Too many press conferences

I am really starting to dislike all the post match / pre match press conferences. Same questions and there is always alot of them.

In the future, can we get maybe 2 questions max and also a cut down on the amount we get?

thanks

Option to go all Alex Ferguson on them and refuse to speak to certain ones. Should pay a fine at the end of the season for it too. I'd pay not to attend them.

I send my assistant.

And have one press conference at the end of preseason to welcome new signings.

I send my assistant.

not the best option at times

I suppose that in real life, most top flight managers would also dislike having to do press conferences but look on them as a necessary evil that have to be done. I am not sure if you still have to do as many when managing in the lower leagues in the game, but if not, this would be a good option. You could send your assistant but as you say, this is a risk.

not the best option at times

True. Although if you can get a good one with high man management, motivation, determination ratings, then getting them to handle press conferences and teamtalks can be a blessing. As you say though, they sometimes make a dogs breakfast of it.

You hate repetitive press conferences. Football management shouldn't be your cup of tea!

As boring as they are, this is definitely a major aspect of management. SAF and Jose are always answering questions in the press, as they're legally contracted to do in most cases. They look bored out of their mind too. The problem is that FM press can't be more specific in their questions, which is probably very hard to do. So we get the same questions over and over again. Not ideal but i'm not going to complain about it, as i think it'll evolve.

yeah legally you have to do them, its part of the rights the premier league have with broadcasters and as SI do not want to incorporate anything that could be classed as illegal then the option not to attend is unlikely to make it into the game.

There shouldn't be so many press conferences at lower leagues though..

One of the most pointless features.

There shouldn't be so many press conferences at lower leagues though..

well it depends, most managers will give press interviews before games especially if there is any media attention to the game, that includes local news papers.

I cant think of any games up here where managers dont do interviews before games and thats the SPL down to the third division. Every match report also has at least a comment from both managers as well.

press conferences = :thdn:

I always send my assistant manager. As long as he has half-decent man management he won't screw up too often. And even when he does, the time and frustration saved is well worth the odd player being unhappy once every 5 or 10 games.

I suppose that in real life, most top flight managers would also dislike having to do press conferences but look on them as a necessary evil that have to be done. I am not sure if you still have to do as many when managing in the lower leagues in the game, but if not, this would be a good option. You could send your assistant but as you say, this is a risk.

As part of my job I'm prepared to put up with having to do repetitious, boring and annoying tasks. When I'm playing a game for fun I don't wish to be forced to do them. Death to press conferences or at the very least limit them to cup Finals title\relegation decider and games against fierce rivals.

One of the most pointless features.

I dont think they are pointless since they happen irl and that is what the game is trying to emulate. I do agree that they are a bit boring though and this is why I get my assistant to do them all and only attend the ones that have you introducing a big player. I do like Porthos idea of only speaking to certain ones though! Might be slightly controversial having such a feature in the game but it definitely would be fun.

yeah legally you have to do them, its part of the rights the premier league have with broadcasters and as SI do not want to incorporate anything that could be classed as illegal then the option not to attend is unlikely to make it into the game.

You are conflating two different things.

Just because someone is contractually obligated to do something, it doesnt mean that it is illegal not to do it. No manager will be prosecuted for not giving press conferences. It is not illegal to refuse to do press conferences.

Also, this is a game. This game does not meander along in real time. A human player might go through 2 months of gametime in one evening. That two months might include 15 press conferences. Press conferences become a seriously boring and tedious occurrence. SI were wrong to include the barrage of press conferences. They also havent been fleshed out so they quickly become repetitive.

One overarching press conference a week might be a satisfactory workaround.

As part of my job I'm prepared to put up with having to do repetitious, boring and annoying tasks. When I'm playing a game for fun I don't wish to be forced to do them. Death to press conferences or at the very least limit them to cup Finals title\relegation decider and games against fierce rivals.

Well said.

ASSMAN Away and fight these journo's for me

and tbh ( i manager in EPL) all the EPL do a press conf. before/after matches, at the start and end of season and with new signings. realistic but not fun

BUT then why play a football management sim if you dont want to sim what a manager does

You are conflating two different things.

Just because someone is contractually obligated to do something, it doesnt mean that it is illegal not to do it. No manager will be prosecuted for not giving press conferences. It is not illegal to refuse to do press conferences.

Also, this is a game. This game does not meander along in real time. A human player might go through 2 months of gametime in one evening. That two months might include 15 press conferences. Press conferences become a seriously boring and tedious occurrence. SI were wrong to include the barrage of press conferences. They also havent been fleshed out so they quickly become repetitive.

