Football Manager Article From Deadspin

Don't know if this has been mentioned yet: http://deadspin.com/5707443/the-unreal-genius-of-football-manager-greatest-video-game-ever

What do you guys think?

Thanks for the link - a good read. A couple of excerpts stand out for me:

Modern sports fans, who spend more and more of their free time consuming sports, ultimately want nothing more than to get away from the stuff. We'd rather watch sports than play sports; we'd rather watch sports on TV than watch sports in person; we'd rather play video-game sports than watch sports in any form. We'd rather follow fantasy teams than real teams.

Ohmigod - how true is that! I tend to seamlessly blur the two. I double-take when I see one league table with West Ham at the bottom because in the other one their pushing for a Champions League place. I spooked my wife last night when I solemnly informed her that Rio Ferdinand has been crocked for 4 months - I didn't think about which reality that occurred in.

What makes it feel real is that, within its insanely wide scope, it generates a weird, squabbly, unpredictable world, a world which — unlike in most video games — you have only a limited power to control. You tried pushing your wingers forward to steal a late goal, and the opposing left back shattered your guy's femur? See him in seven months. You want to sign a player, but his agent hates your personality? You are out of luck, forever. The story keeps unspooling and unspooling, and because none of it's scripted, and a lot of it doesn't even involve you, it seems to have its own rules and not to care very much how you feel about them.

This is a perfect reposte to all those posts accusing the AI or game in general of not doing what they expected when they clicked A B and C. Life (the other one) doesn't always work out the way we plan or expect; why should FM? I'm mean, it's realistic , right?

Very good points made in the article, highlighted by phnompenhandy...look at how big fantasy football is, and other fantasy sports. Even FML is basically building your ultimate fantasy team. I don't even follow real football results as much as before because of FM...

My mates really don't get why I get so addicting to this game, and frankly I don't have an answer either.