do you like it when you get far into the game

Well... I was in my 2016-2017 season, and in the middle of it I quit. It was NOT interesting anymore for me. More than a half of current well-known players became old, and either retired and disappeared from the game completely, or turned into a mute staff, or started playing crappy. The game was filled up with unknown faceless names. Villareal dropped to the bottom of the table, Sevilla in relegation zone, Barcelona struggling on 8th place, Real Madrid on 5th (with old Cristiano Ronaldo steady playing 6.80). Even though they are supposed to be my rivals, the game was not the same without their challenge. And when Espanyol and Tenerife filled with dummy youngster faces started challenging the title, I quit. And returned back into 2010. It was soooo refreshing to see real players young and playing good again!! LOL I know I only unlocked half of the achivements on steam and nobody called the stadium my name LOL, but the game started getting boring.

The passage of time and the way that it's managed in FM has always been something that attracted me to the game. The fact that the stature of teams can and does change is great and the addition of dynamic leagues extends this further. New players coming in is also great, there's nothing sweeter than picking up the next hot prospect.

The passage of time and the way that it's managed in FM has always been something that attracted me to the game. The fact that the stature of teams can and does change is great and the addition of dynamic leagues extends this further. New players coming in is also great, there's nothing sweeter than picking up the next hot prospect.

Agreed. I absolutely love scouting for Regens and picking up the next superstar for my team. I am a firm believer in the Fergie method, mixing youth with experience and giving youngsters a big chance. Won the PL with a team with an average age of 23 last season, with about 9 regens in the squad. Only in 2013!

I love how things change over time as well. In fact I can't wait to get deep into the newgen era each time. When I get far it seems odd returning to the 'present' and 'losing' all that passage of time. For me playing the game is like building up an incredible narrative full of all sorts of things going on a moments to last years, and poor years leading up to the good ones and I'm rambling so much you get the drift.

i honestly dont understand how people stop playing after 5-6 years etc to start again, for me it gets boring as all the same teams dominate at the beginning.

i honestly dont understand how people stop playing after 5-6 years etc to start again, for me it gets boring as all the same teams dominate at the beginning.

Along with the same teams signing the same players every time at the start, really annoys me.

well, I guess it's probably because I love the real players in this game, it's more realistic to me that way, plus I was able to make my favorite team champions with its RL players, while in reality they are always struggling. So, it was like I made THEM champions.

Btw, I am NOT planning to sign the same people I signed in my previous game. On the opposite, I will do things differently this time and learn from mistakes.

Eventually I get bored too but only because I want to try a different type of game e.g. I always manage Man United for as long as possible as my first game and then whenever I get bored of that I maybe try a career game or maybe manage another club or in another league.

Saying that I do like when you are further in the game, finding young players and training them up and how your challengers fail. I'm only in my 4th season with Man United and Chelsea have failed to qualify for Europe 2 seasons in a row.

12 seasons in and I'm getting really bored..... Not much to tweak and not much to do anymore except rotating players....

Btw, I am NOT planning to sign the same people I signed in my previous game. On the opposite, I will do things differently this time and learn from mistakes.

I think he meant the AI more than you

Well... I was in my 2016-2017 season, and in the middle of it I quit. It was NOT interesting anymore for me. More than a half of current well-known players became old, and either retired and disappeared from the game completely, or turned into a mute staff, or started playing crappy. The game was filled up with unknown faceless names. Villareal dropped to the bottom of the table, Sevilla in relegation zone, Barcelona struggling on 8th place, Real Madrid on 5th (with old Cristiano Ronaldo steady playing 6.80). Even though they are supposed to be my rivals, the game was not the same without their challenge. And when Espanyol and Tenerife filled with dummy youngster faces started challenging the title, I quit. And returned back into 2010. It was soooo refreshing to see real players young and playing good again!! LOL I know I only unlocked half of the achivements on steam and nobody called the stadium my name LOL, but the game started getting boring.

I respect everybodies game style. You paid for FM with your own cash and are entitled to play it anyway you like.

If you don't really enjoy the long game, that's fine and don't let anyone tell you it's not.

But may I offer you some advice based on what Ive learnt?

My Favorite team is West Ham and they are always my first save in any new FM release.

However, I take long breaks from the West Ham saves because they become too easy. With the 48 month payment plan for transfers, I can sign the best and be a quality Euro side within 3 to 4 seasons.... It can get boring.