One overarching press conference a week might be a satisfactory workaround.

well from a legal standing a team must make some one avaliable to speak to the press before and after games doesnt have to be the manager but if there is one scheduled then someone must attend, SI are funny about anything like that, ie tapping up, or various other maybe not illegal, wrong word i guess, but things against the rules and as such i cant see them giving an option to just refuse to attend.

I do agree they are tedious a bit, i would love them to be more dynamic to keep them more interesting and you could be right maybe reducing them would be better, but it would contridict simulating a real life manager, people going on about certain things not following real life but would prefer if others didnt, its a hard thing for SI to get them all right.

The deluge of mandatory press conferences is just a symptom of the game veering too far into the dubious realm of "psychology management" as a way to paper over the aging AI's tactical inadequacies. I would love for FM12 to go back to basics, make the fluff optional, tone down the effect of the simplistic pseudopsychology and focus primarily on offering a genuine tactical challenge.

They are so bad and down right boring and senseless I am surprised there is not a Steam achievement for attending all press conferences in a season....even then I doubt many would achieve it.....

well from a legal standing a team must make some one avaliable to speak to the press before and after games doesnt have to be the manager but if there is one scheduled then someone must attend.

Cant be right, Look at United when they played Liverpool, no-one went. So they don't have to make someone available.

I go to every one. But as a result, I know the answers off by heart and it's click-click-click by just scanning the first 3-4 words of each response. Takes seconds.

Seems a bit pointless and a chore, and the realism/enjoyment balance is just squiffy on the press conferences, but I've never trusted the assistant. They usually pee somebody off.

they only take about 30 secs each if that, its not really much hassle! although if there was an option to turn them off/get rid of them, i reckon most people would use it!

they only take about 30 secs each if that, its not really much hassle! although if there was an option to turn them off/get rid of them, i reckon most people would use it!

You can always ask the Ass Man to attend it in the settings, which I supposed you would've been aware of right now. (e.g. 'turn them off', albeit its similar)

i think the problem with press conferences is the nature of questions..forget for a moment that questions are always the same,but this is what happened to me with my udinese save: i've sold lots of players,and i've sold alexis sanchez for tons of millions too to the man u..so,when i attend bari in a league match,the journalists ALWAYS ask me (it's about three years now) about the return of carlos calvo in udine..well,carlos calvo never played a single game for me,it was at bari at the begininning of the season,and at the end of it bari bought the other half of him..so,what's the point in asking me about carlos calvo ALL the time?and the same is for other very minor players..but,when i attended the man u for the quarter finals of champions league..they didn't ask me about sanchez..in fact,i didn't have a press conference!and sanchez was a key player of mine for two seasons,with two leagues and one champions league win..this is pretty absurd i think..

This...

The deluge of mandatory press conferences is just a symptom of the game veering too far into the dubious realm of "psychology management" as a way to paper over the aging AI's tactical inadequacies. I would love for FM12 to go back to basics, make the fluff optional, tone down the effect of the simplistic pseudopsychology and focus primarily on offering a genuine tactical challenge.

and this...

As part of my job I'm prepared to put up with having to do repetitious, boring and annoying tasks. When I'm playing a game for fun I don't wish to be forced to do them. Death to press conferences or at the very least limit them to cup Finals title\relegation decider and games against fierce rivals.

the argument about it being "realistic" is moot because real life managers don't pay to play a game that they want to be fun. The whole game is highly "unrealistic", but it doesn't matter, because that's not the ultimate point of the game. The point is to be fun. When people go on about a game being "realistic", they are actually talking about a "suspension of disbelief", which comes from an immersion in the game world. This is exactly the opposite of what the press conferences do - they're so stilted and artificial, that it completely breaks the immersion and makes you think "this is a bit crap innit".

You can always ask the Ass Man to attend it in the settings, which I supposed you would've been aware of right now. (e.g. 'turn them off', albeit its similar)

I think what people would like (I would) is the option to not have them at all so that your ass man can't create carnage, i.e. the whole media shenanigan bit has abosolutely no effect at all (neither positive nor negative).

I wonder how many people who hate press conferences are the same people who welcomed the idea when it first came in? I am one of these people!

At first it sounded like a good idea, media is such a huge part of football these days more than ever, and I think it's important to incorporate this into a football management game. But they are repetitive, I find myself always choosing the second answer from the top, seems to be most appropriate all the time. So I got bored of these quickly and always send my assistant now. If Ferguson can do, then so can I. Yes, sometimes he will give an answer that upsets a couple of players, but they are over it pretty quickly and sometimes I upset players when I do the press conferences myself, so sending the assistant is fine.

