Press Conferences - An Appeal To SI

Giving SI the benefit of the doubt, I will suggest that they would not deliberately include a feature that makes a game worse the longer you play it.

On that basis, I have no option but to think, that in the case of Press Conferences, SI have neither considered nor researched what effect this tedious, repetitive feature has on a player long term.

I ain't no pigeon, and I am sick of pressing the 'green button' to get what I want.

Get rid of them or add at least another 1,000 questions to be asked at random. The latter is probably impossible to implement so please lose them.

Thank you for your time.

xxx

They're well aware of how tedious the press conferences are. No doubt there will be improvements for FM12. But it's hard to make it flawless.

Problem is, real press conferences are repetitive and managers do get the same questions over and over. Personally I don't really mind the repetitiveness that much as the questions themselves aren't what's interesting, my players' reactions to them is what is. As a result I basically identify who I want to encourage for the upcoming game before the press conference and answer in a way that will get good reactions from them. Get to know your players and this isn't very hard to predict, and it becomes a tactical tool like all the other media interaction.

But yes, a few more questions would be welcome, especially context-sensitive ones; it isn't quite this bad for real.

Problem is, real press conferences are repetitive and managers do get the same questions over and over.

True, but they get to say whatever they want in reply, in the game we can't, and how many times have you seen players turn to jelly because of their manager's comments in a Press Conference?

True, but they get to say whatever they want in reply, in the game we can't, and how many times have you seen players turn to jelly because of their manager's comments in a Press Conference?

Actually you can put your own words in the additional comments box, and the game does recognise some of them.

Why is adding 1,000's of new questions impossible?

Why is adding 1,000's of new questions impossible?

I was referring to the 'random' part of the sentence.

I like press conferences. I think it's an important feature of the game. More question would be good but there will always be a repetitive nature to it. If I ever get bored of them, I just send the assistant manager.

I was referring to the 'random' part of the sentence.

That, again, wouldn't be so "impossible". Most things that people refer to as impossible are just improbable with time constraints what with the release now only 3 months away. I would have thought it would be more time consuming but easier in the long run (ie FM13/14) to add in a kindof "AI" system, where-by you aren't really constrained by the options for response (which seem to be my biggest hate about all interaction, not just press conferences), just type what you like and all they'd have to do in the future is improve the understanding of what you type and add more varient to the types of, and wording of questions.

The thing that annoys me about the press conferences that always seems the same are the answers, not the questions. They are near enough always the same depending on the "type" of question. Also, the reaction afterwords is almost always the same, too.

At the end of the day, like Scab said above - most press conferences are fairly similar with the same questions being asked. Afterall, what other topics are they really going to talk about? I think it's just the wording/answers that need tweaking, or in the case of the "AI" - an overhaul.

Unfortunately, as it's like 3 months til it's released an AI system would be almost impossible to impliment it for the upcoming release (unless it's already in there ). If not, something I'd put my savings on being in a future release though!

That, again, wouldn't be so "impossible". Most things that people refer to as impossible are just improbable with time constraints what with the release now only 3 months away. I would have thought it would be more time consuming but easier in the long run (ie FM13/14) to add in a kindof "AI" system, where-by you aren't really constrained by the options for response (which seem to be my biggest hate about all interaction, not just press conferences), just type what you like and all they'd have to do in the future is improve the understanding of what you type and add more varient to the types of, and wording of questions.

The thing that annoys me about the press conferences that always seems the same are the answers, not the questions. They are near enough always the same depending on the "type" of question. Also, the reaction afterwords is almost always the same, too.

At the end of the day, like Scab said above - most press conferences are fairly similar with the same questions being asked. Afterall, what other topics are they really going to talk about? I think it's just the wording/answers that need tweaking, or in the case of the "AI" - an overhaul.

Unfortunately, as it's like 3 months til it's released an AI system would be almost impossible to impliment it for the upcoming release (unless it's already in there ). If not, something I'd put my savings on being in a future release though!