My soloution?

Play a low level team (I prefer the English leagues but others can be fun too). By low level, I'm talking about the lowest level possible,

Try to build the club financially and in terms of squad/sucess. Don't use editors, forum advice threads or good player guides.

Do it all yourself and always start the game with attributes masked. By the time you get 4 or 5 seasons into the game, the top players wont matter to you because you have not been keeping an eye on them.

A game like that can be fun for 20 seasons or more.... Just try to keep it realistic instead of always pushing for promotion. Build the club slowly.

You could try the lower league managers forum, but be careful, they are a weird bunch of guys

Or you could try one of the challenges in the challenge forum. Im currently enjoying this challenge ..................... http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/234238-dafuge-s-FM11-challenge .................... and my club is at the end of the 2015/2016 season. It really is good fun and quite difficult (Took me 3 years to get my first promotion ;( )

I like the game more and more the further into it I get, largely because it becomes more and more unpredictable as your current knowledge of the footballing world grows outdated. I like to judge players, staff, clubs etc. in the game for what they are, without that discrepancy between your own view of them from real-life vs. how they've been researched in the game providing an unnecessary distraction in the early years. I'm a fan of good football, not any specific club or person, so the real vs newgen thing doesn't bother me one bit. In fact, I play with fake names on more often than not.

With increasingly dynamic systems, like the new dynamic league reputation, it's also interesting to see how things develop in different saves.

I like playing for many seasons, picking up a young regen and developing him over time gives me a stronger attachment to him than I would to a real life player. The only bad thing I'd say about playing longer is that the game does get easier as the AI really has no clue how to build a squad for example, you end up with a lot of good AI teams but no very good ones and if you have a very good team you win the league by 15/20 points.

12 seasons in and I'm getting really bored..... Not much to tweak and not much to do anymore except rotating players....

The time will come when you need to replace them with another generation of players and thats when for me it gets good. Its all good building a team and dominating for 3-4-5 years but when that team has aged can you go on to build generation after generation of sides that win trophies.

The time will come when you need to replace them with another generation of players and thats when for me it gets good. Its all good building a team and dominating for 3-4-5 years but when that team has aged can you go on to build generation after generation of sides that win trophies.

exactly this!

I had a wolves side that was dominating domestically, winning the EPL by 10 points at least. Then after 4-5 years the players aged a bit and had to start blooding the new breed, came 2nd 3 times, 3rd and fourth over the next 5 seasons, the leason learnt was not to get comfortable with your squad and to get looking for the young kids to play along the greats when they are at their peak!

I'm in 2020 with Havant and Waterlooville. I mainly have to go regens anyways mainly because of the way i play the game. I refuse to spend stupid amount of money for players and wages, this mean that i've always been on massive scouting missions looking for new regens who I can have in my team for many years or make a quick buck. It's helped me really well and I'm having loads of fun.

I always start in lowest possible league in England and after wining everything possible (usually takes no more than 7 years) i quit. Then start all over again with different league..

Rice2cu, thanks for your post, you are right and that's what I will do.

See, I bought the game, of course the first thing I did I took my fav team, knew nothing about playing FM, did a lot of boohoos, but nevertheless won everything in 6 seasons, all my fav players are now gone, and it got boring. So, now I will probably just take some little team from lower division and unknown players and try all over again, but this time with knowledge I got from this forum. Actually, I tried it while STILL in old game before quiting, but they all rejected my application, probably I was too big for them LOL.

How much more challenging is it to not know anything about the players in the world? Just start a game with "no real players" and you'll have to use a lot of scouts to tell you who the best players are. I actually don't like real players because it already gives you the knowledge of who the good players are which makes it boring for me.

Or just start a game in a low league.

I got a div2 norwegian team where I don't know anyone, and its challenging to sign good players.

I can't wait to get into 2020 and beyond to see a whole bunch of new faces in international football.

The two things I love about FM:

1. The fact that no 2 saves are the same. We all have different experiences and that is awesome.

2. Watching a youngster develop into a world class player in front of your eyes.

Most of the time I cannot wait until the real players are gone from the game. I much prefer the unknowns. It's far to easy at the start of the game. I buy the same players time and time again. Even though I try not to. But at the end of the day if I need a better center half and Kjaer is still playing at Wolfsburg I'm going to go get him because I know he can do the job for me.