Hopefully SI will improve this feature soon, so that we have more than 5 choices each time and maybe a wider range of questions. I know they said that new questions and answers were added this time, but I would still like a wider range of questions to be involved.

while i do find them tedious from time to time, i would actually like to see more options or atleast better responces. for instance when commenting on player x's performance (a good one) why does "...i think there's more to come" almost always generate a negative response??? seems to me thats a compliment, especially if player x is a younger player, now if you go saying that to a world class vet, i can understand the ill received response.

I wonder how many people who hate press conferences are the same people who welcomed the idea when it first came in? I am one of these people!

I was always aware it won't really work, just simply because of the limits of technology. What sounds great in theory doesn't necessariliy work in practice. To make this bit really good, it'd need to get close to passing the Turing test. If supercomputers and AI researchers can't even get close, there's little (= absolutely zero) chance that SI will stumble upon something that works convincingly.

One thing that I do think could improve this area drastically would be to include the community much more. Make it easy to define your own media questions, and make it possible for the answers to have much more variety, i.e. not a survey like answer (I agree strongly, I disagree strongly, I'm on the fence), it would be great to have totally different options. Here's an example:

"That was a poor performance from your team against a side you were expected to beat comfortably. What did you make of it?"

• "I will be exchanging some very harsh words with a couple of my players" (possible follow-up - who were you particularly unhappy with; increase pressure on players, good effect on professional players)
  
• "I can't blame my lads, the ref had a nightmare out there today" (reduce pressure on players, good effect on unsporting players (i.e.bad losers), may not impress proffessional players)
  
• "It's just a blip, I'm not particularly worried" (not available if you're on a poor run of form; reduces pressure on players, may introduce complacency)
  
• "I'm just glad it's over and am already looking to the next game" (helps focus players with low concentration/determination on the next game instead of dwelling on the defeat)
  
• "Judging by the perfomance of some of the players, it's clear they're not yet ready for the first team" (not available if your team is full of established players; reduces pressure at the risk of antagonizing young upstarts who think they're already the bees knees)
  

Not a sliding scale at all, but a whole series of different options with different effects.

I'm sure that a community would be able to put together more interesting and varied questions for press conferences, as long as we had the means to determine when the questions can be asked (define a condition such as "if number of games lost in a row >3") and define the effects and which mental attributes are of importance (e.g. all team: pressure + 2; professional: chance of morale boost).

As they stand, I find press conferences monotonous, tedious and of little benefit at all. What really annoys me is that 99% of the after match ones, never even discuss the game. If they do discuss the game most of the questions are worthless.

SI really need to work on this, it's been rubbish since day 1 and it's not improving. If they aren't going to give this a massive overhaul then I would prefer them to remove it.

Regarding the questions, why do SI think that I only want to give happy, positive replies when we win? There are many times that I would love to slag the referee off. Just because my team has won, it doesn't mean that the referee wasn't a complete and utter 'man who likes to pleasure himself'. There are many times that I want to apologise to the fans after a loss, but I can't.

I dislike press conferences so I just send the assman to every one of them. In my managers 14 year career I have attended two press conferences outside of the ones when you first join a club.

i really like 'em. You can control a lot through them. Complacency, morale etc...

I was always aware it won't really work, just simply because of the limits of technology. What sounds great in theory doesn't necessariliy work in practice. To make this bit really good, it'd need to get close to passing the Turing test. If supercomputers and AI researchers can't even get close, there's little (= absolutely zero) chance that SI will stumble upon something that works convincingly.

One thing that I do think could improve this area drastically would be to include the community much more. Make it easy to define your own media questions, and make it possible for the answers to have much more variety, i.e. not a survey like answer (I agree strongly, I disagree strongly, I'm on the fence), it would be great to have totally different options. Here's an example:

"That was a poor performance from your team against a side you were expected to beat comfortably. What did you make of it?"

• "I will be exchanging some very harsh words with a couple of my players" (possible follow-up - who were you particularly unhappy with; increase pressure on players, good effect on professional players)
  
• "I can't blame my lads, the ref had a nightmare out there today" (reduce pressure on players, good effect on unsporting players (i.e.bad losers), may not impress proffessional players)
  
• "It's just a blip, I'm not particularly worried" (not available if you're on a poor run of form; reduces pressure on players, may introduce complacency)
  
• "I'm just glad it's over and am already looking to the next game" (helps focus players with low concentration/determination on the next game instead of dwelling on the defeat)
  
• "Judging by the perfomance of some of the players, it's clear they're not yet ready for the first team" (not available if your team is full of established players; reduces pressure at the risk of antagonizing young upstarts who think they're already the bees knees)
  

Not a sliding scale at all, but a whole series of different options with different effects.

I'm sure that a community would be able to put together more interesting and varied questions for press conferences, as long as we had the means to determine when the questions can be asked (define a condition such as "if number of games lost in a row >3") and define the effects and which mental attributes are of importance (e.g. all team: pressure + 2; professional: chance of morale boost).