As I said, "probably impossible".

To be honest I'm sure that the press conferences will change in FM12. For what we expect? Who know's until release, but SI know that press conferences are annoying to their users.

They also know that not having an explanation of how Tutoring works annoys players. Is there one in the FM11 manual?

SI being 'aware of', or 'knowing of' an issue means nothing if no action is taken, and I have read too many posts on here regarding a lack of action, on their part, in the past, for me to build up my hopes for FM12.

You do know you can send your assman to do the work for you, right?

I have never bothered with press conferences ever since they came up in FM. They're boring and I'd rather spend my time scouting/picking players and playing matches.

Yes, but you know the old saying.

Press conferences are part and parcel of being a manager.

Yes they need to be improved and the answer/questions to be a bit more intelligently put but I think they are here to stay.

Use the ass man if needed I guess.

You do know you can send your assman to do the work for you, right?

I have never bothered with press conferences ever since they came up in FM. They're boring and I'd rather spend my time scouting/picking players and playing matches.

The problem for most people is that the AssMan then has to have great attributes in the right areas, and you are relying on a bit of luck that he says the right thing. If not, it damages your team on the pitch.

To be honest I am not bothered if the press conferences have more questions, less questions, etc. We need the option to turn them off completely so they have no effect on your team whatsoever.

Actually you can put your own words in the additional comments box, and the game does recognise some of them.

It recognises when you've said something obscene, but that feature does very little.

Press conferences are indeed boring, and you know that some answers will always motivate or demotivate your players, so I answer the same thing to some questiong every time. I reached a point where I don't even read the questions anymore, I just read the answers and choose the one I know it's going to spur my players.

Press conferences are indeed boring, and you know that some answers will always motivate or demotivate your players, so I answer the same thing to some questiong every time. I reached a point where I don't even read the questions anymore, I just read the answers and choose the one I know it's going to spur my players.

Exactly. This is why the press conference system fails.

And it's not even remotely hard to make questions asked randomly or within some context. That there has been no refinement of the press conference engine speaks volumes about priorities (i.e., add as many new features as possible and don't fix old ones).

It recognises when you've said something obscene, but that feature does very little.

I've only had it recognize an obscenity once out of all the times I've sworn.

Exactly. This is why the press conference system fails.

And it's not even remotely hard to make questions asked randomly or within some context. That there has been no refinement of the press conference engine speaks volumes about priorities (i.e., add as many new features as possible and don't fix old ones).

My opening rant was a little lazy, I was actually thinking of a complete overhall (no relation to Mrs) of the system. I would really prefer that they just weren't there.

You do know you can send your assman to do the work for you, right?

I have never bothered with press conferences ever since they came up in FM. They're boring and I'd rather spend my time scouting/picking players and playing matches.

yeah but if he says something stupid, the players hate you for it which is totally ********. There is no positive to doing them or not doing them.

I love the "but they're in real life" argument.

I auto-send the Ass Man, but they're so useless in all the other areas that it does concern me how he's affecting things. But there's no way I want to go through press conferences after every game and for every transfer(but you can't send you Ass Man to the transfer ones) as there's enough things I have to keep clicking through that take up my time.

That said there's also the occassional time I do want to comment on a bad decision or something one of my players has done or my opposition, but can't. So it would be nice to expand the previous opponent comments options to cover these things and stop it being greyed out all the time.

If you can think of 1,000's of new questions which you think would be relevant to FM then please feel free to suggest them.

I would like to know why they play such a important part of the game in the first place, I am struggling to think of any football match that has been won by the managers performance in a press conference.

If you can think of 1,000's of new questions which you think would be relevant to FM then please feel free to suggest them.

This is a very, very good point.