2016 and Neymar still at Sao Paulo - wtf like? He's 22 and scoring goals for fun in Brazil. So of course I snap him up for 30m and he's scored 17 goals in 20 games for me.

Of course I'll buy the same players over and over again, because they are good. But I prefer it when I get about 2030 and all the young players are now old and there are fresh faces coming in, I don't know where the good players are now and it's much more challenging!

Much more enjoyable the further you get into the game as it doesn't interest me starting with big clubs with players I already know.

It's also good to see little clubs taken over by tycoons and see them move up through the leagues.

i only really enjoy this game after 5/6 seasons, i get very bored dealing with real life players all the time, i far prefer finding my own gems and building my own teams from the ground up, the first 3/4 seasons are always spent just trying to get a bit of success then i start building a club after that, this season i chucked a lot of big players to make way for youth, Suarez, Thiago Silva, Pato, Pirlo, plus Gattuso and Ambrosini retired so now the team looks more like my own.

I love it. I really enjoy learning about the new star players (newgens) in my footballing world!

I actually prefer it when I get past 10 seasons or so and my FM world is full of newgens. It makes things much more interesting and fun, I feel.

So much so, that I would consider using fake players or holidaying for 10 years if I started a new save now.

It's slightly different though when I want to manage a team that I know a lot about in real life, such as the team I support. In that case, I have a lot of fun with the real players.

I find it so satisfying when you get far in with a poor team turned good. Currently 5-6 seasons in with Blyth Spartans, last season gained promotion to the championship and made the quarter finals of the league cup.

Also have a 10 + seasons Berwick Rangers save where I am challenging for the champions league and am in a 20,000 all seater stadium (named after me) with undersoil heating (Shielfield Park is circa 4k standing not owned by the club to start with).

The time will come when you need to replace them with another generation of players and thats when for me it gets good. Its all good building a team and dominating for 3-4-5 years but when that team has aged can you go on to build generation after generation of sides that win trophies.

That's my problem... I signed way too many youngsters that I never run out of players even when my main squad come to age. They are either in my U19s or out for loan at a big clubs. Being at R Madrid and having endless $$$$ helps.

I remembered a time when I use touchline shout like crazy to get a goal from a tough opponents, then defend like crazy to get 3 points out of it.. and that was exciting. but now, just pick players, click next, ask assistant to do everything, and don't even watch the match anymore.

Maybe starting a game in EPL might help coz the spanish league is basically a battle against me and Barca since the beginning of the game, with others doesn't even put up a fight.

I remembered a time when I use touchline shout like crazy to get a goal from a tough opponents, then defend like crazy to get 3 points out of it.. and that was exciting. but now, just pick players, click next, ask assistant to do everything, and don't even watch the match anymore.

.

I do this - but only after i'm 3 goals up. I'll then throw my young players on and then once the 3 subs are made I'll go to on Holiday.

That way I'm looking after the team, getting the win watching the match and giving the young players a go. I really don't need to sit through another 5 minutes of watching the game play when I don't have to. Job done, hit the showers.

Im still playing FM10 and in 2073 now. Tried to play FM11 but could just not get started as it didn't realy hold my intrest. Have a rule where i sign 16yo, nothing keeps you more intrested then signing a 16yo and watching him become the worlds best player.

I love games long into the future. It's so much fun without seeing those same players over and over again and the newgens I sign are different than the newgens everyone signs so it's unique only to my game.

And of course, I always like starting in obscure leagues in the football world and trying to make a name for myself so the journey to the top is a lot longer and therefore more satisfying and keeps me going in my current save.

If you want a different style of game from easy-style Let's-choose-a-Premier-League-club-and-sign-these-three-blokes-who-always-win-me-the-quadruple, I suggest LLM (Lower League Management). If you are good at FM, you can get to the top leagues in 5 or 6 years, and then get to the top with your own (often New-gen) players.

This is my career so far:

2010/11 Boavista - Portuguese 2nd Division Central - 1st

2011/12 Boavista - Portuguese Liga Orangina - 1st

2012/13 Boavista - Portuguese Liga ZON Sagres - left after 1 match to join...

2012 - Corinthians - Brazilian National Division 1 - 4th

2013 - Corinthians - Sao Paolo State Championship - 1st & won

- National Division 1 - 2nd

- Copa Libertadores - Quarter Finalist.

I'm now signing class young players, building up the league rep (I hope), and possibly, in the next 2 years, moving to a big European league, with any luck.

