as manager. It would pretty much be based on your last 3 results, as this is how the press tends to operate.

I don't think Media is a case of "More is better", I think they should be looking at quality of the items that are present. Increasing the variation of press conf questions is a good example here. But I would be very resistant to just adding more media items, as they simply become clutter. (I don't think real managers will be spending their days going through all newspapers, reading all the items regarding their team)

Excellent post GillsMan, some food for thought there, well done mate.

A really good thread, all of these ideas are well constructed and I'd think realistic. I hope SI take these on board, media interaction is one part of FM with huge room for improvement.

Top post there Gillsman. Great ideas!

Im all for improving the game in areas where people want it improving but I feel there should also be more options to get rid of things that people dont want also. When you start a new save you get options to filter attributes (and reveal them by scouting), add key staff, add players to playable teams, no transfer budget in first window and so on.

Now, if something like the transfer budget option and the attribute filter option can easily be turned on or off with the click of a button, could there not be an option of having/not having press conferences? I mean turn them off completely and not have your ass man go for you and ruin your game even more (in some cases). People will say that managers IRL have to do them so why shouldnt we. My answer to that is real managers also have to scout players but there is an option to view all players attributes. Also when you start a new save you shouldnt really have a transfer budget as your club IRL has concluded all its business by the time the game is released and the squad is up to date but there is still an option to have a transfer budget.

Im not saying scrap every annoying and tedious feature, that would be selfish and inconsiderate to the people that enjoy micro managment and that side of the game. But there are plenty of people like myself who just want to get down and play. Make a tactic and play the games. Buy and sell players in the transfer windows and thats pretty much it. If there were options to fully customize your games with regards to the content, it would even heplp people with lower end machines aswell. Im not sure how much processing power removing press conferences would save on a game but that coupled with a few more options to strip a save down a bit would certainly help.

Turn off media all together. It's a complete waste of my time.

Turn off media all together. It's a complete waste of my time.

Isn't that the whole point of FM - to waste time?? It's hardly a productive way of spending time, is it?

Besides, I love the media element, and I'm faaaar from being alone, so turning it off altogether isn't an option. SteveRobbo's comments might have some credence, I don't know. As someone who loves (or wants to love) the media element of FM, I'm not sure it's for me to oppose his view, because I'd never use that option. Possibly one for SI to consider. For now though, I'd rather concentrate on suggestions to improve the media module which don't include "turn it off".

Great post and great ideas! I love the interaction you have with the press, agents and players in this version but I also feel it's not as good as it could be. There's a hidden gem there somewhere just waiting to be discovered.

I love all the ideas.

I would also have in game setup a few sliders for stuff like amounts of press-conferences etc., so people who don't care for the media elements can just turn them off.

Great work Gills. Except with the tagging.

Punditry is something I've always wanted to see. One aspect I think this could work well with is the pre-match report. When a lower league match is on the television, the pundit chosen to sit with the presenter tends to be someone with a connection to the club. Reading's always used to be John Salako, but it tends to be Steve Coppell or Graeme Murty nowadays. Anyway, I think simply saying who the pundit "doing" this match is would be good, if it's on television, or name the journalist if it is not.

Really love this idea, would make the game so much more realistic, particularly the frequency of press conferences, hope this gets taken further

Good post, well thought out and all but personally I'm just not a fan of the whole media aspect of the game. I hate press conferences and I never pay any attention to transfer rumours, press relationships and stuff like that and I doubt I would even with all those improvements.

People were asking for press conferences to be included in FM and nearly everyone dislikes them now. People were asking for player interaction, same with that too. I'm not sure if making those features more complex and adding more media/interaction stuff is a good idea really. Sometimes I actually wish I could just play FM without all that tedious morale mini-games stuff, like in the good old days

Yeah, sometimes I play a bit of Champ Manager 00/01 just for a bit of nostalgia. But, FM is a bigger beast now and while it's not for everyone, there are loads more facets to the play, including media. As media isn't likely to be stripped out any time soon, I think making it less repetitive would make a massive difference.