Real life press conferences rarely have much variation to them. Sure the manager get to pick and choose what they say but in a virtual world where things are being decided by a calculation it's impossible to allow us to simply type whatever answer we want and have it produce a result. The other option is to give us a list of 50 possible answers covering every conceivable answer to each question and that would be even less fun, having to troll through them all to find exactly what we want to say.

Press conferences were a community request for years before they were included in the game but now everyone blames SI for having them in there. What did they really expect?

I would like to know why they play such a important part of the game in the first place, I am struggling to think of any football match that has been won by the managers performance in a press conference.

I am struggling to think of any football match won by me on FM on my performance in a press conference.

If you can think of 1,000's of new questions which you think would be relevant to FM then please feel free to suggest them.

Yes, I apologise for my lazy way of making a point. Of course 1,000s of new questions, if they could be found, would not work if just slotted into the present system.

What I would prefer is no press conferences.

Cheers

xxx

I could think of a thousand questions, but they'd really just be variations of each other. I think that's a more realistic thing to do - just keep the current questions and re-word them to create more.

Or add some new ones. If you want.

1000 questions no, but at least 200-300 new questions could be made. Or a editor to mods create questions could be interesting...

I much prefer press conferences to the old system of random media questions popping up in your inbox. Since then they've fixed the players reactions to answers and whilst press conferences were annoying at first i actually like the slight improvements they made for fm 11.

It honestly makes a big difference enabling you to answer the question by clicking a response rather than selecting a response and then having to hit answer question. It doesn't seem like a big change but i've found on fm 11 even if i can't be bothered to do a press conference i can breeze right through them anyway giving answers that shouldn't upset my players either.

I think, rather than 1000s more questions, you need a few hundred more, plus more variation in possible answers.

What would also really help is if you could set tone/emotion/mode in your answers. So the same answer delivered "Calm" would have a different effect to the answer delivered "Angry".

SI: Just implement the BioWare rpg system.

Journalist. post match press conference: "you fielded a very young side in this game. Do you feel it was this that lost you the game?"

Answer: - insulted

- pleased

- denial

- angry

- supportive X

Automated response: "I pick players that are good enough to win the match. Sometimes it just doesn't work out anyway."

(Consequence: reduced morale loss for under 23s getting an average rating of less than 6.7)

Over time, the game should recognize the player's personality and the automated response should vary because of it, even if the player picks the same "emotive answer".

SI: Just implement the BioWare rpg system.

Journalist. post match press conference: "you fielded a very young side in this game. Do you feel it was this that lost you the game?"

Answer: - insulted

- pleased

- denial

- angry

- supportive X

Automated response: "I pick players that are good enough to win the match. Sometimes it just doesn't work out anyway."

(Consequence: reduced morale loss for under 23s getting an average rating of less than 6.7)

Over time, the game should recognize the player's personality and the automated response should vary because of it, even if the player picks the same "emotive answer".

I like the sound of that.

I would make the follwoing suggestion:

Keep press conferences in as they are part of the managers job BUT be very careful on how much of an impact they can have on the squad and how long this impact stays around.

Unfortunately I don't think it's quite that simple, but I understand what you're saying.

Oh, the "just" up there didn't imply simplicity

I would make the follwoing suggestion:

Keep press conferences in as they are part of the managers job BUT be very careful on how much of an impact they can have on the squad and how long this impact stays around.

I agree with this totally, but only when combined with a completely different press conference format.

I want the option to do a Pia Sundhage. Please.

I want the option to do a Pia Sundhage. Please.

That's almost funny. Almost.

I don't see what everybody's problem is with press conferences...

Problem is, real press conferences are repetitive and managers do get the same questions over and over. Personally I don't really mind the repetitiveness that much as the questions themselves aren't what's interesting, my players' reactions to them is what is. As a result I basically identify who I want to encourage for the upcoming game before the press conference and answer in a way that will get good reactions from them. Get to know your players and this isn't very hard to predict, and it becomes a tactical tool like all the other media interaction.

But yes, a few more questions would be welcome, especially context-sensitive ones; it isn't quite this bad for real.