Details of the rules:

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/31330-LLM-Guidelines-please-read-before-posting

I don't like playing at a high level to be honest.. i love to start at a low team and take them all the way up.

But as soon as you win something in Europe i start to get bored.. and to add ridiculous wages at top level just makes me want to start at the bottom of the food chain again..

I love it when the real players retire. Thats when the game really begins in my eyes

When i first started playin Football Manager, i would play a game to 4-5 years in before gettin bored and starting again. However, now i like playing past the current players and developing the regens, with my furthest game going into 2033 (fm2010)

My plan this year is to start a South-West revival.

Once the new patch comes out I'm gonna start as Bristol City, take them all the way to the top, then quit and <whispers> join Bristol Rovers and do the same, then quit and go for both Bath teams, Plymouth, Exeter, Cheltenham, Bournemouth etc.

Never done it before and that's gonna be a long long game! By the time I've done it with City, it'll mostly be regens anyway, even if there isn't there won't be many familiar players available to Rovers.

The game is more fun when it's unreal.

Im still playing FM10 and in 2073 now. Tried to play FM11 but could just not get started as it didn't realy hold my intrest. Have a rule where i sign 16yo, nothing keeps you more intrested then signing a 16yo and watching him become the worlds best player.

My thoughts exactly

I respect everybodies game style. You paid for FM with your own cash and are entitled to play it anyway you like.

If you don't really enjoy the long game, that's fine and don't let anyone tell you it's not.

But may I offer you some advice based on what Ive learnt?

My Favorite team is West Ham and they are always my first save in any new FM release.

However, I take long breaks from the West Ham saves because they become too easy. With the 48 month payment plan for transfers, I can sign the best and be a quality Euro side within 3 to 4 seasons.... It can get boring.

Have you ever not exploited the 48 month plan, and therefore played as West Ham in a more realistic way? Each to their own, but in my Spurs save i never exploit these kinds of things, it is frustrating but i only sign players i think would be realistically attainable within the first few seasons, and never spend mad money as Spurs don't really do that IRL. So no Neymar's, or Dzeko's. I did bid for Hazard, but Chelsea came in with a 30mill bid Also i never sign a player for over £20 mill, and it makes it more challenging and for me more realistic.

I'm in 2021 with Levante (been through Almeria, Athletic Bilbao, Villarreal, Real Sociedad and Nigeria) and its by far the best game on FM2011 sofar! very very enjoyable.. it gets better for each season that passes!

(bought a ST for £450K at 16 years and sold him at 21 years to roma for £35m) best profit ever for me!

wow! what has happened to my posts?? I had a post count of 4-5K a couple of weeks ago.. not that it really matters but anyone know what might have caused this?

How much more challenging is it to not know anything about the players in the world? Just start a game with "no real players" and you'll have to use a lot of scouts to tell you who the best players are. I actually don't like real players because it already gives you the knowledge of who the good players are which makes it boring for me.

Or just start a game in a low league.

I got a div2 norwegian team where I don't know anyone, and its challenging to sign good players.

I can't wait to get into 2020 and beyond to see a whole bunch of new faces in international football.

Right, but a real life football manager at the top will have a decent knowledge of who are the best prospects. Doesnt mean you could afford them,

wow! what has happened to my posts?? I had a post count of 4-5K a couple of weeks ago.. not that it really matters but anyone know what might have caused this?

I think they deleted a whole bunch of 'junk' posts from the forum from places like OTF etc.

Could that be something to do with it?

BTW, I think a Mod will put your post count back if you ask. I seem to remember reading that somewhere.

The passage of time and the way that it's managed in FM has always been something that attracted me to the game. The fact that the stature of teams can and does change is great and the addition of dynamic leagues extends this further. New players coming in is also great, there's nothing sweeter than picking up the next hot prospect.

Totally agreed.

Have you ever not exploited the 48 month plan, and therefore played as West Ham in a more realistic way? Each to their own, but in my Spurs save i never exploit these kinds of things, it is frustrating but i only sign players i think would be realistically attainable within the first few seasons, and never spend mad money as Spurs don't really do that IRL. So no Neymar's, or Dzeko's. I did bid for Hazard, but Chelsea came in with a 30mill bid Also i never sign a player for over £20 mill, and it makes it more challenging and for me more realistic.

I dont think the 48 month plan is an exploit. Its not like its free money. Your club still has to pay it out every month, yes you can sign better players for less up front but you still have all that money outgoing.