Another thing I'd change, is take out that free text bit. The only thing it's useful for is picking up when you've sworn in a press conference so it's pretty pointless really IMO.

Bump!

Great ideas there Gills. Even though I think press-conferences are the best so far ever, they could still use Gills' ideas.

Good piece, what annoys me is the inability to talk about a past result when a manager slags you off. I get slated by a rival manager after a match where I've just beaten them and I'm unable to say "the best team won, so stfu" etc

I am one of those who hates press conferences. In the end, i just click the middle alternative to get through and would like to have the opportunity to put that as a setting so we who hate them don't get more of them (no comments to every pressconfernce). (setting your ass-man doesn't do it, he answer wrong a lot of times).

excellent post gills and you too steve robbo..

as steverobbo said, give us the option to choose whether we want it or not, perhaps even better, do it like a slider, from 1-20. then you could adjust the amount of PC´s, to suit your exact preferences.

i wouldnt mind a couple of comferences a month, but as it is right now, its a pain in the ass.

Community-Supplied Questions

To be truly incapsulating, the press conferences need to have a massive bank of questions to offer us a diverse range of Q&As that we could be asked. I'd like SI to set up a thread on these very forums and each user here could submit a question and five answers that a manager could choose from. There would be no limit to the number of questions you can post, and any posts which are not a submission of a Q & 5 As would be deleted. Then SI could go through the thread and put in as many questions as they can. Of course, some of the questions will require quite a bit of extra coding (e.g. I might suggest a question which identifies the potential for a youth teamer to be involved - this would require a lof of extra coding and testing), but I think it would be worth it.

I'm sure between us all we can come up with a diverse list of questions, even if it means asking the same question in different ways, that would be great.

I don't think the actual issue here is coming up with new questions, it's the time taken to code the triggers and responses (plus there's the localisation issue, where SI effectively have a 'text budget' and can only really translate a finite amount of text into foreign languages). I would say that any question that doesn't require specialist coding to deal with it isn't worth including - it's either a direct duplicate of another question, or your response to it will make no difference (since there's no new code to handle this response). Ok, someone may suggest a clever question that someone at SI hasn't thought of, but don't expect that just by getting people on here to list questions, there will be a massive explosion in the number of questions in the game, it's just not practical.

Some of the other ideas are fantastic though

understand that many of you like this "realism" with media interaction and such but I myself could not care less about this aspect of the game so what I would want is, whatever the improvements are, a "turn off" button so that I might play a game totally unaffected by this.

I think that the effect that media interaction has on the outcome of a game IRL is so marginal that could by argued that it has no effect at all, pre-match talk and half-time talk on the other hand has an effect as well as face to face discussions with players or general talk with the whole team.

But if you really want realism then we should implement into FM so that the media lies all the time, saying for example that you are unhappy with the performance of player XX when you in fact are delighted by his performance or they could state that some of your players are unhappy and want to leave the club when they actually are enjoying playing under you and we could have managers stating all the time that your team gets favourable treatment by the referees.

And if you miss a single press conference then you should expect that the media will never give you a break, they will haunt till you fail. They will constantly write that you are counting your last days as a manager for the XX club and will constantly question your competence and will call you stupid. For example there could be an article stating "Another stupid decision by XX manager (you) leads to a disappointing loss for XX club".

So whatever you do, just please make a "turn off" button.

I would prefer it if you could set a "media strategy" at the start of each season. This would adjust how you approach press conferences without actually having to go through the process of answering questions.

So your media strategy would adjust how much you are prepared to criticise certain players after defeats, what your answer will be about jobs, response to criticism from other managers etc. You could tinker with it throughout the season. There would still be the option to turn off the media strategy and micro manage if you want to.

Right now it is unrealistic because while most of us want out Ass man to handle press conferences (because we can't be bothered), the Ass man is given no guidlines about what he is or is not allowed to say. Sometimes Ass mans make promises to or criticisms of players that they have no right to make.