This.

I don't see what everybody's problem is with press conferences...

I don't understand those who don't have a problem with it.

In 20 years of PC Gaming I've never come across such a useless, boring and poorly implemented "feature".

I don't understand those who don't have a problem with it.

In 20 years of PC Gaming I've never come across such a useless, boring and poorly implemented "feature".

"a bad workman always blames his tools"

It works perfectly.

"a bad workman always blames his tools"

It works perfectly.

I wish my standards were as low as yours.

It's not realistic, it's not fun. I'm not sure what more can be added to the argument.

I wish my standards were as low as yours.

It's not realistic, it's not fun. I'm not sure what more can be added to the argument.

It's not realistic? Are you having a laugh?

I read the bbc football site regularly and am constantly chuckling to myself over the headlines, the reports and even the press conferences as they often remind me of FM (not the other way around). I'm a Huddersfield fan and when I listen to Lee Clark talking before a game it's almost as if he thinks he's playing FM, lol!

Not realistic? My eye it's not...

It's not realistic? Are you having a laugh?

I read the bbc football site regularly and am constantly chuckling to myself over the headlines, the reports and even the press conferences as they often remind me of FM (not the other way around). I'm a Huddersfield fan and when I listen to Lee Clark talking before a game it's almost as if he thinks he's playing FM, lol!

Not realistic? My eye it's not...

It is not the question of realism, it is a question of fun. At the end of the day, FM, despite being simulation it is a computer game. Normally computer games usually its main focus is enjoyment. Is it enjoyable to do Press Conferences? No, in any shape or form.

If you believe that press Conferences influence your players, think again, it doesn't. Players will only care what you say to them before going to the field and not the day before, because all players know their manager are there playing a part to please bloodsucking media. Sometimes, the bloodsucking media see a different game from everyone else. The bloodsucking media wants only one thing, the next big scandal to sell tons and tons of newspapers. 1 out of 1000 stories is a true news, the rest are false, imaginative news, specially during the transfer windows, for what? To sell newspapers.

Yet to see what is the importance of Press Conferences in real life, not to mention in computer game.

Again, feel free to suggest 200-300 new questions!

Here's one:

Question: "Player A is sleeping with player B's wife! Any comments?"

only option to the Reply: "Go F**** yourself, you son of B****! If you destibilize my team again I will f****** stab you to the death!"

Just little of black humor.

To be honest I don't think there is room for improvement.

It is not the question of realism, it is a question of fun. At the end of the day, FM, despite being simulation it is a computer game. Normally computer games usually its main focus is enjoyment. Is it enjoyable to do Press Conferences? No, in any shape or form.

If you believe that press Conferences influence your players, think again, it doesn't. Players will only care what you say to them before going to the field and not the day before, because all players know their manager are there playing a part to please bloodsucking media. Sometimes, the bloodsucking media see a different game from everyone else. The bloodsucking media wants only one thing, the next big scandal to sell tons and tons of newspapers. 1 out of 1000 stories is a true news, the rest are false, imaginative news, specially during the transfer windows, for what? To sell newspapers.

Yet to see what is the importance of Press Conferences in real life, not to mention in computer game.

Whether Press Conferences affect players in real-life or not is largely irrelevant as in the game they most definitely do and so, as a player of the game, it is important to understand those effects and how to 'manage' them in a positive way.

Whether or not you find the Press Conferences enjoyable is also irrelevant, it's the effect of the Press Conference answers that should give you the enjoyment. If you say the right things (and follow it up with the right team-talk) then you will win matches, if you win matches then you will enjoy the game I also enjoy the fact that something I've said in a Press Conference and followed up with the pre-match team-talk can have such a fantastic positive effect on my players - an "I did that!" kinda moment

I don't particularly enjoy when I've said the wrong thing (either in the Press Conference or the team-talk) and the team/certain players play like girls... but at least I can identify why and rectify it in future