To add to your list of answers there, I would like something along the lines of:

"it was a meaningless fixture so I took the chance to experiment with some fringe / youth players. It didn't pay off today, but it was good experience for them."

I use to attend all of them but yesterday i set my team settings for the ass.man. to attend them and i was surprised at the time you save by not attending them so now i can definetly understand why so many people skip them.

The only thing press conferences are good at are lowering the life-span of your mouse.

Should only be for big games (mainly European competitions) and when big signings are made. It's very unrealistic to have press conferences so often.

Instead there should be more newspaper and TV interviews, especially about players/injured players/transfer rumours. This should then have a very big influence on what the fans/board think of the manager and the pressure they may or may not put on his position.

Should only be for big games (mainly European competitions) and when big signings are made. It's very unrealistic to have press conferences so often.

I don't think it is unrealistic since managers at big clubs have them pretty regularly. I can understand them being unrealistic at a smaller club but I dont see any way around this other than removing them from the game completely and I dont think SI will do that.

I just send my assistant to all of them.

I don't think it is unrealistic since managers at big clubs have them pretty regularly. I can understand them being unrealistic at a smaller club but I dont see any way around this other than removing them from the game completely and I dont think SI will do that.

Can we maybe leave the "realism" debate to one side (as I think it's completely irrelevant for the numerous reasons already posted by me and others)? What would be far more interesting would be suggestions on how to improve this side of the game, as it's been the subject of many a discussion on here. There's no denying that many seem to find press conferences tedious and repetitive, so it would be interesting to see how they could be improved - so as to make the game more fun.

I think that having the option to send the assistant to do the press conferences is completely unrealistic and should be removed. The press conferences are important part of the job of the football manager and MUST be in the game! Less or no press conferences = less realism = less fun.

I think that having the option to send the assistant to do the press conferences is completely unrealistic and should be removed. The press conferences are important part of the job of the football manager and MUST be in the game! Less or no press conferences = less realism = less fun.

Since less realism=less fun then I am sure you are also in favor of only watching matches from a managers sideline cam angle; being forced to watch practices and only being able to play a match or two in a real week and no matches at all from mid may to mid july.

Can we maybe leave the "realism" debate to one side (as I think it's completely irrelevant for the numerous reasons already posted by me and others)? What would be far more interesting would be suggestions on how to improve this side of the game, as it's been the subject of many a discussion on here. There's no denying that many seem to find press conferences tedious and repetitive, so it would be interesting to see how they could be improved - so as to make the game more fun.

Agree with this totally.

I think that having the option to send the assistant to do the press conferences is completely unrealistic and should be removed. The press conferences are important part of the job of the football manager and MUST be in the game! Less or no press conferences = less realism = less fun.

Oh dear! Did you not read the post above yours? Let's leave realism out of it, as in this instance it's irrelevant. Press conferences need to be improved, and if we could throw in some post-match interviews with TV people like Sky Sports and MotD do, then maybe it will be more interesting.

Since less realism=less fun then I am sure you are also in favor of only watching matches from a managers sideline cam angle; being forced to watch practices and only being able to play a match or two in a real week and no matches at all from mid may to mid july.

Also, be forced to play the game in real-time, so it takes a whole year to finish a whole season.

And the manager needs to be able to go to the bathroom - I propose a feature where the user must practice urinating on a target, maybe to boost his CA (tactical training, see).

Option to go all Alex Ferguson on them and refuse to speak to certain ones. Should pay a fine at the end of the season for it too. I'd pay not to attend them.

But that's not really Alex Ferguson mode, is it? Having to pay a fine?

Realism arguments aside (Man Utd send their ass man so that point is somewhat moot), the main thing is that they're boring and tedious. Real press conference are too, I'm sure, but this is a game. They need to be livened up or changed in some way. Meanwhile I'm really happy I can send my assman and he won't mess things up too badly, cause there is just no way in hell I'm going to do a press conference or four a week. I suppose we can choose the storming out option, but that's not really feasible as the team tend to get a little upset

I'd suggest having fewer conferences. Save them for matches with rivals, big cup games, and important transfers. Ten press conferences a season would seem special and interesting. 100+ per season is annoying and time-consuming. No matter how realistic it is, something that is annoying should not be mandatory in a GAME.

I suppose that in real life, most top flight managers would also dislike having to do press conferences but look on them as a necessary evil that have to be done. I am not sure if you still have to do as many when managing in the lower leagues in the game, but if not, this would be a good option. You could send your assistant but as you say, this is a risk.

But then there is a balance to be struck with what's realistic and what's fun in a game. SI seem to forget that sometimes.