There are some good points in this post. I get very frustrated with the limitations of the media interaction as it stands. At the moment I can't be bothered with it so always leave to my assistant (I did try the 'improved' model with FM11 for a couple of days.)

I think the 'less is more' approach could be used effectively. As it stands, you get asked the same regular questions at every press conference with the same 5 choice of response. I would prefer it if you only got 3 or 4 questions at a time rather than the 8/9/10 you can get at the moment. Mix this with a variety of topics & answers and this would help to minimise the monotomy of it all.

A more in-depth manual on this all and the effects it has team morale and player motivation would also go a long way to help players understand the mechanics behind it. As it stands, it is more like a quiz game!

Love the idea, it would make each manager unique by creating their own relationship with the media. Use the press like fergie and mourinho and become arrogant in every other teams eyes but adored by your players or be open and honest to get respected by all.

Could also add press relation officers giving you tips on whats thr right thing to say and which publication to favor.

Twitter: Some players are on Twitter. Twitter is now on FM. Let's combine the two. You're managing, say, Man City, you could have a news item that says "<PRIMA DONA PLAYER> has left comments on Twitter stating that he is unhappy with being dropped from the side." This could be positive as well. As far as I can see, players of all levels could find themselevs on Twitter, but no idea how common this is in non-English speaking countries.

More Twitter news, it's getting more and more interesting and I'd love to see this in the game. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/aldershot/9341748.stm

Also, love the comment above about Press Officers, this would be good for larger clubs.

The media module is one of the most bemoaned features of FM, even though it has the potential to be one element that really helps people get drawn in to the game world. One of the biggest criticisms is the repetitive nature of press conferences and, while it's better this year (and the new way of answering questions, i.e. clicking one button rather than two is a massive improvement), it still gets a bit repetitive after a while. So here are my suggestions for improving the media side of FM.

Community-Supplied Questions

To be truly incapsulating, the press conferences need to have a massive bank of questions to offer us a diverse range of Q&As that we could be asked. I'd like SI to set up a thread on these very forums and each user here could submit a question and five answers that a manager could choose from. There would be no limit to the number of questions you can post, and any posts which are not a submission of a Q & 5 As would be deleted. Then SI could go through the thread and put in as many questions as they can. Of course, some of the questions will require quite a bit of extra coding (e.g. I might suggest a question which identifies the potential for a youth teamer to be involved - this would require a lof of extra coding and testing), but I think it would be worth it.

I'm sure between us all we can come up with a diverse list of questions, even if it means asking the same question in different ways, that would be great.

Press Conference Frequency

OK, I think that even at the smallest clubs in England, you can generally expect to be asked questions on a more or less weekly basis, even if it's only the press officer who's asking you so that he can hawk your opinions out to the club website, the local rag, etc. I just don't feel there's a massive difference between press conferences at the lower end of the football pyramid to the upper end.

If you're managing in the Blue Square South, you could be approached by the club's press officer before/after games (usually after rather than before I'd assume) and asked if you could answer a few questions, and that would really be three or four questions maximum.

If you're managing in the top flight, you'll be pestered by the press more frequently. Signed a player? Can you answer a few questions? Fined a player? Can you comment? Player made their national squad? What do you think? You can ignore these as much as you like. However, if you decline to attend the press conferences around a Premier League game and a Champions League game, you should be warned that you/the club will be fined (if, indeed, that's the case in real life, which I believe it is but I could be wrong).

The above is tailored for the English leagues, and I guess it would be different from country-to-country, with different obligations.

Press Speculation

We all know that the press just make up stuff to fill their papers. I like that the press will sometimes link you with a player out of nowhere. I'd like this to be expanded upon. IRL, we've had the press convinced that Avram Grant, Mancini, and even Roy Hodgson will be out of their jobs if they don't turn things around. We've even had Chris Hughton linked with the sack, which is even more ludicrous given how well they're doing. I'd like to see much more speculation about your position at the club, particularly when managing in the country's top division, e.g. the Premier League.