For me the exploit is people signing defenders and putting a fee of like 30 million in after he scored 50 goals or signing a 31 year old uncapped players and doing the same but after 30 international caps etc

Have you ever not exploited the 48 month plan, and therefore played as West Ham in a more realistic way? Each to their own, but in my Spurs save i never exploit these kinds of things, it is frustrating but i only sign players i think would be realistically attainable within the first few seasons, and never spend mad money as Spurs don't really do that IRL. So no Neymar's, or Dzeko's. I did bid for Hazard, but Chelsea came in with a 30mill bid Also i never sign a player for over £20 mill, and it makes it more challenging and for me more realistic.

As West Ham manager in season one, you start with 500k for transfers.

You have one very good player.

You have 5/6 good prem players.

You have two good prospects.

Basically, the squad is crap. Need at least LB, CB, ML and a Striker (If not, two).

Too bring in quality players you have to sell. I sell about 7 or 8 players raising about 10/12 mil and there is no way I can buy 7 or 8 replacements without using the 48 month option. With 10/12 mil, I can spend 40/48 mil on players in season one.

The other option for the game is too sell two or three players and buy just one player, this you will have to do each season and it is not a recipe for sucess and your squad will be very small.

Whilst the 48month option is there, it's simple too tempting to ignore.

Thats why I much prefer LLM where you have zero funds and cant sell any players. You rely on freebies and loans and if you play the game properly (No re-loading cos you lost a game boo hoo .... Or using 3rd party tools), it is very difficult.

I personally do not believe 3/4's of the sucess stories from alleged LLManagers that are posted on these forums.

I think I have a decent understanding of FM and in my current save, it has taken me 7 years to get a team from the BSSouth to promotion hopefuls from League Two to League One. I have lost a play off semi-final and lost out on a play off place after drawing my last game at home V a team already relegated.

I do not reload ............. Reloading your game makes it boring.

I like it when you get a non-league club into the prem and you can get players like Cech, Messi and Chav Ronaldo along with the wonderkids near or at the end of their careers to sign for your club. Not sure what I will do when I cant sign these type of players as Ive never gone much beyond 10 seasons. I guess its something to do with nostalgic value where in CM93 I would always try to sign Gascoigne, but could only buy him when he was about 33.

It's amazing the tricks and exploits people come up with and then complain they are bored because the game isn't challenging.

I also people who take over Real or ManU from the start and complain its too easy.

But its not my business how people choose to play the game. It obviously sells just fine even many are getting bored after 5 seasons.

It clearly depends on how you play the game, and it is entirely logical that most people who enjoy a long-term game start as lower league managers.

My approach is entirely geared toward this. I've started in Level 7 (was level 9 but it got corrupted) with a squad of teenagers. My intention is to nurture these kids and see them mature as we progress through the leagues. They should be at their peak by the time we crack the Premier League and it should be a real struggle to stay there. All the time i will be bringing in new kids or nurturing my academy products.

By doing it this way, I develop very strong bonds with my players - they are not just human resources to buy and sell; they are 'my lads'. I know the strengths, weaknesses and personalities of every single member of my squad (and backroom staff). Seeing my star 16 year old DC get his first cap for Ethiopia gave me a bigger thrill than if I'd won the EPL with Chelsea. I hope I'll still be fully immersed and attached to my boys in this save long after FM12 is released.

It seems to me that the OP's gripe with the game is that it isn't developed by a team of Mystic Megs! What you're referring to is time moving on... new players coming through that you haven't heard of before (which is obviously what happens in real life) - the only difference being SI don't employ psychic people who can predict these new peoples names! As for the teams side of things, that does fluctuate as well... look at Chelsea at the moment, slip-sliding their way down the pecking order - LIVERPOOL... where are they in the league? If you'd have said 5 years ago we'd have Man City and Tottenham as genuine title contenders, Blackpool flying high and doing the double over Liverpool in the league, winning more away games than Man Utd... Crawley Town steamrolling their way into league football... it all happens in real life, the unpredictability... and FM incorporates this into the game quite brilliantly, in the best way it possibly could given the circumstances that they DON'T hire psychics.

I rarely play more than 2 seasons, few times 4 seasons. After that I quit the game for a time, and when I return I start a new team up(or the same) and have a go at it again. The only simulation game I would play for years on end in each game is EHM 2007, which is incredible addictive with the drafting systems and whatnot.