Speculation about players playing/being dropped and tactical changes should be more commonplace. Sometimes their could be merit in their opinions, e.g. you promote a youngster to your first team, and a journo asks if you're considering putting your young 16 year old striker in the squad. Or if you concentrate on a new formation in training, and you're a top club, journos might have gotten wind of this and could ask you about this (and you might want to bluff them if you don't want your opponent to know).

What about injuries? Currently, when asked I am always officially ruling them out, because they're always at about 60-70% fitness when I'm asked. I'd like to be asked on a player's likelihood and have the option to rule him out for a futher month, then spring a surprise next week when he's back in the starting line-up. Of course, this would make the press trust me less, which leads me on to my next point...

Press Relationships

I realise there's an element of this already in FM, but I'd like to build on this. If you have a good relationship with a particular journo, I would like to see him write visibly more posisitve stuff about you and your club if he's a decent sort. It'd be nice if you could contact one particular journo to give him a scoop, e.g. I'm about to sign this player, or whatever, and in return you find that he is more positive about you. If you're managing Gillingham and you contact Shaun Custis of the Sun, you're more likely to get a response that he's not interested in the story, but if you do the same as manager of Chelsea, he'll be all over you like a rash.

Press Confidence

OK, we have board confidence and fan confidence. Now let's introduce press confidence. The press confidence is likely to be fairly volatile (e.g. it'll change more quickly), but it could have an affect on fan confidence and, ultimately, board confidence (e.g. the board are concerned that the fans and press appear to have little faith in you). Again, if you're managing in the top flight, or managing a big club, this is far more important, than if you're managing in the lower echelons.

So, if you're managing Havant & Waterlooville, the Press Confidence summary might say "<JOURNO NAME" of <LOCAL RAG> generally thinks you're doing a decent job." Whereas if you're managing Chelsea it might say "The national press are generally in agreement that you're the man for the job, although some newspapers think you're too outspoken. You appeaar to have upset the broadcast press with your refusal to attend press conferences". As the pressure mounts, "<JOURNO NAME" of <NATIONAL PAPER> has written an article slating your recent performances as manager".

Again, this has to be weighted properly so that the press has a negligable affect at a small rep club in a small rep league, but the opposite at a big time club in the big time leagues.

Media Types

Different media types lead to different interactions. I'd like to see the following:

Podcasts: Different podcasts added, with a scope and an option to include guests. That way, you could be asked questions on a podcast that includes guests, and a news item might say "<MANAGER> told the nPower Football League podcast that he was happy with his team's performances in the league and agreed that promotion looked a real possibility." Higher rep managers/clubs won't appear on podcasts generally.

Twitter: Some players are on Twitter. Twitter is now on FM. Let's combine the two. You're managing, say, Man City, you could have a news item that says "<PRIMA DONA PLAYER> has left comments on Twitter stating that he is unhappy with being dropped from the side." This could be positive as well. As far as I can see, players of all levels could find themselevs on Twitter, but no idea how common this is in non-English speaking countries.

Club website: The bastion of truth about a club. A news item might pop up telling you that "<RIVAL CLUB> has announced via the club website that they are releasing nine players ..." or "<RIVAL CLUB> has announced that <STAR PLAYER> is injured for six months with a broken foot." But transfer speculation, and such like won't appear there.

Phone-ins: It always looked weird when I saw a news item telling me that Arsene Wenger had rung a phone-in to defend his tenure. Let's make it more intelligent so only managers of a certain rep will phone into phone-ins.

Pundits:

And finally... I'd like to see some players want to pursue a career in punditry when their career has finished. Players with a good relationship with you will naturally be more favourable about you, but that might be a nice touch to the game.

Phew, that's all for now!

Brilliant idea, the press conferences get really boring but i can't trust my assistant not to say something stupid